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US urges China to lift restrictions on investmentCommerce Secretary Gary Locke said
Chinese companies are freer to operate in the United States than U.S.
firms are in China. American companies are frequently shut out of entire
industries or forced to give up proprietary information, he said.
"The
imbalance of opportunity is a major barrier to continued improvement of
the United States and China's commercial relationship," he said, adding
that China has recently "narrowed" its commercial environment after a
"long and fruitful period of opening."
He was speaking ahead of
annual meetings of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue to be
held Monday and Tuesday in Washington. The meetings are also likely to
tackle a perennial U.S. complaint over the value of China's currency,
which it says is too low and gives a leg-up to Chinese exporters at the
expense of American producers.
Locke, tapped to be next U.S.
ambassador to Beijing, spoke at the launch of a report on Chinese
investment in the U.S. The study was supported by the Asia Society think
tank and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
Chinese
foreign direct investment now represents just 0.1 percent of the total
in America, according to official figures. But the report said it more
than doubled in each of the past two years and is set to grow rapidly.
As economic incentives for Chinese firms to operate abroad grow, China's
foreign investment worldwide in the coming decade could total between
$1 trillion and $2 trillion.
That could offer hundreds of
thousands of jobs and new streams of tax revenue for the U.S. But
similar to worries over the emergence of Japan as an investor in the
1980s _ that proved unfounded _ some Americans fear that China through
its sheer size, could gain control of parts of the U.S. economy. The
report warned the U.S. risks squandering economic benefits because of
political "fear-mongering" about China.
Some major Chinese
investment overtures into the U.S. have foundered, such as state-owned
CNOOC's 2005 bid to buy U.S. oil and gas producer Unocal Corp. Some U.S.
lawmakers had complained that the sale might jeopardize national
security. Technology giant Huawei has also struggled to gain a foothold
in the U.S.
The report says the U.S. investment review mechanism _
which rejected a Huawei takeover of computer company 3Leaf Systems last
year _ does an effective job of protecting American security interests,
but politicization of the review process would choke off future
investment.
The report says Chinese investment in the U.S. during
2003-2010, including projects based on capital raised outside of China,
totaled $11.6 billion _ about five times higher than official U.S.
statistics that are based on balance-of-payments figures. Most investors
are private companies, but in terms of value, about two-thirds comes
from state-owned enterprises.
Locke said Chinese investment is
good for American workers and businesses, but he presented a litany of
complaints about the freedom of American companies to operate in China,
including intellectual property theft and opaque regulatory measures.
China
recently retained prohibitions on foreign involvement in certain
industries, despite promises to lift them, and a new review system to
vet foreign investments is based on vague parameters of national
security, he said. .
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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