Local governments in the U.S. look for Chinese investment

Communication between Chinese businesses and local governments in the United States has continued despite the trade tensions between the two sides.

Wang Wenli is the partner-in-Charge at the San Francisco and Walnut Creek offices of Moss Adams, an accounting and business consulting firm which helps Chinese clients invest in the United States.

She says the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, has become a bigger factor affecting Chinese investment.

"A client of mine, they announced the deal actually last October and they are still going through the process. It's taking much longer. Before mid-year 2017, people talk about CFIUS, but really the deals got denied, are very minimal. And now it's becoming a regular concern," says Wang.

She made the comment on the sidelines of a forum in San Francisco called "Bridge from China 2018".

Among the attendees is David Kaufman, the director of Global Strategies at Nixon Peabody.

"Most of businesses are [done] locally. The federal government hasn't played a huge role in encouraging investment internationally anyways. Local government and local businesses and local institutions have to roll up their sleeves and get it done. And you have to create an environment where folks coming from overseas feel comfortable investing," says Kaufman.

One of the groups supporting the event is ChinaSF, an initiative formed under the San Francisco Center of Economic Development.

It has recruited more than 96 Chinese companies over the past decade, creating nearly 800 jobs and attracting more than 5.1 billion U.S. dollars of foreign direct investment from China.

"I think we are very unique, the fact that we have such a close relationship with the city. Because we are outside the city, we can explain things, talk about things in ways that organizations and particularly businesses will understand. Whereas many times as a city official, it's really hard to explain things that a business, especially a foreign business can understand," says ChinaSF's Executive Director Darlene Chiu Byrant.

Michael Lee, the president of the Research and Institute of China Railway Signal and Communication, China's largest train technology supplier, is seeking opportunities at the forum to boost the development of California's rail technology.

"The current U.S.- China tensions definitely are having an impact on the people, on our potential customers, how they think about doing business with China. However, I feel confident we do bring a lot of advantages," says Lee.

This photo taken on May 15th, 2018, shows part of a new subway train conducting a test run at Wellington Yard in Medford, a residential and industrial suburb of Boston, Massachusetts. The train is designed and manufactured by China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation. It will serve the Boston's Orange Line subway. [Photo: Xinhua]

There are already new subways trains designed and manufactured by a Chinese firm ready to operate in the United States.

The new trains are part of a contract between Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation.

Under the contract, the Rolling Stock Corporation will design and manufacture more than 400 cars for two subway lines in Boston, at a price of one billion U.S. dollars.