Source:
Asia TimesBEIJING - Chinese pundits continue to fret about the gloom and doom scenarios that an imminent United States economic recession might have in store for China's surging economy, but some are beginning to see a silver lining in it too.
"If it was not for the subprime mortgage crisis, China could not have dreamed of pumping money into top Wall Street financial institutions," legal expert Zhu Yiwei wrote in an opinion piece in the Southern Weekend. "But now that China has acquired a 10% stake in Morgan Stanley, there is hope that, through building a network of personal connections on Wall Street, we can work to reduce trade frictions between the two countries."Indeed, China's infusion of US$5 billion into the financial titan Morgan Stanley in December to help rebuild its capital base has been portrayed by some experts as a successful inroad into the Wall Street fortress that should be used by Beijing to acquire more power to influence opinions in US political backrooms.
The investment in Morgan Stanley is the latest in a series of prominent deal-making abroad the country's new $200 billion sovereign wealth fund - the China Investment Corporation (CIC) - has completed since its inception in May. Both its creation and activities have created a buzz in global financial markets in anticipation that a sizeable sum of money will be channeled into global assets.
Read more:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/JA24Cb01.html