There’s no denying it: Despite our ideological, political, and cultural differences, when it comes to trade, the United States and China have an inextricably intertwined relationship.
As this week’s issue shows, perhaps nowhere is this relationship more pronounced and indispensable than in Los Angeles.
Chinese investment has been a boon for the region, with investors spending billions of dollars to buy or build everything from office buildings downtown to Hollywood studios. Major players such as Dalian Wanda Group have gone from dipping their toe into Hollywood to diving in head first, investing in production slates at Sony and buying up studios and television producers. It’s even building high-rise residential in Beverly Hills.
And yet the billions of dollars invested in the local economy pale in comparison with the more than $200 billion in goods that flowed to and from China through the local customs district.
There’s no question that some of these acquisitions and this reliance on a single large trading partner raise concerns about the influence of one of the world’s largest and fastest growing economies could have on the industries of the last remaining superpower.
Yet, everything that’s old has become new again, just with a different name. The rush of Chinese investment isn’t so different from Japan’s in the 1980s, and decades later that country remains L.A.’s top foreign investor. Despite similar concerns about foreign influence at the time, that investment ultimately benefitted Los Angeles and strengthened ties between the U.S. and Japan.
Now, with tensions between the United States and China over everything from the status of Taiwan to trade inequities, all under the shadow of uncertainty that will follow President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, perhaps once again we should be embracing, not fearing our new business associates, investors, and neighbors from across the Pacific.
Doing so might not only continue to provide mutual economic benefit, but also keep tensions from boiling over between the two nations.
And Los Angeles, at the epicenter of this dynamic, can lead the way.
