This map shows where China is - and isn't - pouring money into the USA

By Erik Crouch, June 10, 2015

There are more than 7,600 people in the southern chunk of North Carolina who work for Chinese companies. And more than 5,200 in central Michigan, and 3,800 in eastern Virginia. China is investing in the United States in a big way - more than 80,000 Americans are currently employed by Chinese firms, and this map by Rhodium Group shows which areas of the states are - and aren't - getting that direct-investment lovin'.

The white-colored states received the least Chinese investment, while darker-blue states received the most. That means that states like Maine, North Dakota and New Mexico are left out in the cold, while certain regions of Oklahoma and Texas are rolling in renminbi. Texas alone hosts a Huawei office that employs more than 300 people, and boasts a number of energy companies that are wholly owned by Chinese corporations. In Oklahoma, Chinese state-owned energy giant Sinopec controls access to a huge amount of oil beneath the state.

Funnily enough, some of the areas of heavy Chinese investments overlap with the absolutely insane conspiracy theory we covered earlier this week, which depicted much of the American heartland - including Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri - being sold to China by the United States government. In reality, it turns out, the conspiracy theorists were just thinking a bit too far north (and also the whole thing about Hillary and "No-bama" selling American territory for spite).

While most of the jobs created by Chinese investment are clustered in the mid-Atlantic states and the middle of the country, the most epic singular investments are reserved for New York and California. In New York, the Greenland Group (a Chinese development group) threw down USD1.3 billion on a single real estate project; in California, Dalian Wanda (owned by the father of that guy who keeps putting Apple Watches on his dog) poured USD1.2 billion into an iconic Beverly Hills residence.

Poor ol' Maine, North Dakota and New Mexico - if only they had some multi-billion-dollar real estate on the market, they may finally get that Chinese FDI they've (presumably) been hoping for.

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