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Three out of four largest state-owned banks in China now have major participation by western global banks. The latest "investment" involves the largest of these banks, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC).
The four largest state-owned banks in China are the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China and China Construction Bank. ICBC was founded on January 1, 1984 and currently has over 24,000 mainland plus 70 overseas branches.
On August 3, a $3 billion investment secured a 10% equity stake in ICBC for American Express, Goldman Sachs and Allianz, a large German insurer.
{sidebar id=1}Expanding on its $2.5 billion investment in June, Bank of America hopes to up it's ownership of China Construction Bank (CCB) to the 19.9% limit imposed by the Chinese government.
Also in August, a consortium consisting of the Royal Bank of Scotland, Merrill Lynch and a private Hong Kong billionaire, bought 10% of China's second-biggest lender, Bank of China (BoC), which said it intends to sell another 10% to Temasek for an additional $3.1 billion.
So, in the short space of three months, three of China's largest banks have major western ownership. This is nothing short of a stampede.
According to The Economist*, "all three banks are now on course for listings on foreign stock exchanges: CCB will probably go this year, BoC in the spring of 2006 and ICBC in 2007."
Watch for Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs to take lead positions with these new public stock offerings.
These global bankers are now officially "in bed" with a Communist state government -- all three of these banks are state-owned! How is the working relationship between "western" bankers and hardliner communist dictators? Apparently neither sees any conflict of ideology or interest.
China would like to bury the United States, and has stated so on many occasions. After being flooded with western technology (much of it stolen through espionage), they are now flooded with western capital. Considering the influence and lobby power that companies like American Express, BofA and Goldman Sachs have with the U.S. government, what American citizen would have trouble seeing the conflict of both ideology and interest?
* "Billion-dollar gamble", The Economist, Sept 1, 2005
Question: For those companies with massive investments in Communist China, how will they influence (lobby activities) U.S. legislation and foreign policy if push comes to shove with China?
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