中国人投资美国中部小城托莱多之谜

    6月份中国再次降低利率，经过多年对机场等基础设施的激进而缺乏效率的投资之后，贷款需求最终减弱。北京大学教授迈克尔佩蒂斯在一份邮件中警告说，不良贷款可能导致银行最终将损失转嫁给消费者。

    吸引中国投资者的原因至少还有一个：外国人投资超过100万美元，同时满足其他要求即可申请美国绿卡。而在高失业率的地区如东托莱多，最低投资额更低，只要50万美元。

    但是谁在投资托莱多呢？餐饮中心和河滨地带的投资者是Yuan Xiaohong和Wu Kin Hung，他们的公司名为大胜太平集团有限公司（Dashing Pacific Group Ltd.）。五湖全球集团背后的投资者身份至今没有得到确认。

    《托莱多刀锋报》全面报道了这些交易，但是这家报纸的报道和调查只找到Yuan和Wu的有限信息，五湖更是神龙见首不见尾。

    参与五湖旅店交易的一方告诉《刀锋报》，五湖全球背后的投资者和大胜太平集团有限公司不同。然而他们可能存在某种联系。在其公司注册文件中，两家公司的注册代理是托莱多的同一个律师，而Simon Guo（Guo Zhixin）不但向Yuan和Wu引见了贝尔市长，而且还在五湖国际的中文网站上被列为公司的“主席”。

    《刀锋报》的调查发现，Wu曾经是一位在毗邻香港的中国南方城市深圳负责开发工作的政府官员。调查者根据他的背景猜测，他可能非常富有，不费吹灰之力就能筹集到拟议中对码头区开发所需的2亿美元。而Yuan则向这家报纸证实，她是香港公民，原籍内蒙古。

    然而，购买码头区土地一年多之后，这个两亿美元的开发项目至今尚未动土动工。大胜太平集团和餐饮中心的租户产生了法律纠纷。租约规定使用单独的水电气表，分开付账，但租户宣称，大胜太平集团并没有履行合约。

    乔克拉克是租户们的律师。鉴于法庭此前已经初步裁定，大胜太平集团必须安装单独计量表，但这家公司却置若罔闻，因此他已要求法庭判定该公司蔑视法庭。大胜太平集团的律师没有回应要求置评的电话。

    托莱多的居民和其他人一样很好奇这两家中国公司到底想干什么。克拉克说：“这两家公司对所有人、包括我在内，至今依然是个谜。”

    In early June, Beijing again cut interest rates, finally weakening demand for loans after years of rapid investment in things like airport infrastructure, which may or may not pay off. Peking University Professor Michael Pettis, in a newsletter, cautions that non-performing loans (NPLs) could cause banks to pass on losses to consumers.

    There is at least one more reason some investors would turn to the U.S.: Foreign investors who put at least $1 million into a U.S. business and meet other requirements can be eligible to apply for a green card. The minimum investment in high-unemployment areas, such as East Toledo, is $500,000.

    Just who is investing in Toledo? The restaurant complex and riverfront development investors have been identified as Yuan Xiaohong and Wu Kin Hung, working through a company called Dashing Pacific Group Ltd. The investors behind the Five Lakes Global Group have not been identified.

    The Toledo Blade has covered the deals extensively, but both its reporting and a Chinese investigation the paper commissioned turned up only limited information about Yuan and Wu's backgrounds and very little on Five Lakes.

    One of the parties to the Five Lakes hotel sale told the Blade the investors behind Five Lakes Global are not the same as those from Dashing Pacific. They may be tied in some way, however. Both companies list the same Toledo lawyer as registered agent on their incorporation documents, and Simon Guo (Guo Zhixin), who was credited with introducing Bell to Wu and Yuan according to the Blade, is also listed as "chairman" of Five Lakes Global on the company's Chinese website.

    The Blade's investigators found that Wu was once a government bureaucrat working on development in Shenzhen, a southern Chinese city near Hong Kong that has grown from a village to a hub of global manufacturing since China's economic opening began in the '70s. The investigators speculated that a man with his background would have become quite rich and would have no trouble raising the $200 million proposed to develop the Toledo Marina District. Yuan told the paper she is a Hong Kong citizen originally from the Chinese province of Inner Mongolia.

    More than a year after the riverfront land was purchased, the announced $200 million development has yet to break ground. Dashing Pacific is in a legal dispute with tenants at its restaurant complex. The lease provides for separate metering and billing for utilities, and the tenants claim Dashing Pacific has not lived up to the contract.

    Joe Clarke, an attorney for the tenants, says he has asked the court to hold Dashing Pacific in contempt after it failed to respond to a preliminary injunction ordering that it install separate meters. An attorney listed for Dashing Pacific did not return a phone call seeking comment.

    As for the two Chinese firms, Toledo residents are as curious as anyone. "Nobody here, including myself, knows much about them," Clarke says.