These All-American Companies Now Belong to China

There was a time when the mantra “buy American” circulated across the land. And, it still does. However, do you know if you are really buying American? What if you knew the “American” products you purchased with your hard-earned dollars were actually contributing to the growth of the Chinese Communist Party? Make no mistake about it, the companies listed here are all Chinese-owned. Being Chinese-owned, they are subservient to the CCP. The listed companies are only a smattering of what the Chinese own in America. There are more!

I believe it was Nikita Krushchev (former Soviet leader of the USSR) who once said “the capitalist United States will sell us the rope which will be used to hang them”. He was not too far off. We may not be selling rope to the former USSR but we have already sold it to China.

It is not just the companies listed below which should be of concern. China now exerts an ever-growing influence over a significant amount of American life. All of our entertainment is now influenced by China. Hollywood now gets more money from China than from America. Their influence is felt in the NFL, MLB, NBA, and Nascar just to name a few. Ever wonder why American boycotts no longer work? It is because the money being received for American products sold in China now outweighs the amount received for the same products sold in America. Think about that for a moment. Now, think about it again.

We are on a very slippery slide on a very dangerous path. It will take a lot more than American boycotts to arrest our slide. It will take extreme effort at all levels. We need to stop thinking about being “woke” and start evaluating where we stand in the Global domain and the steps necessary to regain our footing.

Click on any of the below images or heading lines to view the news article associated with the sale to China

Smithfield

Smithfield, America’s premier pork producer, boasts brands such as Smithfield and Cook’s in its portfolio and is now Chinese-owned. Shuanghui Group, the world’s leading pork producer, bought the company for $4.7 billion in 2013.

GE Appliances

One of America’s most recognized manufacturers of refrigerators, dishwashers and other electricals, General Electric’s appliance division was snapped up in 2016 for $5.4 billion by Chinese white goods company Haier.

Motorola Mobility

Motorola has a proud history dating all the way back to 1928, when brothers Paul and Joseph Galvin brought the world the first car radio. The company, which went on to pioneer the walkie talkie and mobile phone, was split into two divisions in 2011, and its Mobility arm was sold to China’s Lenovo three years later for $2.9 billion.

AMC Theaters

Dalian Wanda, the Chinese conglomerate run by the country’s richest man Wang Jianlin, acquired North American cinema behemoth AMC Theaters for $2.6 billion in 2012, taking control of the brand’s 5,048 cinema screens in 347 movie theaters across the US and Canada at the time. Today AMC Theaters has 8,043 screens in North America alone.

Legendary Entertainment Group

In 2016 Dalian Wanda added an American movie studio to its bulging portfolio. The Chinese conglomerate parted with $3.5 billion to take over Legendary Entertainment Group, the firm that co-financed movies from Jurassic Park to Warcraft.

Forbes

You may think the company that publishes Forbes magazine is wholly American-owned but you’d be wrong. A majority stake in the business publisher was sold to Hong Kong’s Integrated Whale Media Investments in 2014 for an undisclosed sum.

Dirt Devil

This US manufacturer of vacuum cleaners originated in 1905 and is American as they come, but parent company Royal Appliances Manufacturing Company was actually bought by Hong Kong’s Techtronic Industries in 2002 for $105.5 million.

Hoover US

Hoover is as American as apple pie but not many people are aware that the US division of the vacuum cleaner company was sold by Whirlpool to Hong Kong-based investment company Techtronic Industries in 2007 for $108 million.

Waldorf Astoria

Synonymous with Big Apple glitz and glamor, the landmark Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York City was acquired by Chinese insurance giant Angbang Insurance Group in 2014 for $1.95 billion. However, in 2018 the Chinese government took over the Group’s assets after becoming concerned at its business dealings and for that year was temporarily in control of the hotel. Angbang Insurance Group has converted some of the hotel into 375 luxury condos, which it began to sell off in 2019. The hotel’s remaining rooms and public spaces were officially made New York City landmarks in 2017, but are set to reopen for bookings in 2022.

Strategic Hotels & Resorts

Angbang increased its US presence in 2016 when it acquired Strategic Hotels & Resorts for $6 billion. The American firm, which was sold by investment company Blackstone, has a number of Ritz-Carlton and Four Seasons hotels in its portfolio. Angbang recently agreed a deal to sell the 15 hotels to South Korean investment bank Mirae Asset Daewoo Management for $5.8 billion. However, the coronavirus pandemic led Mirae to pull out of the deal, and so Angbang filed a lawsuit in the Delaware Chancery Court in April 2020 to try to get Mirae to follow through on the deal. As Mirae won the case in November, Angbang is still the owner of the hotel chain.

IBM PC Division

Trailblazing IBM revolutionized the home computer market in the US following the launch of its first model in 1981, but by the 2000s the firm’s PC operation was faltering. Enter China’s Lenovo. The Beijing-based company bought IBM’s PC Division for a cool $1.25 billion in 2005.