Great article as usual by Keith Bradsher at the NYT on China’s sovereign fund and its proposed investment strategy. Note that folks all around the world (e.g. US Congress) have been shitting themselves in terror over the prospect of the China Investment Corporation’s $200 billion being used to buy up strategic assets/companies in the U.S. and elsewhere.

As Bradsher’s article makes clear, the reality seems far more benign than the China bashers made it seem:

The fund, the China Investment Corporation, plans to spend roughly two-thirds of its $200 billion assisting Chinese banks.

In contrast to other sovereign wealth funds — like the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, which invested $7.5 billion for a 4.9 percent stake in Citigroup this week — the Chinese have no immediate plans to take a large stake in any foreign company.

The remaining third of the fund, roughly $70 billion, that is not committed to shoring up banks with needed cash has been parked in very short-term money market instruments.

The fund managers are inexperienced and, apparently, know their limitations. Moreover, responding to the disasters of CNOOC/UNOCAL and, perhaps, the negative press over the Huawei/3COM deal, CIC is going to take a conservative approach. Maybe the Middle East oil money is bidding up all the good deals anyway . . .

I guess the end is not nigh.