In 2016, Jeff Stein, a veteran journalist covering the US intelligence community, got a tip-off: a small insurance company that had been sold to a Chinese entity.
In 2015, Wright USA, an insurer that specialized in selling liability insurance to FBI and CIA agents, had been quietly purchased by 
Fosun Group, a private company believed to have very close connections with China's leadership.
US concerns became immediately clear: Wright USA was privy to the personal details of many of America's top secret service agents and intelligence officials. No one in the US knew who might have access to that information now the insurer and its parent, Ironshore, were Chinese-owned.
In the past couple of decades China has become the world's biggest overseas investor, giving it the potential to dominate sensitive industries, secrets and key technologies. Beijing considers the details of its foreign spending overseas — how much money it's spending and where — to be a state secret.
But on the terms of the Wright USA sale,"there was nothing illegal about it; it was in the open, so to speak. But because everything's intertwined so closely in Beijing, you're essentially giving that information up to Chinese intelligence."
The Chinese government was involved in the deal: fresh data reveals that four Chinese state banks had provided a $1.2B loan, routed through the Cayman Islands, to allow Fosun to buy Wright USA.
Stein's story ran in Newsweek, and there was a swift reaction in Washington: triggering an inquiry by the branch of the US Treasury that screens investments, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS). Shortly after, the company was sold again — back to Americans. It's unclear who ordered that sale.
High-level US intelligence sources confirm the Wright USA sale was one of the cases that led the first Trump administration to tighten its investment laws in 2018.
Very few could have understood at the time that this Chinese state-backed spending appears to have been part of a much bigger strategy carried out by Beijing to invest and buy assets in every continent.
"For many years, we assumed that virtually all of China's money flows were going to developing countries. And so, it came as a great surprise to us when we realised that actually there were hundreds of billions of dollars going into places like the US, the UK and Germany, happening right underneath our noses."
Since 2000, Beijing has spent $2.1 trillion outside its borders, with a roughly equal split between developing and wealthy countries.
Some of the investments in wealthy economies appear to have been made in order to generate a healthy return. Others fall in line with Beijing's strategic objectives, set out a decade ago in a major government initiative called Made in China 2025.
In it the Chinese authorities outlined a clear plan to dominate 10 cutting-edge industries, like robotics, electric vehicles and semiconductors by this year.
Beijing wanted to fund big investments abroad so key technologies could be brought back to China.
However, it must be underlined that such investments and purchases are legal, even if they are sometimes obscured within shell companies or routed through offshore accounts.
bbc.com/news/articles/
Fosun Group, a private company believed to have very close connections with China's leadership.
US concerns became immediately clear: Wright USA was privy to the personal details of many of America's top secret service agents and intelligence officials. No one in the US knew who might have access to that information now the insurer and its parent, Ironshore, were Chinese-owned.
In the past couple of decades China has become the world's biggest overseas investor, giving it the potential to dominate sensitive industries, secrets and key technologies. Beijing considers the details of its foreign spending overseas — how much money it's spending and where — to be a state secret.
But on the terms of the Wright USA sale,"there was nothing illegal about it; it was in the open, so to speak. But because everything's intertwined so closely in Beijing, you're essentially giving that information up to Chinese intelligence."
The Chinese government was involved in the deal: fresh data reveals that four Chinese state banks had provided a $1.2B loan, routed through the Cayman Islands, to allow Fosun to buy Wright USA.
Stein's story ran in Newsweek, and there was a swift reaction in Washington: triggering an inquiry by the branch of the US Treasury that screens investments, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS). Shortly after, the company was sold again — back to Americans. It's unclear who ordered that sale.
High-level US intelligence sources confirm the Wright USA sale was one of the cases that led the first Trump administration to tighten its investment laws in 2018.
Very few could have understood at the time that this Chinese state-backed spending appears to have been part of a much bigger strategy carried out by Beijing to invest and buy assets in every continent.
"For many years, we assumed that virtually all of China's money flows were going to developing countries. And so, it came as a great surprise to us when we realised that actually there were hundreds of billions of dollars going into places like the US, the UK and Germany, happening right underneath our noses."
Since 2000, Beijing has spent $2.1 trillion outside its borders, with a roughly equal split between developing and wealthy countries.
Some of the investments in wealthy economies appear to have been made in order to generate a healthy return. Others fall in line with Beijing's strategic objectives, set out a decade ago in a major government initiative called Made in China 2025.
In it the Chinese authorities outlined a clear plan to dominate 10 cutting-edge industries, like robotics, electric vehicles and semiconductors by this year.
Beijing wanted to fund big investments abroad so key technologies could be brought back to China.
However, it must be underlined that such investments and purchases are legal, even if they are sometimes obscured within shell companies or routed through offshore accounts.
bbc.com/news/articles/
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Byron Wan
@Byron_Wan
For years, Washington has been warning others not to trust loans from state banks fueling its rise as a superpower. But a new report reveals an ironic twist: The United States is the biggest recipient of all — by far. And the security and technology implications have yet to be x.com/byron_wan/stat…
Show more state banks fueling its rise as a superpower. But a new report reveals an ironic twist: The United States is the biggest recipient of all — by far. And the security and technology implications have yet to be x.com/byron_wan/stat…