Buying up the Pacific rim

During the decline of the U.S economy in the 1980s Japan bought out American companies and established car companies on the American mainland. Now Chinese investers are following suite and taking advantage of the current recession to buy up comparatively cheap properties in California (hat tip: Your Lying Eyes).

East Asians now own a significant percentage of the real estate in most of the major Western Pacific rim cities, including: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Auckland, Wellington, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle and especially Vancouver (not sure about Portland, Oregan).

While the elites of English-speaking West don't seem to be particularly concerned about this, it does signal that the West is now decisively in economic decline relative to East Asia, and a pattern seems to be emerging that the worse the recession, the greater the amount of Pacific real estate bought up by Asian interests.

It also raises concern about North American and Australian security should relations worsen between China and the US.

In the long run, continuing Asian immigration could eventually lead to a fracturing of Australasia and North America with Eastern Australia, Northern New Zealand, British Columbia, and the US Eastern Seaboard becoming Asian countries and the space-loving Caucasian populations retreating to the cheaper and less-densely populated hinterlands.