The Wall Street Journal recently reported that private-sector Chinese businesses and investors poured nearly $5 billion into US firms, both large and small, in 2010. Small businesses in particular have welcomed the Asian in-flow with open arms. However, such investments have spawned concerns that this is a move by Beijing to relocate companies to China, taking with them technology, resources and much needed US jobs.

However, the most unsettling aspect of this $5 billion in-bound investment is the fact that there is such a big fuss is over such a relatively small amount of capital! $5 billion is actually a very small fraction of the more than the $1 trillion US debt China has purchased.