????6月份中國再次降低利率，經(jīng)過多年對機場等基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施的激進而缺乏效率的投資之后,，貸款需求最終減弱,。北京大學教授邁克爾佩蒂斯在一份郵件中警告說，不良貸款可能導致銀行最終將損失轉(zhuǎn)嫁給消費者,。

????吸引中國投資者的原因至少還有一個：外國人投資超過100萬美元,，同時滿足其他要求即可申請美國綠卡。而在高失業(yè)率的地區(qū)如東托萊多,，最低投資額更低,，只要50萬美元。

????但是誰在投資托萊多呢,？餐飲中心和河濱地帶的投資者是Yuan Xiaohong和Wu Kin Hung,，他們的公司名為大勝太平集團有限公司（Dashing Pacific Group Ltd.）。五湖全球集團背后的投資者身份至今沒有得到確認,。

????《托萊多刀鋒報》全面報道了這些交易,，但是這家報紙的報道和調(diào)查只找到Y(jié)uan和Wu的有限信息，五湖更是神龍見首不見尾,。

????參與五湖旅店交易的一方告訴《刀鋒報》,，五湖全球背后的投資者和大勝太平集團有限公司不同。然而他們可能存在某種聯(lián)系,。在其公司注冊文件中,，兩家公司的注冊代理是托萊多的同一個律師，而Simon Guo（Guo Zhixin）不但向Yuan和Wu引見了貝爾市長,，而且還在五湖國際的中文網(wǎng)站上被列為公司的“主席”,。

????《刀鋒報》的調(diào)查發(fā)現(xiàn)，Wu曾經(jīng)是一位在毗鄰香港的中國南方城市深圳負責開發(fā)工作的政府官員,。調(diào)查者根據(jù)他的背景猜測,，他可能非常富有，不費吹灰之力就能籌集到擬議中對碼頭區(qū)開發(fā)所需的2億美元,。而Yuan則向這家報紙證實,，她是香港公民,，原籍內(nèi)蒙古。

????然而,，購買碼頭區(qū)土地一年多之后,，這個兩億美元的開發(fā)項目至今尚未動土動工。大勝太平集團和餐飲中心的租戶產(chǎn)生了法律糾紛,。租約規(guī)定使用單獨的水電氣表,，分開付賬，但租戶宣稱,，大勝太平集團并沒有履行合約,。

????喬克拉克是租戶們的律師。鑒于法庭此前已經(jīng)初步裁定,，大勝太平集團必須安裝單獨計量表,，但這家公司卻置若罔聞，因此他已要求法庭判定該公司蔑視法庭,。大勝太平集團的律師沒有回應要求置評的電話,。

????托萊多的居民和其他人一樣很好奇這兩家中國公司到底想干什么?？死苏f：“這兩家公司對所有人,、包括我在內(nèi)，至今依然是個謎,?！?/p>

????In early June, Beijing again cut interest rates, finally weakening demand for loans after years of rapid investment in things like airport infrastructure, which may or may not pay off. Peking University Professor Michael Pettis, in a newsletter, cautions that non-performing loans (NPLs) could cause banks to pass on losses to consumers.

????There is at least one more reason some investors would turn to the U.S.: Foreign investors who put at least $1 million into a U.S. business and meet other requirements can be eligible to apply for a green card. The minimum investment in high-unemployment areas, such as East Toledo, is $500,000.

????Just who is investing in Toledo? The restaurant complex and riverfront development investors have been identified as Yuan Xiaohong and Wu Kin Hung, working through a company called Dashing Pacific Group Ltd. The investors behind the Five Lakes Global Group have not been identified.

????The Toledo Blade has covered the deals extensively, but both its reporting and a Chinese investigation the paper commissioned turned up only limited information about Yuan and Wu's backgrounds and very little on Five Lakes.

????One of the parties to the Five Lakes hotel sale told the Blade the investors behind Five Lakes Global are not the same as those from Dashing Pacific. They may be tied in some way, however. Both companies list the same Toledo lawyer as registered agent on their incorporation documents, and Simon Guo (Guo Zhixin), who was credited with introducing Bell to Wu and Yuan according to the Blade, is also listed as "chairman" of Five Lakes Global on the company's Chinese website.

????The Blade's investigators found that Wu was once a government bureaucrat working on development in Shenzhen, a southern Chinese city near Hong Kong that has grown from a village to a hub of global manufacturing since China's economic opening began in the '70s. The investigators speculated that a man with his background would have become quite rich and would have no trouble raising the $200 million proposed to develop the Toledo Marina District. Yuan told the paper she is a Hong Kong citizen originally from the Chinese province of Inner Mongolia.

????More than a year after the riverfront land was purchased, the announced $200 million development has yet to break ground. Dashing Pacific is in a legal dispute with tenants at its restaurant complex. The lease provides for separate metering and billing for utilities, and the tenants claim Dashing Pacific has not lived up to the contract.

????Joe Clarke, an attorney for the tenants, says he has asked the court to hold Dashing Pacific in contempt after it failed to respond to a preliminary injunction ordering that it install separate meters. An attorney listed for Dashing Pacific did not return a phone call seeking comment.

????As for the two Chinese firms, Toledo residents are as curious as anyone. "Nobody here, including myself, knows much about them," Clarke says.