If you are interested in this, I highly recommend 'The Great Rebalancing' by Michael Pettit. He explains the causes and implications of China's high savings rate, and the relationship with other countries' savings rates. His explanation of the causality is contrary to most of what you will have read in the popular press.

Surely you mean Michael Pettis?

Yes, sorry! Too late to edit.

I don't believe it's a lack of money. There's no shortage of investors looking to make money in the U.S, and we have very low interest rates. If people aren't investing, it's because they don't think they can make a profit.

So I believe the real question is, why is it thought to be a money-loser?

And somehow, Chinese investors seem not to care that much about profits? It's unclear how much of these is foolishness versus vision versus corruption.

In any case, lots of great infrastructure gets built by companies that go bankrupt. From the point of view of someone who didn't finance it, maybe it doesn't matter whether it's a smart move or not.

The US has laws against bribing foreign governments or officials. You can be punished in America for it, adding an extra layer of risk on top.

Considering this sort of corruption is required to do business in these places, it effectively bars Americans from competing.

The idea behind it is if we don't incentivize corruption, it will go away. Needless to say, it didn't work, as it takes only one person to spoil it. It's a prisoner's dilemma game where only some players get punished