China is warming to investment in the US, which is mutually beneficial America acknowledges China as its greatest economic rival and, with the US recovery still lacking lustre, that can turn to hostility. There are well-known reasons for anger, too. Manufacturing jobs have been shipped East, US companies still face frustrations doing business in China and the country's political system is at odds with the values espoused by America's. Wanda's takeover is the biggest yet by a Chinese company in the US, eclipsing the $1.75bn that Lenovo paid for IBM's PC business in 2004. Indeed, three years ago, China did not register in the $2.3 trillion of foreign direct investment that America attracted, according to the US Bureau of Economic Analysis. UK companies, by the way, accounted for $454bn of that. But Ken Lieberthal, who advised former president Bill Clinton on Asia, says there is a growing recognition in China that the US is a vast and stable market, as well as good place to learn critical skills such as marketing and branding. "The Chinese have very little experience of investing in the US," explains Lieberthal. The US is seen both as a difficult market and also a very good one. Data suggest the Chinese perception that the US is a difficult market is beginning to shift. Chinese companies spent more than $5bn there on greenfield projects and acquisitions in 2010. Industries with a direct impact on US national security, such as defence, do remain out of bounds. But for Dan Rosen, a specialist on US-China ties, this week's deal shows everything else is up for grabs. "It's a good demonstration that the notion the US is closed to Chinese investment is absolutely incorrect," he says. Americans are becoming more comfortable having Chinese companies in our backyard. It needs pointing out that this flow of direct investment by Chinese companies is dwarfed by the roughly $1.17 trillion of US government debt Beijing owns. That remains a far more important axis in the relationship between the superpowers. Nor do deals like Wanda's do anything to ease the anger in Congress over China's policy of keeping its currency weak. However, it shows that beneath the very real tensions between the two countries, Chinese companies are coming here. If China's appetite for US investment keeps rising, it may eventually hand the US leverage to use on range of issues from human rights abuses to the intellectual property rights of US companies in China. And after the week it has had, Facebook, which is banned from China, could do with a hand there.