Some 70 years ago, Chattanooga factories off Bonny Oaks Drive and Signal Mountain Road were rushing to make munitions to support U.S. forces battling Japan and Germany during World War II.
These days, German automaker Volkswagen is churning out sedans for American car buyers at an industrial park off Bonny Oaks, while Japanese company Komatsu is assembling heavy machinery on Signal Mountain Road to support U.S. economic growth.
On Friday, China's biggest appliance maker, Haier, unveiled plans Friday to buy the white-goods product line from U.S. icon General Electric. The $5.4 billion deal includes GE's huge Roper oven plant in LaFayette, Ga., which employs 1,600 people. If finalized, Haier will be the third Chinese business to make a big investment in the Chattanooga area in the past six months.
"China's economy is advancing, the country is getting wealthier, companies are getting richer, and they've got the money to invest," said Steven Livingston, a Middle Tennessee State University professor who specializes in international trade.
The Chattanooga area continues to see a variety of foreign businesses making big bets. Two years ago, a Brookings Institution study put the six-county metro area among the top 20 nationwide in the share of jobs created by foreign companies.
Over the past year, several foreign businesses have announced plans to invest nearly $300 million in the local economy, not including the $600 million VW already is spending on a plant expansion to make a new sport utility vehicle by late 2016.
China-based Yanfeng Automotive Interiors plans to plow $55 million into a Chattanooga facility to supply parts for VW's plant and hire 325 people.
Vanguard National Trailer Corp., a subsidiary of China International Marine Containers, is setting up a $30 million plant in Dade County, Ga., with plans to employ 400 workers making semi-trailers.
Spanish auto supplier Gestamp is investing $180 million and now building at three separate sites in Chattanooga. That company, which already has a plant in the city, plans to hire 500 more workers to supply VW and other car companies in the South.
And German-based polysilicon maker Wacker is bringing online its new plant in Charleston, Tenn. It's spending about $2.4 billion, which the company says is a record single investment for a business in the Volunteer State.
Livingston said Tennessee and the Chattanooga area are attractive to manufacturers, and he expects the region to woo more than its fair share of Chinese companies in the future.
"The Chinese auto manufacturing business is coming along strongly," he said. "China is the next one down the line - Japan, Korea and China in the future."
Livingston said the U.S. is a big market globally and "you can't be an international company without a presence in the U.S."
Nancy McLernon, chief executive of the Organization for International Investment in Washington, D.C., said Chinese investment is still relatively new, and it's a small fraction of the overall foreign numbers.
But she called it a positive trend, saying such foreign investors tend to be more successful and productive as companies. They have global reaches and invest in new technologies, McLernon said, and they usually pay employees more - and give more to charities.
The companies are often highly concentrated in the manufacturing sector, she added, and any resurgence of that segment in the U.S. will be supported by foreign investment.
"I anticipate seeing more" Chinese money in the U.S., she said.
Foreign investment came up last week at the Industry Appreciation Breakfast held by Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger and Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke.
"We're proud of the new companies," Coppinger said, citing Yanfeng. "One of the most notable expansions we've had is Gestamp."
Foreign-owned businesses, after the Haier deal, will employ about 10,000 people in the Chattanooga area, according to the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce and other business groups.
Livingston said he doesn't see downsides to Chinese foreign investment in Tennessee, with only the computer information sector potentially arousing concerns.
"Unless there is a huge scandal, manufacturing investment is not controversial," he said. Volkswagen is in global disgrace after it was caught cheating on pollution controls on its cars.
While some people may be concerned due to China's Communist government, Livingston said she doesn't think that's am issue - the companies investing in the U.S. are "privately owned, pretty much," she said.
McLernon said countries whose companies have a lot of investment in another nation tend to "get on the same side of the economic ledger" an added, "It helps in other relationships as well."
David Claywell of Chattanooga, who was at the Tennessee Career Center at Eastgate on Friday afternoon, said he's thinking about applying for a job at VW, saying it would be a step up from his current post at Amazon's distribution center.
It doesn't matter to him if VW's a German company and Amazon is an American business, he said.
"I'm just looking for the pay right now," Claywell said.
Contact staff writer Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.