The National Stadium in La Sabana, hundreds of patrol cars and the National Police Academy: These are some of the most significant donations given to Costa Rica by the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Costa Rica is hardly the only country in the region to receive major aid from China; the Costa Rica Star has previously reported on the work of the PRC in the Caribbean. A recent recipient of PRC aid is an unlikely United States metropolis; however, it is a city that certainly needs more help than Costa Rica.

“Detroit is broke.” These are some of the most disconcerting and incredible words of the 21^st century. While the entire world has seen major economic shakeups since the 2008 meltdown of the financial crisis, it is almost inconceivable to think of the Motor City as a ruined metropolis with a deeply negative balance sheet. This is a city that has given a lot to the world: The Motown record label, the American automobile manufacturing industry, legacy championship professional sports teams such as the Tigers, Red Wings and Pistons (even the Lions a long time ago), powerful labor unions that heralded the importance of blue-collar workers in the United States, and more.

Although entire nations have gone virtually broke in the 21^st century (Iceland, Greece and Cyprus come to mind), the financial ruin of Detroit is palpable. This is a metro area that is defined by the term “ruin porn,” which consists of documenting the sad effects of sudden economic decline and capital flight. Detroit offers square miles of ruin porn, which paint a picture bleaker than other unlucky cities such as Camden in New Jersey and Buffalo in New York.

China to Detroit’s Rescue

Over the last few months, investors from the PRC have been keen on Detroit. Whereas Chinese interests in Costa Rica and the Caribbean have mainly been handled through sovereign channels, things are a bit more capitalistic and business-like in Detroit. In August 2013, Forbes magazine published an elucidating op-ed piece on the situation:

China’s Newest City: We Call It ‘Detroit’

Detroit, broke with almost no prospects for recovery, is the fourth most popular U.S. destination for Chinese real estate investors. In fact, it was bad news—the city’s July 18 bankruptcy filing—that triggered renewed interest. “While the bankruptcy is viewed as a bad thing elsewhere, it raised the exposure level of Detroit’s real estate market in China,” says Evonne Xu, a Michigan attorney catering to Chinese purchasers.

Chinese shoppers can’t resist a bargain. Where else can you buy a two-story home in the U.S. for $39? China Central Television, the state broadcaster, in March reported that two houses in Detroit cost the same as a pair of leather shoes. No wonder a poster on Sina Weibo, the Twitter-like service, asked, “Seven-hundred thousand people, quiet, clean air, no pollution, democracy—what are you waiting for?”

Although the claims of clean air and no pollution in Detroit may surprise even long-time residents of the Motor City, it helps to remember that clean air is becoming a hot commodity in China, one of the most polluted nations in the world due to its relentless industrialization and unsustainable mining industry.

Chinese home buyers are picking up abandoned and blighted Detroit homes, sight unseen, by the suburban blocks, and that’s just in the residential areas. Shanghai’s Dongdu International Group is revitalizing the venerable Detroit Free Press building downtown.

Writing for online magazine Salon, Henry Grabar explains how Chinese business dealings in Detroit could become even more significant than in Costa Rica:

Incumbent Mike Bell may have lost the Toledo, Ohio, mayoral election in November, but he departs this month with a kind of celebrity in urban development circles. His success in luring Chinese investment to Toledo, 50 miles south of Detroit on Lake Erie and with a population of 280,000, remains the envy of larger American cities. A Chinese university will soon set up a branch downtown; rare Chinese antiques will be shown at the Toledo museum this year. A waterfront redevelopment project is underway, courtesy of Chinese capital.

It’s a sign of things to come [for Detroit]. In some cases, the speculation has taken on comic proportions. In a Quartz piece from July, Gwynn Guilford quoted a Detroit-area broker named Caroline Chen:

“I have people calling and saying, ‘I’m serious—I wanna buy 100, 200 properties,’” she tells Quartz, noting that one of her colleagues recently sold 30 properties to a Chinese buyer. “They say ‘We don’t need to see them. Just pick the good ones.’”

Just as it happened in Costa Rica, not everyone is welcoming Chinese investment in Detroit with open arms. Xenophobic sentiment and doubts, as expected, have come about; however, the Christian Science Monitor reported in late 2013 that the Michigan Governor Rick Snyder (a Republican) and business supporters hope that:

“continued investment in the area will lead to much more, and they envision Chinese companies playing a big role in helping [Detroit] flourish after it emerges from its Chapter 9 bankruptcy restructuring, which got under way this year.”

Snyder is opening the door wide to China. In September he made his third economic development trip there in three years to court investors in all sectors, but mostly automotive. To date, he said, Chinese companies have invested about $1 billion in his state, 95 percent of which is related to the auto industry.

To a city in dire need of financial rescue, foreign direct investment is always welcome; which is why common-sense business analysts have two words for Detroit: “Ni hao.”