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Yet what appears to be a coordinated effort to deploy China?s wealth outbound, actually masks a set of what may be extremely powerful institutional (and perhaps personal) antagonisms between two powerful sectors of the Chinese state apparatus. To some extent, CIC competes with the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), the traditional agency charged with managing the nation?s foreign reserves, and the People?s Bank of China, which ?formulates and implements monetary policy.? (People?s Bank of China, Major Responsibilities). There are some indications that the relationship between them is not necessarily cooperative, but instead reflects contests for power to control China?s significant national wealth. One account suggests an intention at the highest levels of government to create competition of sorts among state sector entities, and principally between the People?s Bank of China and the Ministry of Finance, to induce better performance based on an assessment that conservative policies to protect the Chinese currency no longer needed to limit the use of reserves. The result was a decision to create a sovereign wealth entity. ?Eventually, the CIC was created under the control of the State Council, and out of the bureaucratic reach of either ministry, but was staffed primarily with personnel tied to the Ministry of Finance and the NDRC.? (Logan Wright, CIC and SAFE: Coordination or Bureaucratic Conflict?, China Stakes, June 24, 2009).

The result may substantially affect analysis of the investment activities of SWFs. Thus, for example, it may be as useful to analyze the pattern and scope of CIC investments for their effects on the distribution of policy and management power in contests between CIC and SAFE (or between the People?s Bank of China and the Chinese Finance Ministry) as it may be to focus on the way in which such investments speak to policy determinations by the highest levels of Chinese government. Of course, it is most likely that financial decisions at a micro level may reflect more the need to meet outward investment objectives. But in the aggregate, the flow and direction of investments may be as pointed to acquiring advantage over internal rivals as it is focused on acquiring dominance in foreign private markets in those sectors deemed important by the state. The regulatory consequences of this more subtle approach can be different from that of a more simple-minded conception of SWFs as merely a publicly owned private enterprise substantially disconnected from the state apparatus that owns and funds it, and whom it ultimately serves.

A similar complexity can be discerned in the development of the Brazilian Sovereign Wealth Fund.  The Sovereign Wealth Fund was created by Lei No. 11,887, of December 24, 2008 (in Portuguese). In an important article by Arthur Oscar Guimarães, Fundo Soberano, Revista de Conjuntura 23-27 (July 2009), a similar pattern of external unity masking significant internal contests can be discerned involving the central bank (Banco Central e Tesouro Nacional) and the ministry of finance (ministerio da fazenda). As in China, it appears that the Finance Ministry was able to assert authority over the opposition of the Central Bank in the construction and construction of the Brazilian version of this investment vehicle.

[N]o final de 2007 o debate sobre a constituição de um ?fundo soberano? brasileiro se fazia presente na mídia. . . . Naquele momento a falta de consenso quanto ao papel destinado a um fundo desta natureza já se explicitiva no seio do governo e mesmo entre outros especialistas. Para alguns membros do governo o acúmulo de reservas internacionais tendência crescente seria usado (essa era a expectativa de então) na criação de um fundo soberano, que serviria para o governo investir recursos na eventualidade de uma crise financeira de grandes proporções. Entretanto, a falta de consenso alcançava até mesmo o objetivo do fundo. O presidente do Banco Central, Henmrique Meirelles, refutava a idéia de que o fundo poderia fazer um uso alternativo das reservas do país. Id., at 23-24. (At the end of 2007 the debate on the creation of a Brazilian "sovereign fund" was reported in the media. . . . At that time the lack of consensus about the role intended for such a fund had been already pointed out within the government as well as other specialists. For some members of the government the accumulation of upward trending international reserves would be used (this was the expectation at the time) to create a sovereign fund, which would provide the government with resources to invest in the event of a financial crisis of major proportions. However, the lack of consensus even included the goal of the fund. The chairman of the Central Bank, Henrique Meirelles, refuted the idea that the fund serve as an alternative use of nation?s reserves.)

Em maio de 2008, ganhava relevo a criacão de um fundo de poupança fiscal, denominação então utilizada pelo ministro da fazenda para o fundo soberano brasileiro, cujos recursos, aplicados em dólar, seriam usados para financiar, a taxas subsidiadas, empresas brasileiras com atuação no exterior. A proposta do ministro Guido Mantega estava praticamente formatado e aprovada faltando fechar uma questão importante: quem iria administrar esse fundo, se a Fazenda ou o Banco Central. A mídia noticiava que o BC permanecia não muito entusiasmado com a proposta, particularmente porque temia influências indevidas na formaçã da taxa de câmbio. Por isso, no caso de criação do fundo, defendia que a administração ficasse com a diretoria da autoridade monetária. Id., at 24. (In May 2008, the creation of a tax savings fund gained prominence, [the tax savings fund being] then the name used by the finance minister for the Brazilian sovereign wealth fund, whose resources were to be applied in dollars, to be used to finance, at subsidized rates, Brazilian companies with operations abroad. The proposal of the Finance Minister Guido Mantega was essentially structured and approved except with respect to an important issue: who would manage this fund, the Finance Ministry or the Central Bank. The media reported that the Central Bank was still not very enthusiastic about the proposal, particularly because of the fear of undue influence in setting the exchange rate. Therefore, in the case of creation of the fund, the Central Bank insisted that administration stay with the board of the monetary authority.).

As in China, the ultimate decision favored the Finance Ministry over the Central Bank apparatus. But in the case of Brazil, there was a twist.

A decisão então tomada seria a de criação de um fundo soberano de US $10 bilhões para atender à demanda de financiamento de BNDES [the Brazilian Development Bank, see http://inter.bndes.gov.br/english/] para 2008. Tratava-se, portanto, de um fundo que seria alimentado pela ?aquisição de dólares que estão sobrando no Mercado. . . . O BNDES tinha a intenção de captar pelo menos R$ 25 Bilhões, metade dos recursos já disponíveis. Id., at 24. (The decision taken would be to create a sovereign fund with $ 10 billion to meet the demand for financing from BNDES [the Brazilian Development Bank] for 2008. It was, therefore, a fund that would be powered by the "acquisition of additional dollars from the market. . . . BNDES intended to raise at least $ 25 Billion, half of the resources already available.)