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In 2024, total annual foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into China amounted to around *** billion U.S. dollars. According to official accounts, approximately **** billion U.S. dollars were invested from Hong Kong and *** billion from the U.S. However, this picture might not be representative for the actual origin of these money flows. 

Who are the investors?

International financial hubs play an important role in directing foreign financial streams to China. According to official accounts, more than ** percent of the inward Chinese FDI stock in 2024 had entered China through ****, while a substantial share also came from the ****. These financial hubs offer favorable conditions or services to international investors, who are in most of the cases located in a third country. According to calculations by UNCTAD, made in an attempt to trace back ultimate investors, approximately **** percent of the total Chinese inward FDI stock in 2020 originated from investors in the United States, *** percent from Japan, and *** percent from the United Kingdom. Only **** percent originated from Hong Kong, while **** percent came from within China, from Chinese companies not registered on the mainland.

Investment destinations in China

Although China’s economic development has spread from Eastern China into the inner provinces, foreign FDI inflows are still mainly directed towards the coastal regions, which attracted more than ** percent of total investments in recent years. Foreign companies were most active in the Yangtze River Delta, namely in Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang province, in the Greater Bay Area in Guangdong, and in the north in Beijing, Tianjin, and Shandong province. Many investments were made in Special Economic Zones, which provide beneficial conditions for foreign investors.