💸 China on a buying spree: China’s outbound direct investment is up 3.6 percent YoY (Q1–Q3) to 128.9 billion USD. The goal is to rebuild supply chains, expand the Belt and Road Initiative, and scale tech and consumer champions globally.
🌍 Belt and Road boost: BRI partner countries received 30 billion USD in non-financial ODI, up 23.7 percent. Energy, ports and infrastructure projects expand China’s zones of influence and spread geopolitical risk across new regions.
📈 Big deals: Overseas M&A reached 29.8 billion USD, up 70 percent YoY. Only 302 deals, but 16 of them worth over 500 million USD. Fewer transactions, but larger and more targeted bets in tech, consumer and high-end manufacturing.
🔥 Asia is the favorite target: China’s M&A volume in Asia rose 151 % YoY. The region accounts for over 40 percent of all deal volume. Europe shows early signs of recovery and Latin America is the only region with both more deals and more volume.
🇪🇺 Brussels hits the brakes: The EU is tightening FDI rules with a focus on China. New projects must create local jobs, share technology and keep real value creation inside Europe. The new framework may slow direct investment and limit meaningful M&A synergies.
Big Picture
As Europe makes investment more restrictive and more expensive, Chinese capital moves toward markets that approve faster, impose fewer conditions and actively compete for these projects. In global competition, capital does not wait. It flows wherever resistance is lowest and strategic openness is highest.
The China Survival Guide for Western Businesses
Entity setup, WeChat strategy, hiring your first local team. 12+ years on the ground in Shanghai.
