Investment from China into the United States Has Fallen to Nearly Zero

This post, originally published on December 27, 2018, has been updated with more recent figures.

Chinese investment in the United States virtually dried up in 2018. Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) fell 84 percent in 2018 compared to 2017, from $29.4 billion to $4.8 billion. Several factors are at play. Investors have shied away amid the Trump administration’s trade war and new US legislation that grants more power to monitor Chinese FDI into the United States. Regulators like the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) have increasingly blocked or reversed investment deals in the name of national security. Beijing has also ramped up capital controls in an attempt to stop funds from leaving the country.

Note

* Zhiyao (Lucy) Lu was a research analyst at PIIE from March 2016 to February 2019. Views expressed here are solely her own and do not represent those of her employer.