Addressing Chi nese direct investment in the future: Nei ther naive nor protecti oni st
The changes in Chinese FDI in the past three years reflect
a newquality, which underpins the assumption of “a new
era of Chinese capital ” (Hanemann and Huotari 2015).
The introduction of the FDI registration procedure in 2014 was a
formal milestone and has helped to open the floodgates for
the outflowof capital fromChina. The new“Made in China
2025” industrial strategy released in 2015 has been added
to the existing Going Global Strategy and the current 13th
Five-Year Plan (2016-2020) , all of which have included
policies to promote FDI in key industries.
In addition, at least 51 of the 99 Chinese M&A
transactions in Germany
between 2014 and October 2016 align with the “Made in
China 2025” strategy. Investment in the pharmaceuticals
and healthcare industry, as promoted in the strategy, has
strengthened since 2015, after having playing a largely
minor role in the past. Chinese companies benefit signifi –
cantly fromthe open markets and non-discriminatory FDI
regimes in Germany and other European member states.
Conversely, foreign companies are still formally and infor-
mally discriminated against in China in favor of domestic
companies.
This situation is reflected in the fact that China
suffers fromthe quantitative asymmetry in the investment
relationship between China and Germany, while Germany
clearly receives qualitatively less advantageous access.
EU Forecast
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