By Zhang Liping, Task Force on "Sino-U.S. Economic and Trade Relations under New Circumstances", Research Department of Foreign Economic Relations of DRC

Research Report No 109, 2011

The direct investment between China and the United States has always been a one-way traffic, highlighting the US investment in China. According to Chinese statistics, China's actually-utilized US capital by the end of 2008 was 25 times higher than China's total investment in the United States. And according to the US statistics, the ratio was 37 times. This has been caused mainly by the vertical inter-industrial and intra-industrial division of labor dominated by the United States. But in recent years, China's investment in the United States has been growing due to the rise in China's economic strength and the implementation of its "going global" strategy. The development of bilateral investment is of vital importance to the stability of their economic and trade relations.

I. Present State of Chinese Enterprises' Investment in United States

1. Development trend and industrial distribution

On the whole, China's investment in the United States has been growing in recent years. In 2008, the United States became the seventh largest destination for China's overseas investment in terms of investment stock. According to US statistics¹, China's direct investment in the United States was more than 420 million dollars and its investment stock rose to 1,205 million dollars in the same year, which were respectively more than four-fold and 58% higher than in the previous year and accounted for 0.13% and 0.056% of the direct overseas investment attracted by the United States. The year 2009 witnessed a mass withdrawal of China's direct investment from the United States, thus reducing the investment stock to only 790 million dollars and accounting for 0.034% of the total foreign investment attracted by the United States (Table 1).

Table 1 China's Direct Investment in United States Based on US Statistics (2005~2009) (Unit: 1 million dollars)

	Year	Total	China
			Value	Ratio（%）
Direct investment stock, based on historical costs	2005	1634121	574	0.035
	2006	1840463	785	0.043
	2007	2055176	762	0.037
	2008	2165748	1205	0.056
	2009	2319585	791	0.034
Current capital inflow, unadjusted according to current costs (“-”means outflow)	2005	104773	146	0.139
	2006	237136	315	0.133
	2007	265957	-3	-
	2008	324560	423	0.130
	2009	129883	-271	-
Revenue, unadjusted according to current costs ①	2005	110324	11	0.010
	2006	144755	-50	-
	2007	123881	103	0.083
	2008	111764	147	0.132
	2009	89186	91	0.102

Note: ① The revenue excluded US and overseas withholding tax before 2006 and became total revenue in and after 2006.

Source: US Bureau of Economic Analysis: http://www.bea.gov/.

In terms of investment stock, China's direct investment in the United States is mainly in the wholesale and retail industry. But this industry's ratio in the total investment stock has continued to drop in recent years, from nearly 88% in 2007 to 61% in 2009. Table 2 indicates that overall, China's investment in the US manufacturing industry picked up slightly after the financial crisis. In 2008, China's investment stock turned from negative to positive in the US sectors of computer, electronic equipment, electric equipment, home appliances and components, rose visibly in the sector of chemicals, but continued to fall in the sectors of machinery, transport equipment and other manufacturing sectors. The 2008 data about information, savings institutions and professional, scientific and technological services are not available at the moment. But based on the total investment stock, the combined amount of the three sectors should be 630 million dollars and accounted for more than half of China's total investment stock in the United States in the year. This explains why China's investment in the United States went up sharply in the year. In 2009, the decline of China's investment stock in the United States was mainly attributed to a 390-million-dollar drastic drop in its investment in the wholesale trade.

Table 2 Industrial Distribution of China's Direct Investment in United States based on US Statistics

(2007~2009, based on historical costs) (Unit: 1 million dollars)

		2007	2008	2009
All industries		762	1205	791
Manufacturing	Subtotal	-376	-246	-187
	Food	-2	（*）	-3
	Chemicals	-133	-12	-72
	Proto & synthetic metals	10	5	-9
	Machinery	-12	-25	-16
	Computer & electronic products	-21	85	79
	Electric equipment, home appliances & components	-3	9	34
	Transport equipment	-128	-164	-132
	Other manufacturing sectors	-87	-144	-67
Wholesale trade		668	873	486
Retail trade		1	-5	-14
Information		（*）	（D）	-4
Savings institutions		（D）	（D）	（D）
Finance (excluding savings institutions) & insurance		（D）	135	（D）
Real estate & leasing		2	2	2
Professional, scientific & technological services		65	（D）	87
Other industries		152	117	129

Note: D is hidden in order not to disclose the data about specific enterprises. * is lower than 500,000 dollars.

Source: US Bureau of Economic Analysis: http://www.bea.gov/.

2. Purposes and types of investment

Chinese enterprises have two main purposes when they invest in the United States, namely market and technology. The United States is China's largest export market. Most of the Chinese enterprises entering the United States first were trading enterprises. They were the branches or sales outlets established in the United States by large Chinese enterprises specializing in foreign trade and industrial trade, mainly to serve the export of Chinese products to the United States. In the new century, some enterprises began to purchase the brands and marketing channels of US enterprises in order to serve their own transformation and upgrading. For example, computer maker Lenovo purchased the personal computer business of the IBM, and the Qinchuan Machinery purchased the United American Industries, INC. Their purpose was to use the purchased brands and marketing and service networks to open the US market and even the global market. The United States has always been a country where the world's most competitive and dynamic enterprises concentrate. When a foreign enterprise gains a firm foothold in the United States, it often means the enterprise has possessed the capacity to conquer the world. For example, when Haier established plants in the United States, its strategic goal was to gain a foothold in the United States and then spread to other countries for international development.

The United States is one of the regions in the world, where innovation is the most active and technological force is the strongest. The country is a world leader in the fields of information, computer, chemical, bio-pharmacy, satellite and other technologies. As the United States has an institutional environment and personnel reserve for research, development and innovation, it has attracted Chinese enterprises to locate their research and development department there. For example, Lenovo established a research and development laboratory in the Silicon Valley in 1992 in order to acquire the latest technologies and information in the computer industry. Huawei purchased OptiMight and Cognigine respectively in 2002 and 2003 in order to boost its technological strength in the fields of optical transmission, switchboard and router core processor.

China has very limited resource-related investment in the United States. Only a few enterprises entered that country in form of capital operation, such as the CITIC's acquisition of the Delaware Scrap Steel Plant. China also has little cost-cutting investment in the United States. The Chinese enterprises investing in production activities often value US technologies and markets. After some enterprises purchased US enterprises, they transferred production activities back to China while keeping R&D and marketing departments there. For example, Wanxiang Group purchased the US Scheler Company in the beginning of this century and then transferred the production of all Scheler products to its factory in China, while using the Scheler brand to sell them in the United States.

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¹Similar to trade statistics, the Chinese and US statistics on mutual investment are also different. This research paper mainly uses the data of the host country to analyze their investment problems. In other words, US statistics are used for analyzing China's investment in the United States, and Chinese statistics are used for analyzing US investment in China.

¹OptiMight is an optical transmission company and Cognigine a network processor company.