All That Chinese Investment

Aart De Geus chaired the discussion on the significance of Chinese foreign direct investment following a presentation of the report’s key findings by Bertelsmann Foundation Senior Project Manager Ting Xu and an overview of Chinese investors’ experience in the EU and US by Dr. Wang Tianlong. Xu and Wang are the report’s co-authors.
Five distinguished panelists from the EU, US and China debated recent trends in and the political and economic challenges of Chinese foreign direct investment. The speakers were: Aaron S. Brickman, deputy executive director of SelectUSA, US Department of Commerce; Xue Lan, dean of the School of Public Policy, Tsinghua University; Mauro Petriccione, director for Asia and Latin America, DG Trade, European Commission; Huiyao Wang, director general, Center for China and Globalization; and Guntram Wolff, deputy director, Bruegel.
The Chinese speakers urged that Beijing’s state-owned enterprises be treated as the for-profit private firms that they are, not the extension of the government that foreigners often perceive them to be. Their American and European counterparts spoke of the reasons behind the regulation of foreign direct investment and acknowledged that these rules have presented challenges for some Chinese investors. Mr. Petriccione noted another imbalance, this one for European investors. He claimed the absence of EU-wide regulation for foreign investors allows Chinese businessmen to be treated like domestic investors, although such treatment is not accorded foreigners investing in China. He said this was a great concern for European policymakers.