China's foreign direct investment by country
China's outward foreign direct investment by country: the distribution based on fDi Markets data.
I wrote this article on 18 September 2024.
China’s foreign direct investment by country.
According to a chart from fDi Markets (fDi Markets holds the most complete database on foreign direct investment in world markets), in 2023 China invested mainly in Saudi Arabia (more than $15 billion), Malaysia (more than $12 billion), Vietnam (around $12 billion), Egypt (more than $9 billion), Morocco (more than $9 billion), Kazakhstan (almost $9 billion), fast-growing Indonesia (almost $9 billion), Argentina ($8.5 billion), Serbia (more than $6 billion) and Mexico ($6 billion). Another thing that follows from this chart is that Russia is not among the top countries China invests in, even though Russia and China have deep strategic relations and increased their trade turnover to $240 billion in 2023. Not even the geopolitical challenges and tensions emanating from the Western bloc affect this. China simply sells its goods to Russia, investing little in that country’s economy.
China understands that the geopolitical alliance that has formed between the two countries rests on a medium-term horizon, that it is unsure the alliance will hold, or that it does not want to bind itself with obligations to Russia. Chinese business understands this very well. The Chinese always understand everything very well! The flows of Chinese money show it! There was once a strong alliance between China and the USSR, but then China broke away from it, drifting towards the Western bloc. Today China earns well from the standoff between Russia and the West, but later Russia will earn well from the standoff between the United States and China. Russia understands this too, which is why it has still not concluded a military alliance with China.
If Trump and the forces he represents come to power after the US election in November this year, he will focus on confronting China for the growing markets of Southeast Asia, which is almost 1 billion people with a growing economy and high purchasing incomes. London has its own geopolitical game! American geopolitical primacy will depend on the outcome of that confrontation! Although the forces opposed to Trump will do everything to disrupt the US election. The situation will most likely heat up in the second half of October before the US election. If the election goes Trump’s way, he will most likely seek to freeze the Ukrainian conflict and reach an agreement with Putin on Ukraine. This is my subjective opinion! At this stage it does not suit the United States to wage several large regional conflicts against the strongest large countries in Eurasia.
If you look carefully at history, the United States has always found common ground with Russia in difficult geopolitical periods. The war with England for American independence, the American Civil War of 1861–1865, the First and Second World Wars, and so on, when Russia and the United States jointly confronted global challenges. After the Second World War the United States and the USSR destroyed the old, vast British Empire. Both the United States and the USSR benefited from the break-up of the British Empire. There was no agreement between the United States and the USSR on this; they simply acted, each in its own way, in their own national interests. The British Empire was later restored in a somewhat different form, of course.
As I noted earlier, Putin is very pragmatic, since he has still not concluded a military alliance with China. He is therefore free in his actions with regard to a future confrontation between the United States and China! This does not mean that he will not support China in the event of a conflict in Southeast Asia; on the contrary, he will increase trade with China and supply the resources it needs, earning and strengthening the country through that conflict. Nor does it mean that the United States and China (both nuclear powers) will wage war directly. This war will most likely consist of numerous local conflicts and hybrid wars waged by third countries for dominance in Southeast Asia. With that I finish the topic “China’s foreign direct investment by country”. Much will depend on the outcome of the US election.