US-China investments plunge to lowest level in nearly a decade

A new report by Rhodium Group shows that investment between the United States and China in the first half of the year tumbled to an estimated $10.9 billion, from $26 billion at its 2016 peak.

According to research conducted together with the non-profit National Committee on US-China Relations, a single purchase accounted for the lion’s share of the $4.7 billion directly invested by Chinese companies into the US. That’s when tech giant Tencent paid $3.4 billion in March for a minority stake in Universal Music Group.

The authors of the report noted that the fall-off was due to the increasingly restrictive policies the Trump administration adopted toward Chinese investment, particularly in the tech industry.

Statistics show that direct investment by US companies in China dropped to $4.1 billion during the first six months this year as well. US venture capital investment in China also plummeted notably to $1.3 billion amid a broader slowing of tech deals and the fallout from the pandemic.

Despite all that and Trump’s intentions to “decouple” the two countries economically, American and Chinese companies continue to be committed to each other’s markets.

According to an annual survey released last week by the China General Chamber of Commerce, as many as 90 percent of more than 1,000 Chinese executives operating in the US said they expected their investments in the US would either remain the same or grow over the next year.

Similarly, just four percent of about 1,400 US companies in China said they were planning to move any production out of the country.

The majority of US companies “are in China for China,” said Jake Parker of the US-China Business Council as quoted by the South China Morning Post. “They’re there to access the Chinese domestic consumers. They’re not really using China’s export platform to the United States.”

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