Foreign investment in China accelerated in July despite trade tensions with the United States, contradicting claims from US President Donald Trump of an exodus of investors.
As many as 3,919 new foreign-invested enterprises were incorporated last month, according to the calculations based on figures from the commerce ministry. Indeed, this is a notable trend among international companies, with many moving part of their production lines to other countries such as Mexico or Vietnam to avoid tariffs, but also rising costs in China.
Investment from Germany and South Korea increased by 72.4 per cent and 69.7 per cent respectively between January and July. It is just normal operations of enterprises [to pursue regions with lower cost], and [that is] in line with the objective laws of industrial developmentXin Guobin, vice-minister of Industry and Information Technology, said in July that Beijing was not surprised some foreign manufacturing companies had opted to relocate from China, but that there was only a limited number of firms who had left.