Foreign investment in Chinese manufacturing continues to grow

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One of the major goals of American President Donald Trump's trade war is to reduce the trade deficit with China and force more manufacturing factories back to the U.S. Yet the statistics of foreign investment in China's manufacturing industry appear to tell a different story.

Figures show that foreign investment in manufacturing increased by 11.4 percent for the first four months of 2019 over the same period last year. The actual use of foreign capital reached 305.24 billion yuan, a rise of 6.4 percent year-on-year.

International company executives cited the huge domestic market, lower operation costs, an abundant labor force, and the fact that they have been doing business successfully in China over decades as the reasons why they would expand investment in China despite the dip in global investments since 2017.

Foreign companies recognize China's prospects

"China is the largest single market in the world," said Li Hao, the executive vice-president of the British car maker Jaguar Land Rover's Chinese company.

"The reason why we bring the newest and most advanced technology to China is that we value the Chinese market and believe the Chinese market holds great prospects," Li told China National Radio at Expo Central China 2019.

"We have entered the Chinese market for over 30 years now, we've made huge profits in here, and we will continue to expand and improve our business in here," said Wang Ping, director at Schneider Electric China at the expo.

Ninety-seven Top 500 overseas companies and multinational enterprises attended the expo and signed deals worth 170.4 billion yuan to invest in China's Jiangxi Province.

“Qualcomm will continue to dig deep in the Chinese market. The central part of China has the advantages of abundant labor, cheaper land and logistics; we will invest more in the region," said Zhao Bin, the global senior vice president at Qualcomm.

"Our business model will shift from export-oriented to meet the huge domestic demands in China," Zhao said.

Global investment dropped 13 percent around the world last year, according to a report by the United Nations in January. However, foreign investment in China increased by 3 percent, and America's actual investment in China increased by 7.7 percent last year, according to statistics from China's ministry of commerce.

"The statistics show that China's economic prospects and investment environment are recognized by international capital," said Yuan Gaoqiang, deputy director at China Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment.