While Chinese regulators are trying to repatriate companies listed abroad, it seems that Chinese firms, tech-related in particular, are more willing to be expatriated.

In 2018, 102 companies successfully went public in the A-share market, which dropped sharply compared to 438 companies in 2017, based on the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC).

Data from the CSRC also indicated that the amount of financing was above 135 billion yuan (around 19.6 billion U.S. dollars), while the passing rate of Initial Public Offering (IPO) was less than 55 percent, the lowest level in four years.

The commission rejected 58 companies' requests up until mid-December. The regulator claimed that lack of sustainable profitability, operation regulations and accounting issues were the main obstacles. Meanwhile, the CSRC said that business model was an important factor, adding that it was hard to get IPO approvals for environmental-unfriendly businesses.

Li Yong, a senior fellow at the China Association of International Trade attributed the low passing rate into regulator's “prudence” in terms of reviewing the qualifications of those companies.

“But it is the year for the government to really think about the reform of policies. So I would like to call 2018 ‘the year of transition' and ‘a year of careful operation of total stock market.' there would be some kind of new reforms and new adjustments,” Li added.

The ongoing China-U.S. trade disputes have done little to scare off Chinese companies listing on American stock exchanges. 2018 is not far off from being a record year for Chinese IPOs, nearing the previous high of 39 U.S. listings in 2010.

The biggest Chinese company to go public stateside in 2018 was video streaming company iQiyi in March, followed by online group-buying platform Pinduoduo in July. And music streaming site Tencent Music made some noise with its December IPO. But they're just some of dozens of Chinese companies that have gone public in the U.S. in 2018.

“China has an export that very few people have sat up and noticed and that's their IPOs. China is leading the world in exporting its IPOs," said Daniel McClory, managing director of Boustead Securities.

And there are predictions that 2019 could be even stronger. McClory expected the numbers for 2019 would be also “incredible.”

"It's literally doubled year over year. And the pipeline for 2019 is also incredible. There are already 40 companies in that pipeline and we've got about 25 percent market share of that pipeline," McClory said positively.

A total of 38 tech companies debuted on the U.S. stock market in 2018. And together they raised over one billion U.S. dollars with their initial share prices.

The eight hottest China IPOs in the U.S. and Hong Kong stock exchanges were also mostly tech-related. 

Among those that went public in the first half of this year, the share price of online streaming and gaming company Bilibili jumped some 19 percent so far after a roller-coaster ride. And online broadcast platform HUYA surged 30 percent in share prices, but that was still down from its peak of 320 percent of the IPO share price in June. And in the second half, telecom infrastructure company China Tower, Pinduoduo and electric-car maker NIO all managed to keep a smile on investors' faces.

Moreover, Chinese tech companies might see more market potential in 2019, as a science and technology innovation board at the Shanghai Stock Exchange is probably on the way.

Chinese President Xi Jinping elaborated three decisions on the development of Shanghai during his keynote speech at the China International Import Expo on November 5, one of which is the introduction of a science and technology innovation board at the Shanghai Stock Exchange. The annual central economic work conference that concluded last week also mentioned the new board again.

“I think [a science and technology innovation board] will be one of the experiments next year, because we really need to find the way of direct financing for those high tech companies, especially for those high tech startups,” Li said.