Wary of investment risks

The Ministry of Commerce's latest esti-mates show that China's outbound direct investment reached 74.65 billion yuan ($11.8 billion) in 2011, a historical high. At the same time, it noted more than 27 percent of the enterprises that State-owned companies have set up overseas reported losses for that year.

That loss percentage was higher than the one recorded for all overseas Chinese enterprises, which stood at 22 percent. Such figures should be enough to give pause to any domestic company that is itching to try its luck on foreign soil.

The Chinese economy's rapid growth in recent years has greatly bolstered Chinese companies' finances. With such new-found strength, it's only natural that they would want to seize business opportunities they see overseas.