Trade frictions present valuable opportunity

The United States has launched a trade attack against China this year, and China has resolutely fought back. Some observers have said that one of the intentions behind the US move is to crack down on the foreign direct investment into China, in order to impede China's industry upgrading and squeeze China out of the global value chain.

Yet statistics show that China's introduction of foreign investment has not declined but instead increased since the breakout of frictions between China and the US. According to the Ministry of Commerce's statistics, China had 35,239 newly established foreign-invested enterprises nationwide from January to July this year, an increase of 99.1 percent year-on-year. During the same period, China's actual use of foreign capital was $76.07 billion, which saw a 5.5 percent increase year-on-year. In particular, the US investment in China increased 29.1 percent in the first half of 2018, which was higher than the average level.

According to the American Chamber of Commerce in China's Business Climate Survey Report 2018, about 60 percent of the enterprises interviewed regard China as one of their three major investment destinations, and about one-third of the enterprises interviewed planned to expand their investment in China by 10 percent or more. Likewise, the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China's Business Confidence Survey 2018 found that more than half of its members plan to expand their operation in China.