China's Global Investments: Data and Transparency Challenges (CRS Report for Congress)
| Release Date |
Revised Aug. 9, 2024 |
| Report Number |
IF12035 |
| Report Type |
In Focus |
| Authors |
Andres B. Schwarzenberg |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
| Older Revisions |
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Summary:
During the past 20 years, the People’s Republic of China
(PRC or China) has significantly increased its investment
overseas. In 1999, China launched its “Go Global Strategy”
to support the expansion of Chinese firms abroad and make
them more globally competitive. Since then, these firms—
many of which are closely tied to the PRC government—
have acquired foreign assets and pledged billions of dollars
to finance infrastructure abroad. Many in Congress and the
Biden Administration are focusing on the critical
implications of China’s growing global economic reach for
U.S. economic and geopolitical strategic interests.
International analysts are divided on the nature of Chinese
activities. Some argue that these activities are primarily
commercial. Others contend that the surge in global
economic activity is largely directed and funded by the state
as part of a concerted effort to bolster China’s position as a
global power and support PRC industrial and foreign policy
objectives. A number of U.S. policymakers also have
grown concerned about the terms of China’s economic
engagements and how PRC overseas lending may create
unsustainable debt burdens for some countries. There is
also concern that the bulk of China’s lending supports
commercial projects that benefit the PRC state firms that
often implement them, sometimes to the disadvantage of
host-country businesses and workers.
Data limitations, combined with the number of unknown
variables that drive China’s foreign economic policy
decisionmaking processes, can affect how Members of
Congress perceive and address the challenges that China’s
overseas economic activities pose to U.S. and global
interests. These limitations and uncertainties also
complicate efforts to understand trends and assess the ways
in which China’s global economic reach may differ from
that of the United States.
