An assessment of outward foreign direct investment from China's transitional economy

In response to the trend towards economic globalisation and regionalisation, along with the development of overseas markets, China's enterprises began to undertake aggressive overseas investment at such a rapid pace that it has already attracted widespread attention abroad; in 1995 the United Nations Economic and Trade Development Organisation listed China as one of the developing countries beginning to undertake overseas investment on a large scale. It remains an important scholarly task to assess the progress and performance of China's outward FDI. Thus the main purpose of this article is to explore and scrutinise the progress of China's outward FDI, with special attention to its motivation, its sector distribution, scale of operation and geographical distribution, its overall benefits and problems, and its future prospects. The article is organised as follows. First we explore the motivation behind Chinese outward FDI, next we examine the evolution of Chinese outward FDI, and then we analyse its sector distribution, scales of operation and geographical pattern. Finally, we appraise the overall benefits and major problems of Chinese FDI and conclude by summarising the article's major findings.