China Versus the US in the Evolution of the International Investment Regime in Asia-Pacific. Beyond the TPP

China stood aside from the global flow of Foreign investments, as well as from the international standards to regulate it, all throughout its socialist regime. However, after its reform of the economic model and international policy in the 1980's, this changed. China is currently a strategic actor in relation to international investment and is creating an alternate legal model by way of multilateral instruments in the Asia-Pacific region. This model differs from the prevailing regime designed and sophisticated by the United States which mostly benefits its own transnational companies with little consideration for the less developed countries where the transnationals are installed. However, due to the United States withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership Treaty, China currently has an excellent situation to expand its investments in the Asia-Pacific region and advance its international regulation model for foreign investment, either through the Association of Southeast-Asian Nations or the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum.