U.S.-China two-way FDI reaches all-time high in 2016

WASHINGTON–Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) between the United States and China surpassed 60 billion U.S. dollars in 2016, a historic high, said a report jointly released by the Rhodium Group and the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations on Wednesday.

“The Foreign Direct Investment between China and the United States has become an increasingly important channel of bilateral economic interaction in the past five years,” the report said.

“U.S.-China two-way FDI reached an all-time high in 2016, elevating the importance of this facet of the bilateral economic relationship,” it added.

“What used to be a one-way street –with money flowing predominantly from the United States to China –is now a two-way highway with tens of billions of dollars in annual FDI flowing in each direction,” it said.

According to the report, the cumulative value of U.S. FDI transactions in China reached over 240 billion dollars by the end of 2016, while the cumulative Chinese FDI in the United States totaled 110 billion dollars by the end of last year.

With the Chinese economy growing robustly, Chinese investment in the United States has expanded at a record pace. In 2016, Chinese companies invested a record 46 billion dollars in the United States, triple the amount seen in 2015 and a tenfold increase compared to just five years ago, the report said.