Foreign Investment Flourishes in China: Certainty and Opportunities Attract Global Enterprises
Foreign investment is a vital driving force for China’s economic and social development. When discussing a region’s appeal to foreign investors, two factors are frequently mentioned: industrial chain and government services. The perfection of the industrial chain determines enterprises’ operational efficiency, while the quality of government services directly affects their ability to seize market opportunities. In the first two months of this year, 8,631 new foreign-invested enterprises were established nationwide, a year-on-year increase of 14%, a testimony to China’s increasingly improved foreign investment ecosystem.
In the Shanghai Hongqiao International Central Business District, Wu Yongqiao, a China-region executive of a German Fortune 500 enterprise focusing on automotive intelligent driving control, is conducting road tests with his colleagues. The German company, which established its first factory in China in the 1990s, has continuously increased investment and expanded production. In recent years, with the rise of China’s electric vehicle and intelligent connected vehicle industry, China has gradually become an innovation hub for this established Fortune 500 firm.
In 2025, the company announced ambitiously that it would invest 10 billion yuan in Suzhou over five years in the R&D of new technologies and products such as intelligent driving and intelligent cockpits. “China has become the country with the largest number of employees outside Germany for us,” Wu noted. Currently, intelligent driving control has become the company’s fastest-growing business in China, with sales growing at a rate of about 30% over the past four years. At the China Development Forum, Stefan Hartung, Chairman of the company’s Group Executive Board, stated publicly that the company has invested a total of about 60 billion yuan in China over the past decade and remains optimistic about the Chinese market in the first year of the 15th Five-Year Plan.
While long-term partners deepen their roots in China, the open Chinese market continues to welcome new friends. According to official data, 70,392 new foreign-invested enterprises were established in China in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 19.1%. The National Development and Reform Commission has launched a new batch of 13 landmark major foreign-invested projects, with a planned investment of 13.4 billion US dollars, distributed in Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Guangdong and other regions.
Anhui Province stands out with remarkable achievements in attracting foreign investment. In 2025, its actual use of foreign direct investment (FDI) reached 15.33 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 23.9%, ranking first in the country in growth rate and first in central and western China in total volume. Sam’s Club, a US-based chain retail enterprise under Walmart, settled in Hefei in April 2025 and has achieved sales performance far exceeding expectations within less than a year. According to Sina Finance, the retailer opened 10 new stores in China in 2025, a record high since its entry into the Chinese market, with annual sales reaching 140 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of nearly 40% compared with 2024, and plans to open another 8 to 10 stores in 2026.
In Dangtu County, Maanshan, Anhui, OATLY’s only production base in the Asia-Pacific region is bustling with activity. With an annual output of 150 million liters of oat milk, the base’s products have entered the supply chains of many coffee brands and supermarkets. Since entering the Chinese market in 2018, the Swedish food and beverage company has seen its annual revenue grow by more than 400% at one point, with sales reaching nearly 2 million US dollars in the first year. The company experienced the efficiency of foreign service in central China’s counties, completing agreement signing, registration and land approval within a month, realizing planning, construction and production in the same year.
At the 2026 China Development Forum, attended by 86 official representatives from transnational enterprises in 21 countries, participants agreed that China’s certainty is particularly valuable amid sluggish global economic growth and rising trade protectionism. According to People’s Network, “Investing in China is investing in certainty” has become a consensus among global investors. China now attracts foreign investment not merely through policy preferences, but through a competitive investment ecosystem built on a complete industrial chain, efficient government services, the dividend of a super-large market and rich innovative application scenarios. “Walking with China is walking with opportunities” has become a guiding principle for transnational enterprises in their global layout.
From German automotive innovation to US retail expansion and Swedish food production, global enterprises are voting with their investment for China’s development prospects. Their continuous presence and growth in China not only inject strong vitality into the Chinese economy but also witness the mutual benefit and win-win results between China and the world.
