Balancing Openness with Security: Advanced Economy Responses to Chinese Investments

Osama Iqbal

The rise of China and the recent surge in Chinese foreign direct investment (CFDI) in advanced industrialized economies has become increasingly salient during the last decade. One common feature of the political response to rising Chinese investments has been the introduction and tightening of national investment screening mechanisms (ISMs). Despite this overarching common feature of investment screening, the management of incoming Chinese capital varies across countries. From strict screening of Chinese FDI in the United States to relative openness in the UK, and from relative restriction in Germany to an open attitude in Sweden, meaningful variation in the reception of CFDI can be observed. This project intends to investigate the reasons for said differences in the reception of Chinese investments.