China’s Outward Foreign Direct Investment in ASEAN

Insufficient attention has been paid to the limits of the statistics informing work on Chinese outward foreign direct investment (FDI).  This chapter, the second in the book, exploits three major sources of data about Chinese outward FDI (OFDI) in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to illustrate major trends and patterns and periodically explains them.  Growing Chinese OFDI (COFDI) in recent years has been driven mainly by investments in ASEAN’s manufacturing and service sectors.  Second, it demonstrates that although most COFDI flowed to upper-middle to high-income ASEAN countries in recent years, it has accounted for a relatively small share of the former countries’ inward foreign investment.  In contrast, COFDI remains very important for lower-middle income ASEAN countries.  The chapter identifies numerous reasons for expecting future increases in COFDI in ASEAN and continued growth in manufacturing and service sector COFDI.  More information about the book can be found at https://www.routledge.com/The-Effects-of-Chinese-FDI-in-Southeast-Asia-Cheer-Commonsense-and-Clarification-Along-the-Belt-and-Road/Blanchard/p/book/9781041066002.