China has overtaken the U.S. to attract foreign direct investment, becoming the absolute leader on this indicator. This writes The Wall Street Journal with reference to the report of the UN Conference on Trade and Development. China’s economy turned out to be more attractive for investors than the U.S. economy.
In 2020, foreign direct investment in the PRC economy increased by four percent (to $163 billion), while in the U.S. it plummeted by 49 percent (to $134 billion). Many companies expanded their presence in China (e.g., the sportswear brand Adidas and U.S. electronic control systems maker Honeywell International).
Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, intends to invest $460 million in Wuhan over the next five years, and Tesla is expanding its production in Shanghai. East Asia attracted one-third of all foreign investment, which was its best performance in the history of observation (that is, since the 1980s). At the same time, the European Union showed a drop of 71 percent, and Russia — 96 percent (from 32 to 1.1 billion dollars).
Earlier it became known that in spite of the coronavirus pandemic, the fortune of the 400 richest Chinese increased by $820 billion (64 percent), and Americans — 240 billion. As a result, the total capital of China’s wealthiest residents became equal to 2.11 trillion dollars. China could soon overtake the U.S. and become the top country in the number of billionaires, Forbes said.
