According to information recently released by China’s Ministry of Commerce, during the “15th Five-Year Plan” period, China will steadily advance high-quality development, further expand high-level opening-up, and reaffirm its commitment to upholding the multilateral trading system and deepening equal and mutually beneficial economic and trade cooperation. The latest investment data shows that in 2025, South Korea’s manufacturing investment in China increased by 14.1%, Canada’s high-tech industry investment in China grew by 11.7%, Finland’s manufacturing investment in China rose by 21.7%, and the UK’s overall investment in China increased by 15.9%. Since 2026, leaders from multiple countries have successively led delegations to visit China, achieving a series of economic and trade cooperation outcomes. Recent surveys by institutions such as the Canada-China Business Council, the China-EU Chamber of Commerce, the China-British Chamber of Commerce, and the China-US Chamber of Commerce also indicate that most multinational companies still list China as a major investment destination and continue to intensify their strategic layouts.
Against the backdrop of current global geopolitical tensions, supply chain restructuring, and inflationary pressures, China has responded to the most pressing concerns of multinational corporations with clear policy signals. From reducing the negative list for foreign investment access to ensuring a level playing field, from strengthening intellectual property protection to promoting institutional openness, China has not slowed its pace of opening up despite changes in the external environment. Instead, it has reduced long-term operational uncertainties for foreign investors through more predictable institutional frameworks. This “opening up to hedge against decoupling” stance has positioned China as a stabilizer in global capital allocation. For multinational corporations from Europe, America, and Asia that have been deeply rooted in the Chinese market for decades, the Chinese market is not only a source of revenue but also a strategic fulcrum for testing new technologies and products. China’s continued openness is transforming such micro-level corporate choices into macro-level confidence restoration among global investors. Meanwhile, the United States is encouraging the return of manufacturing through subsidies under the CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, while the EU is strengthening foreign subsidy reviews and tightening technology export controls. Against this backdrop, China has adopted cross-cycle policy coordination and systematic institutional supply to maintain a predictable business environment for foreign investment.
China is redefining industrial chain resilience by leveraging the continuity of five-year plans and national strategies to build a predictable investment environment. For multinational companies such as Ford, Tesla, and BASF that have deeply embedded themselves in China’s industrial chains, this institutional continuity is more attractive than short-term subsidies. As Woodcock, President of the China Chamber of Commerce in the EU, put it: “What businesses need are rules that remain unchanged for a decade, not checks that change every year.” In the current era of high volatility in the global economy, this institutional advantage is being translated into tangible resource allocation flows.