China H1 2026: New Foreign Firms Up 5.3%, FDI at 4021.4 Billion RMB, High-Tech Share 42.4%

From January to June 2026, China established 31,617 new foreign-invested enterprises, a year-on-year increase of 5.3%. Actual used foreign capital amounted to RMB 4021.4 billion, with the decline narrowing by 10.2 percentage points compared with the same period last year. Both May and June recorded positive year-on-year growth. As of the end of 2025, China's accumulated stock of foreign capital had approached $4 trillion. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development's World Investment Report, released in July, noted that amid a challenging global investment environment, China's FDI attraction has shown signs of stabilization.

In the first half, high-tech industries attracted foreign investment up 33.2%, accounting for 42.4% of total FDI, a record high. The modern services sector accounted for 57% of FDI. Electronic and communication equipment manufacturing grew 52%, scientific and technological achievement conversion services grew 57.1%, and research and development and design services grew 82%. Nearly 4,800 foreign enterprises made additional investments in China during the period. Veolia of France built a carbon capture plant in China; Singapore's RGE Group launched a high-end green fiber project in Jinan, Shandong; and BASF's integrated site in Guangdong is operating at full capacity.

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), foreign-invested enterprises achieved operating revenue of RMB 262.7 trillion and profits of RMB 21.4 trillion, with both indicators growing at an average annual rate of about 5%. Karcher Cleaning Technology (Changshu) Co. , Ltd. opened its third-phase factory in early 2026. As the 100-day countdown to the ninth China International Import Expo began, Bayer announced it would participate with its three divisions: prescription drugs (and imaging diagnostics), consumer health, and crop science.

In the second half of the year, the Ministry of Commerce will work to stabilize and improve the use of foreign capital, continue high-level opening-up, and steadily and prudently deepen pilot programs in value-added telecommunications, biotechnology, wholly foreign-owned hospitals, and vocational skills training institutions. It will support Beijing in raising the construction level of the national comprehensive service industry demonstration zone. The government will speed up the revision and issuance of regulations on mergers and acquisitions of domestic enterprises by foreign investors. It will continue to build the "Invest in China" brand. It will implement tax incentives for foreign investors to reinvest profits distributed in China, and introduce measures to support foreign enterprises in expanding local production. The government will optimize service guarantees, leverage the role of special working groups for key foreign-funded projects under commerce departments at all levels, ensure national treatment for foreign enterprises, and dismantle various hidden barriers. It will implement the catalog of encouraged industries for foreign investment to guide foreign capital into advanced manufacturing and modern services, and encourage more foreign investment in central, western, and northeastern regions. It will introduce measures to encourage foreign-invested service industries to transform towards integration and digital-intelligence, and promote the extension of producer services to specialization and high-end.