Most European Investments in China Are From a Few Firms, Study Says

  • Top 10 investors made up about 80% of total FDI in 2018-2021
  • Some German firms are especially active, Rhodium report shows

Volkswagen AG electric vehicles at the automaker's factory, operated with local partner SAIC Motor Corp., in Shanghai, China.

Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg
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European investments in China have grown increasingly concentrated around a handful of large corporations, most of them German, according to a study by Rhodium Group.

From 2018 through 2021, the top 10 European companies investing in China made up nearly 80%, on average, of total investments from the continent, the report published Thursday showed. German businesses contributed more than two-fifths of the money pouring into the world’s second-largest economy from Europe.