Data signals vote of confidence in China

Statistics from the Ministry of Commerce indicate that after rising for four consecutive months, China's actual use of foreign investment in July hit $9.5 billion, up 12.2 percent year-on-year.

This means that although its actual use of foreign investment in the first seven months of this year was 2.3 percent down year-on-year, the acute declining trend in the first quarter due to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus has not only been checked, it has been quickly reversed.

This is in line with the performance of China's trade and economy. In July, China's foreign trade reached $412.93 billion, up 3.4 percent year-on-year, proving its resilience and playing its part in global supply chains.

And the Chinese economy registered a robust rebound of 3.2 percent year-on-year in the second quarter, following a 6.8 percent decline in the previous quarter, making China the only major economy that has achieved a quick recovery amid the global pandemic and the associated uncertainties.

The other positive sign is that over the past 18 months the money spent by foreign investors on mergers and acquisitions in the Chinese mainland has reached the highest level in a decade.

These data testify that contrary to the pessimistic light some are trying to cast on it, the attraction of the Chinese market has not been dimmed by either the novel coronavirus or the political virus with which Washington is targeting China and trying to infect the world.

Even foreign direct investment from the United States has surged by 6 percent in the first half of this year, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

The inflow of foreign capital shows that businesses of the world, those of the US included, have cast a vote of confidence in China.

Like it or not, statistics in the financial sector also show a different picture from the one that the US is trying to paint with its attempts at decoupling.

So far this year, more than 20 Chinese companies have been listed in stock markets in the US, raising about $4 billion, surpassing the $3.5 billion that Chinese enterprises raised in all in their initial public offerings in the US last year.

At the same time, the US financial agencies, including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan, have increased their investment in their joint venture companies in China to deepen their engagement with the world's second-largest economy. The US-China Business Council's survey also shows most US companies doing business with and in China are positive about the prospects of the country.

That said, rather than being decoupled from the world as Washington desires, China is broadening and deepening its connections with it.