China established its sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corp almost five years ago with a mandate to earn high returns by more actively investing abroad the dollars gained from exports.
Now CIC is just one of several of Beijing’s investment arms that have increasing clout in the world. There are at least six such arms and all are putting ever more money outside China. That outflow will have implications for the prices of securities and assets worldwide, especially because China’s investment style is becoming less passive by the day. Yet the investment arms’ decision making is increasingly centralised and therefore less transparent than ever.
The money flowing out is rapidly becoming the country’s main export. “We are going from made in China to bought by China,” said Gerald Lyons, Standard Chartered’s chief economist.