Manufacturing home and away

Despite its status as the world's largest source of FDI, the US' direct investment in China keeps declining

China received a total of $48.03 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) from January to May, an increase of 23.4 percent year-on-year. However, the investment from the United States was only $1.28 billion during the same period, a decline of 24.1 percent on the previous year.

The continuing decline of direct investment from the US, the world's largest FDI source, against the backdrop of China's sustainable and high-speed FDI growth, has caused speculation over the further decline of the US' manufacturing advantages over China, which replaced the US as the world's largest manufacturer in 2010.