Shenzhen Photo: VCG

China's actual use of foreign capital rose 21.5 percent year-on-year to $123.9 billion in the first seven months of this year, with investments from South Korea, the US and Japan seeing the fastest growths, according to China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) on Thursday.

South Korea topped the list with investment growth of 44.5 percent in the period, followed by 36.3 percent for the US, 26.9 percent for Japan, and 23.5 percent for Germany, MOFCOM spokesperson Shu Jueting said during an online press conference.

China has developed advantages in attracting foreign capital, including an improved legal environment that offers legal protection for foreign businesses, widened market access and a better business climate, Bai Ming, deputy director of the International Market Research Institute at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation under the MOFCOM, told the Global Times on Thursday.

Moreover, with economic stabilizing policies being rolled out and taking effect, the prospects of the Chinese market are highly attractive to foreign investors amid a gloomy global environment, Bai said.

South Korea, for instance, ships half of its semiconductor exports to China. By piling pressure on Seoul to join the so-called "Chip 4" alliance, which has been viewed as an attempt to exclude China from the global microchip value chain, the US has put South Korea into a dilemma, given that the East Asian country cannot afford to lose the Chinese market, Bai noted.

US companies have also shown no intention to roll back investment in the Chinese market, in spite of Washington's years-long decoupling push against China, especially in the technological and financial sectors. 

In fact, China's high-tech sector is one that foreign investors would not want to let slip away.

According to MOFCOM data, foreign investment in China's high-tech industries increased 32.1 percent in the first seven months, including 33 percent in high-tech manufacturing and 31.8 percent in high-tech services.

The US' technology blockade cannot halt China's development, but will instead speed up the independent growth of the nation's domestic technology industry, while companies from the US and its allies will bear the losses, if they side with the US' geopolitical push, experts said.