Main content

China’s global spending spree

How China’s state banks are fuelling overseas investments and purchases  into sensitive key technologies on a scale previously unknown - and how that’s boosting Beijing’s power.

China has been on a giant global shopping spree. Since 2000, Chinese state banks have fueled investments and acquisitions at a surprising rate- some four times what was previously thought. Brand new data, shared exclusively with the Âé¶¹Éç, reveals that many of Beijing’s state-backed spending has targeted rich countries. Such deals are strictly legal, though not always easy to trace. Observers in the United States, Europe and elsewhere are alarmed at the potential for Beijing to dominate key technologies and turbo charge its technological might.

Celia Hatton investigates the sometimes murky ways in which Chinese state money can be traced to sensitive industrial sectors. But she also discovers that shutting out Chinese influence is not easy or, in some cases, desirable.

Producer: Mike Gallagher

Available now

27 minutes

Last on

Sun 23 Nov 2025 22:32GMT

Broadcasts

  • Thu 20 Nov 2025 02:32GMT
  • Thu 20 Nov 2025 09:32GMT
  • Thu 20 Nov 2025 20:06GMT
  • Thu 20 Nov 2025 21:06GMT
  • Sat 22 Nov 2025 12:32GMT
  • Sun 23 Nov 2025 00:32GMT
  • Sun 23 Nov 2025 05:32GMT
  • Sun 23 Nov 2025 14:06GMT
  • Sun 23 Nov 2025 22:32GMT