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Chinese companies significantly increased investments in Singapore last year as businesses used the city-state as a staging post to propel their global expansion.
Slower domestic growth has forced many Chinese companies to look abroad, so they have set up international headquarters in Singapore to take advantage of its position as a global financial hub and mitigate geopolitical risks.
The rise of businesses relocating to the city-state to avoid scrutiny often directed at China-based entities has become so prevalent in recent years that it has been labelled “Singapore-washing”.
China accounted for just over half of Singapore’s total business expenditure in 2025, up from 15 per cent a year earlier, according to figures released by Singapore’s Economic Development Board on Monday.
“Many Chinese companies are seeking to expand internationally in response to slower growth domestically,” said EDB chair Png Cheong Boon. “Over the past few years, China-headquartered companies from a range of sectors have expanded their footprint here.”
Last year, China overtook the US as the largest source of fixed asset investment in Singapore, accounting for 20.6 per cent of commitments compared with 17.3 per cent from American businesses. In 2024, the US accounted for 55.5 per cent, while China was responsible for just 2.5 per cent.
Chinese companies that have set up sizeable operations in Singapore in recent years include TikTok owner ByteDance, which has hired thousands of workers in the city-state; pharmaceuticals group WuXi Biologics, which is building a $1.4bn research and development hub; and Shenzhen-based Hai Robotics.
Last month, Chinese animal feed and breeding company Haid Group opened a research and development facility in Singapore.
However, while Singapore offers the opportunity for Chinese companies to grow outside the mainland, some have found it hard to escape Beijing’s influence.
Fast-fashion retailer Shein, which relocated its headquarters and key management to Singapore in 2022, was not given clearance by Chinese regulators to list in New York or London.
Last year, Shein filed a draft prospectus with Hong Kong’s stock exchange for a listing.
Meanwhile, AI start-up Manus — which moved to Singapore last year — is under review in China over potential technology export-control violations after Meta agreed to buy the business for $2bn in December.
The Manus probe was in response to concerns within China’s leadership that the country was allowing too many of its best young tech companies to be sold to Western businesses.
Manus’s abrupt exodus to Singapore took place after it received major investment from US venture capital firm Benchmark, drawing criticism in China, where media outlets described the staff as “defectors”.
Png said that despite the surge in Chinese investment last year, Singapore continued to receive strong interest from US and European companies to act as a base for their expansion into Asia.
“We have a good track record of hosting multinational companies from the US, Europe, Japan, India, south-east Asian countries and China,” he said. “We continue to look towards the US and Europe to be key sources of investment commitments in terms of stock and flow.”
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