中國大陸的累積協議海外投資，非貿易性質從一九七九年的零投資，增加到一九九五年的四0多億美元，成長率非常快;不過它佔全世界海外投資的比率非常低。大陸海外投資有一些特點:以固有企業為主，集中在加拿大、美國及澳大利亞等少數國家，採取合資經營，大陸掌握有控制權。海外投資有下列四個動機:(1)規避貿易障礙，開拓國外市場，(2)獲取國外先進技街，(3)開發資源和(4)得到外國資金。有些海外投資是國際政治的考量，以打壓台灣的外交。

Non-trade overseas investment by Mainland China's enterprises increased from zero in 1979 to more than four billion US dollar in 1995. While this growth is extremely rapid， it accounts for only a very small proportion of the world's overseas investment. There are unique features of mainland China's overseas investment including state-owned enterprises as the main investors; investment concentration in few countries such as Canada， the United States and Australia， and more than 50% ownership share in most joint venture cases. This overseas investment is inspired by four major reasons : (l)to avoid country quotas so as to increase their market share in industrial nations， (2) to obtain high technology， (3) to obtain natural resources， and (4) to get foreign financial resources. In some cases， however， mainland China's government sought to weaken Taiwan's foreign diplomatic relationships through its concession on favorable overseas investment.