China sets up new bureau for overseas State assets

China's top State assets regulator has set up a new bureau to more effectively monitor and regulate the overseas assets and operations of State-owned enterprises, highlighting the country's efforts to enhance capital returns and strengthen risk management amid rising geopolitical uncertainties.

The bureau will guide SOEs in international operations, including optimizing overseas asset allocation and restructuring portfolios, while strengthening risk control in outbound investment and managing emergencies abroad, according to the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council.

Experts said the move will improve allocation of resources by SOEs in overseas markets and strengthen their ability to manage risks in the face of geopolitical tensions, rising protectionism, currency volatility and stricter compliance requirements.

Ding Rijia, a professor specializing in SOE reforms at the China University of Mining and Technology-Beijing, said the establishment of the bureau indicates a practical shift in China's approach to safeguarding the security of State-owned assets overseas amid a changing global landscape.

As China shifts the focus of its outbound investment expansion from scale to quality, the new bureau is expected to promote stronger strategic coordination and more efficient resource allocation, and to curb indiscriminate and redundant investment, said Ding.

The bureau has been established as China's outbound investment continues to grow. The country's total outbound direct investment across all sectors reached 1.25 trillion yuan ($182.4 billion) in 2025, an increase of 7.4 percent year-on-year, statistics from the Ministry of Commerce showed.

In 2025, nonfinancial direct investment by Chinese companies in countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative reached 283.36 billion yuan, up 18 percent year-on-year, with centrally administered SOEs focusing on sectors such as infrastructure connectivity, energy and telecommunications, according to information released by the ministry and the commission.

Zhou Lisha, a researcher at Tsinghua University's Institute for State-owned Enterprises, said that as global industrial and supply chains undergo a profound restructuring amid intensifying competition for key resources, core technologies and strategic routes, overseas expansion by SOEs should no longer focus solely on market access or resource acquisition.

Instead, SOEs should strengthen supply chain security, overcome technological bottlenecks and safeguard energy and resource security to serve a broader national strategy, she added.

By the end of 2025, the total assets of China's centrally administered SOEs had exceeded 95 trillion yuan, with a growing proportion held overseas, data from the commission showed.

Liu Xiangdong, a researcher at the China Center for International Economic Exchanges in Beijing, said: "These reforms reflect an evolution in regulatory thinking from managing assets to managing capital and, increasingly, managing risks."

While the focus was previously on expanding asset scale and improving capital returns, it has now shifted toward strengthening systemic risk control. This transition aligns with global regulatory trends and China's push for high-quality growth, he added.