From relentless COVID lockdowns to allegations of high-profile human rights scandals, Western companies have had good reasons to abandon China in recent times. American companies in particular are under pressure not to put business China's way, with the Biden administration imposing export controls on various technologies. But did you know that plenty of big names are bucking the trend?

With foreign investment in China almost 5% year-on-year in the first three months of 2023 alone, read on to discover the major Western brands buying into the People's Republic right now. All dollar amounts in US dollars.

And Kia isn't the only carmaker ramping up its Chinese investment. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been described as having a love affair with the People's Republic, praising its "economic prosperity" on the Communist Party's centenary. Since investing $2 billion (£1.7bn) to build the Tesla gigafactory in Shanghai, completed in 2019, Musk has launched the company's insurance broker in China and joined a lawsuit with 3,500 other US businesses suing the American government for imposing tariffs on Chinese goods. And he hasn't stopped there.

On 31 December 2021, Tesla opened a showroom in Xinjiang, a controversial region linked to allegations of slave labour and genocide. Musk's actions have sparked fierce criticism, but his Chinese investment seems to be paying off. In August 2022, Musk announced on Twitter that the company had manufactured its one millionth car in the country.

Sources revealed last year that production at a Tesla factory in Shanghai would be kept at 93% capacity for the remainder of 2022, despite initially upgrading its weekly output by 30%. It's likely that persistent COVID-19 lockdowns played a part – but the latest data suggests the situation has improved. Between January and mid-March this year, Tesla sold more than 1,300 cars per day on average in China, making the period one of its strongest quarters in the country so far, and the company hit another record when sales jumped almost 20% this June.

In 1978, Coca-Cola became the first foreign business allowed back into the People's Republic as Chinese-American tensions began to relax. Forty-five years on, the Coca-Cola Company is apparently sticking with China no matter what. "We are here for the long term," said Curt Ferguson, president of Coca-Cola Greater China and Korea, back in March 2020. "We’re here to invest. We’re here to build it."

The Atlanta-headquartered firm, which sells around 140 million servings in China every year, put its money where its mouth is back in August 2020 when it pumped $75.3 million (£55.6m) into new production lines and a factory in the country. And the investment shows no signs of slowing down. In 2022, Coca-Cola launched 20 new products in China, according to ChinaDaily, and it expects its revenue to increase by up to 8% this year.

Like Tesla, Coca-Cola was also one of 3,500 companies that took legal action against the US government's tariffs on China in October 2020. 

Coca-Cola's arch-rival is going all out to expand in China too. PepsiCo has been operating in the country for 40 years and strengthened its position in March 2020 by spending $705 million (£548m) to acquire Be & Cheery, one of China's leading online snack companies that sells products such as dried fruit and nuts.

PepsiCo's subsidiary Lay's, the potato chip brand, also proved popular when it came to China in the 1990s. This was partly thanks to the success of newly introduced local flavours such as "cucumber" and "hot and sour fish soup". 

McDonald's is the largest fast food chain on the planet but lags behind KFC in China, which boasts an 11.6% market share to McDonald's 5.6%, according to The Drum.

As part of its drive to become carbon neutral by 2050 while increasing its profitability in the People's Republic, the global giant set a goal of opening 1,800 zero-carbon outlets throughout the country in 2022, all of which would be powered by solar panels and would offer incentives such as free food for people who arrive by bicycle or foot.

According to CNN, the brand currently has around 4,500 locations in mainland China and Hong Kong so far – and they've reportedly been so successful that the brand now plans to open a record 900+ restaurants by the end of this year. That equates to a new Chinese restaurant every 10 hours!

After moving production of its Surface line of notebooks and desktop PCs from the US to China in 2017, reports later suggested that Microsoft was planning to move production to north Vietnam in 2020. But although Vietnam is home to the company's mobile devices manufacturing business, Microsoft is far from turning its back on the People's Republic just yet.

In fact, Microsoft confirmed in September 2022 that it will expand its Chinese workforce by 1,000 employees, bringing its total number to 10,000. It also plans to upgrade its campuses in Beijing, Shanghai, and Suzhou over the next few years.

US wholesale chain Costco is also in the midst of major expansion in China. The warehouse club retailer, headquartered in Washington state, opened its first Chinese outlet in 2019, and the Shanghai store – which was so popular that people queued for three hours to get a parking space during the opening weekend – has been successful ever since.

In July 2021, Costco announced plans to open seven more stores around Guangdong, Shanghai, Suzhou, and Zhejiang, though the company didn't open its third location until March this year. As well as the new store in Pudong, near the Shanghai Disney Resort, Costco reportedly expects to open an additional two stores before the end of this financial year.

China is on track to become the largest grocery market in the world this year and Walmart is keen to cash in. In 2019, the Arkansas-based retail giant, which already had around 400 stores across 170 Chinese cities, unveiled plans to build 500 new stores in China by 2024-26. Walmart is well placed to grow in the nation, thanks in part to its partnership with Chinese e-commerce company JD.com.

But although it was the second most successful business in China's hypermarket industry in 2011, Walmart slipped to fourth place in 2021, mainly due to competition from Chinese companies such as Alibaba. 

Recent Chinese lockdowns have also proved an operational challenge for the chain. Back in May 2022, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said the company's "biggest international pressure point [was] related to the COVID lockdowns in China, which created operational and financial pressure". But with the country's zero COVID policy now discarded, the retail monolith's future in China seems bright. 

Danish toy brand LEGO is available in stores in around 130 countries around the world. Although it's long been popular in Europe and the US, LEGO sales in China have historically lagged. But all that could be changing.

Back in 2020, the company cited growing Chinese demand as a key driver of rising consumer sales, which jumped by 21% that year. It's since been expanding the number of stores in the country, adding 300 by the end of 2021 and a further 46 in the first six months of 2022. This means that roughly two-thirds of its new stores in 2022 were built in the People's Republic – and it's not stopping there. By the end of this year, LEGO plans to have opened an additional 80 stores in China. 

Almost a quarter of German companies operating in China were planning to relocate production from the country in 2019, according to a report by the German Chamber of Commerce in China. Adidas was no exception. The sports company has halved its Chinese manufacturing since 2010, with much of the production moving to Vietnam, and pledged in July 2020 to cut all ties with suppliers implicated in a report that uncovered forced labour being used in some factories. But it seems to have made a U-turn since.

An article in Reuters has revealed that Adidas has "launched an action plan to try to revive its fortunes in China", which includes setting up a Chinese marketing studio and a new product line for Chinese customers. In November 2022, it also signed a three-year partnership with the Chinese Literature and Art Foundation to mark the company's 25th anniversary in the People's Republic. As part of the collaboration, Adidas and the Foundation will create documentaries about young Chinese athletes, according to China Daily.

This seems to be part of a national trend. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce has recently revealed German investment in the country grew by almost 61% in the first quarter of 2023 compared to last year.

Another German compay, supermarket chain ALDI currently operates more than 10,000 stores across 10 countries. One of the latest additions to its chain is the ALDI Luoxiu MIX Store, which opened in Shanghai in August 2022. The company's fourth store in the Xuhui District and 27th in China overall, the new store celebrated its launch by offering discounts on local staples such as rice, flour, and oil.

ALDI started investing in its Chinese expansion back in 2019 and has been growing rapidly since then. By July 2021, it had already opened 16 stores in the country and has since announced plans to open "hundreds" more in Shanghai and other major cities. 

Yet another European company expanding in China, French food conglomerate Danone has launched a range of nutritional drinks on Alibaba's Tmall platform and Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok. The probiotics powder drinks are the latest additions to Danone's Chinese product line, which also includes infant formula, rice powder, and goat's milk.

Back in March 2022, Danone "reached a strategic cooperation" with formula company Eurbest Nutritional Food, which is based in Hunan Province, and later stated that "China remains highly strategic for Danone".

LA's Beyond Meat sees China as a huge untapped market for its plant-based burgers, sausages, and other products. In September 2020, the business announced that it had closed a deal with the Jiaxing Economic & Technological Development Zone to open two new production facilities near Shanghai.

Beyond Meat secured its presence in the People’s Republic when it launched on e-commerce giant JD.com in July 2021 and has also made its way onto fast food menus across China, thanks to partnerships with businesses such as KFC China and Starbucks. Most recently, the company launched a range of pork-style patties on Alibaba's e-commerce platform Tmall in July 2022. 

European companies are arguably under less pressure than their US counterparts to withdraw from China. Swiss company Nestlé, the world's largest food company, is clearly eager to expand in the People's Republic. In May 2020, the business announced that it was investing over $103 million (£75.9m) to strengthen its operations in the country. This included opening a plant-based products facility in the north-eastern city of Tianjin.

Nestlé also launched its plant-based brand Harvest Gourmet in China in December 2020, which sells meatless burgers and sausages, as well as local dishes such as kung pao chicken. And it hasn't stopped there. In July 2022 the conglomerate launched China's first carbon-neutral toddler formula, a product called Organic NAN 3. 

Germany's Mercedes-Benz Group (formerly Daimler) has been doing a roaring trade in China. It's no surprise, then, that it's concentrating its global expansion plans in the country. In fact, Mercedes-Benz has prioritised investing in Chinese facilities over increasing its production in Germany, according to the Financial Times. 

The company set a Chinese car sales record in 2020, selling more than 774,000 cars – or around one in three of the company’s total deliveries – to the People's Republic and roughly maintained these sales figures in 2022. In fact, Mercedes-Benz’s move into China is going so well that the company boosted its capacity for building Mercedes-Benz cars at two of its Beijing plants by 45%. The first Mercedes-Benz branded trucks were rolled out in September 2022, according to Reuters, and the company had plans to reveal 16 new models on the Chinese market by the end of this year.

Italian family-owned coffee company Lavazza made its first foray into China in 2020 when it opened a flagship coffee shop in Shanghai, the first branch outside Italy. Famed for its smooth espresso, the venerable firm has partnered with Yum China to develop its coffee shop concept in the People's Republic. In September 2021, the partnership announced its intention to open 1,000 Lavazza coffee shops throughout China by 2025.

By the fourth quarter of 2022, it reportedly had 87 Chinese locations and has opened at least another two stores in the country this year, according to World Coffee Prortal.

Canadian coffee shop chain Tim Hortons has even bigger aspirations. In October last year, just three years after Tim Hortons first took on China in 2019, it opened its 500th store in the People's Republic, with the Toronto-headquartered company planning to expand its presence in the country to 2,750 locations in the next few years.

In May 2020, Tim Hortons announced that it had scored an undisclosed amount of investment from Sequoia China, Chinese tech giant Tencent, and Eastern Bell Capital. The business plans to use the money to open new coffee shops, build digital infrastructure, and enhance its brand presence in the country – and it's recently partnered with Chinese convenience store chain Easy Joy to launch two ready-to-drink coffee products. 

Last year, 'Tims China' reportedly saw its number of registered loyalty club members increase by almost 90%, opened 227 new stores, and saw year-on-year revenue growth of 57%.

Staying with Western coffee shop chains, Starbucks is firmly established in China, which is currently its second largest market. The US company made its Chinese debut in 1999 and by 2021 had 5,358 locations across the country. But it doesn't intend to relax its Chinese investment.

The company opened its 6,000th store in China last year, seeing revenues in the People's Republic rise by 3%  and is now turning its attention to offering online "click and collect" services to its customers. 

New York investment bank JPMorgan Chase is also gaining ground in China. In August 2020, the financial services company bought out Chinese partner Shanghai International Trust for $1 billion (£777m), securing full control of its mutual fund joint venture. In March 2021, JPMorgan Chase bought a 10% stake in China Merchant Bank’s wealth management arm for 2.7 billion yuan ($417m/£300m), and at the beginning of July 2021 the firm applied to purchase 100% of its securities joint venture in the country, up from the 71% it previously owned. 

The bank hasn't been entirely uncritical of China, however. Earlier in 2022, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said the country could face "serious issues" due to its reliance on food and energy imports and called on the US government to take a stand against Beijing and apply "geopolitical pressure" to the People's Republic. 

Headquartered in Scotland, brewery BrewDog has claimed to be the '#1 Craft Brewer in Europe'. And now it's setting its sights further afield, partnering with Budweiser China to break into the Chinese market.

As part of the deal, Budweiser China will start producing three BrewDog beers – Punk IPA, Hazy Jane, and Elvis Juice – at its Putian brewery in the south-east of the country. BrewDog also plans to open nine new bars throughout China in addition to its existing location in Shanghai. 

Despite the pandemic, there have been a number of high-profile foreign mergers as regulations on overseas ownership have eased. In 2020, a change in legislation allowed foreigners to own Chinese chemical plants. This prompted Texan oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil to build a $10 billion (£7.8bn) petrochemical complex in Huizhou, a city in China's Guangdong province. But the business relationship goes much further back. ExxonMobil's predecessor, Standard Oil, sold kerosene to light Chinese lamps back in the 1890s.

Universal Studios' 50 billion yuan ($7.7bn/£5.5bn) theme park in Beijing was delayed because of the pandemic, but finally opened to the public in September 2021. A joint venture between state-owned Beijing Shouhuan Cultural Tourism Investment Co. and Universal Parks & Resorts, the park was 20 years in the making and is now the largest Universal Studios park in the world.

The companies hoped that Harry Potter-themed attractions and the Kung Fu Panda Land of Awesomeness would help them to win over Chinese visitors – and it seems to have worked. According to China Daily, the park was responsible for boosting hospitality revenue in the Tongzhou district by 122.6% year on year. But it hasn't all been plain sailing. Like tourist attractions all over the country, the park was forced to shut its doors to comply with China's COVID measures, reopening in June last year after almost two months closed to the public. 

Another German carmaker keen to tap into the Chinese market, Volkswagen acquired a sizeable stake in Chinese electric vehicle battery-maker Guoxuan High-Tech in 2020. The business spent $1.1 billion (£853m) to take control of its joint venture with Anhui Jianghuai Automotive (also known as JAC Motors) and plans to invest a further $12.8 billion (£9.4bn) in Chinese electric mobility between 2020 and 2024.

Speaking to China Daily, the CEO of Volkswagen Anhui said the mass production of neighbourhood electric vehicles (NEVs) will start at its Hefei plant – which is reportedly the same size as 16 football fields – by the end of this year.

In June 2020, American Express (Amex) became the first foreign credit card company to operate in China. Now permitted to clear payments in yuan, the New York-headquartered corporation partnered with Chinese financial technology firms to tap into the opportunity-packed market, while US competitors Mastercard and Visa both gained initial approval to follow suit back in 2020. Amex is also gearing up to issue debit cards to the Chinese market, according to American Banker.

American fast food chain Shake Shack is planning to open 55 franchised locations in mainland China by 2030, with CEO Randy Garutti telling CNBC that the chain has "big plans for Asia". Following successful launches in Shanghai and Beijing, the chain opened its first South China store in the MixC World Shopping Mall in the Guangdong province back in May 2022, and now aims to open at least 15 South Chinese stores by the end of the decade. 

The American fried chicken chain Popeyes is another fast food brand serving up expansion plans in China. The company is owned by US-Canadian parent Restaurant Brands International but is franchised in China by US firm Cartesian Capital Group. The fast food chain, which also operates Burger King restaurants in the People's Republic, plans to launch 1,500 new stores across mainland China over the next decade.

Popeyes' debut in China in May 2020 was the company’s most successful market entry in its 48-year history, with queues of customers trailing around the block for its famous fried chicken.

General Motors (GM) is unlikely to leave China, especially after the successful launch of the Wuling Hongguang Mini EV in Chinese dealerships in July 2020. A joint venture with China's Wuling, the budget micro electric car is proving a resounding success with Chinese motorists. This is thanks in part to its comparatively small price tag, which starts at 28,880 yuan ($4.1k/£3.2k). In November 2022, the company also unveiled a new electric Cadillac at the China International Import Expo.

With China poised to become the world's largest aviation market, Western aircraft manufacturers are eager to expand in the country. European multinational Airbus, for example, has pledged to boost assembly of its commercial jets and increase its cargo business in the Asian nation.

In 2022, Airbus announced that it had accepted an order for almost 300 jets from Chinese state airlines. This is likely to provide a much-needed boost after the turbulence of the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused the company to lose more than $1 billion (£737m) in 2020. The company later announced that China Aviation Supplies (CASC) has signed a purchasing agreement for another 140 Airbus jets, bringing the total deal to a whopping $17 billion (£14.3bn). 

Like its New York neighbour JPMorgan Chase, New York-based investment bank Goldman Sachs has taken advantage of China's relaxed foreign ownership regulations. In March 2020, the company increased its stake in its joint venture securities vehicle Goldman Sachs Gao Hua Securities Co. from 33% to 51%. It then signed a pact to increase its stake to 100%, gaining regulatory approval to operate as Goldman Sachs in October 2021. 

Brazilian beauty firm Natura has been itching to expand in China, especially after acquiring the UK's Avon Products in January 2020 and profiting from an online sales boom during the pandemic. The cruelty-free company, which also owns The Body Shop and Aesop brands, delayed its market entry until Chinese authorities had modified their animal testing laws. (The Body Shop previously withdrew from China in 2014 over its strict animal testing policy.)

Now that many imported brands will no longer have to be tested on animals, expansion plans are afoot. Chairman of the Natura conglomerate Roberto Marques reportedly hinted that brick-and-mortar Aesop and The Body Shop stores would be open in China by the end of 2022, according to Vogue. Sure enough, the company opened its first Aesop store in downtown Shanghai in November 2022. 

Similarly, Utah-based personal care and dietary supplement company Nu Skin Enterprises plans to increase its presence in the People's Republic after scoring an investment of $210 million (£162.9m) from a Chinese consortium in 2016.

In August 2020, the company announced a new manufacturing site in the Fangxian district of Shanghai, due to be operational this year. The facility is costing 360 million yuan ($51.5m/£40.1m) to build and will have 12 production lines, which are expected to double the company’s production capacity to 80 million items a year. It's not clear whether the site is open yet.

To move closer to growing markets, high-end Western fashion brands such as Versace, Salvatore Ferragamo, and those owned by the LVMH conglomerate are leaving their Hong Kong headquarters and relocating to mainland China.

Cosmetics behemoth L’Oréal has also downsized its operations in the Special Administrative Region and moved to mainland China and Singapore. The shift was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, as travel bans prompted affluent Chinese shoppers to buy within the country’s borders.

Canadian mobility technology company Magna has 93 centres across 27 countries, and in September 2020 the firm announced that it was deepening its Chinese ties. Magna partnered with Honglizhixin, a company that produces seats for Chinese automakers, in 2015 and now the Ontario-based company has acquired a majority stake in the supplier. The move is part of Magna’s plan to deliver "high-quality seat technology" to domestic and foreign markets, highlighting its "strong commitment to the China market".

Today it reportedly employs 35,000 people across 85 facilities in China.

As the Chinese government's "Healthy China 2030" initiative aims to simplify the medication approval process, Western pharmaceutical companies such as Bayer are eager to invest in the country. The German drugmaker, which already has a strong footing in China, is constructing a new $59 million (£45.8m) plant in Beijing to shore up supplies of heart and diabetes medications, among other innovations such as Bellerain, a new skincare brand designed specifically for the Chinese market.

The next decade will be "a golden age of China’s pharmaceutical market", according to President of Bayer Group Greater China Wei Jiang. And to demonstrate its commitment to the People's Republic, the company attended the China International Import Expo (CIIE) trade fair in Shanghai for the fifth year running back in November 2022. 

As financial restrictions on foreign ownership begin to relax, French insurance titan AXA has been able to buy out Chinese shareholders. It's now the largest wholly overseas-owned property and casualty insurance company in China. The firm intends to cement its position by expanding operations on a considerable scale, primarily by targeting China's middle-income groups.

Hahn Automation is yet another German company that's keen to invest in China, the only major economy that grew in 2020. The industrial robot manufacturer plans to invest millions of euros in Chinese factories in the coming three years and hopes that China will make up 25% of its sales by 2025. 

In October 2022, German chemical company BASF – the biggest foreign chemical investor in China – confirmed its plans to spend $10 billion (£8.4bn) on constructing an integrated chemical production site in Zhanjiang, located in South China's Guangdong Province. The company unveiled the first plant in September last year, with the whole site currently due for completion in 2030. The plant will eventually produce 60,000 metric tonnes of plastic every year for the Chinese electronics and automotive industries.

CEO Martin Brudermüller has said that Germans should "step away from China-bashing and look at ourselves a bit self-critically" and that BASF executives "came to the conclusion that it is advantageous to expand our involvement" in the People's Republic. 

Although Yum China is based in Shanghai, the fast-food conglomerate is incorporated in America. The firm launched its first Taco Bell restaurant in Beijing in August 2020, before raising $2.22 billion (£1.7bn) when it joined the Hong Kong stock exchange that September.

As of December 2022, the brand operated 12,947 stores, including 926 new KFC stores and 313 new Pizza Huts. It had plans to open around 1,300 new stores across its brands in China by the end of 2023.

Yum China, which is also the company behind the aforementioned Lavazza expansion, has been investing in education in China too. In June 2021, the company launched its 5 million yuan ($773k/£555k) Digital Classroom Initiative, which provides digital learning opportunities for children in rural areas. 

Now take a look at the big companies moving out of China