SINO-US BILATERAL INVESTMENT: ACTIVE TOOLS FOR CHINA'S ADVANCE IN BIOTECHNOLOGY

Recognizing from an early stage the ability of advanced technologies (and of biotechnology, in particular) to fundamentally change the economy, geopolitics and society of the 21st century, the Chinese authorities have placed the development of the biotech sector as one of their top national priorities and, therefore, have adopted political strategies and programmes designed to contribute to achieving this purpose In the context of "Made in China 2025" strategy which, among other objectives, sets China's goal of becoming the world leader in life sciences and of reducing its domestic technological dependence on foreigners, our article aims at presenting the evolution of China's investment policy in recent years, which has focused on finding a synergistic optimum between guiding foreign direct investment inflows (FDI) in accordance with its own sectoral upgrading plans and directing outward direct investment flows (ODI) in line with the same interests. As the US is the world leader in biotechnology and thus China's main competitor in the race for global supremacy in the field, our analysis will focus on highlighting the role and importance played by Sino-US bilateral investment flows for the development of the Chinese biotechnology sector.