China Tightens Oversight of Outbound Investment to Curb Tech Leakage—Raising Risks for Regional M&A

China is weaving a tighter net around its outbound investment. Per Toyo Keizai, Beijing is strengthening oversight of outbound direct investment, focused on preventing leakage of strategic technology in AI and EVs, extending to overseas transfer of technology and talent, and responding to rising foreign regulatory risk; cases like Meta's AI-firm acquisition helped trigger it. Why does it matter regionally? Two threads. Supply chains: tighter controls make cross-border tie-ups, joint ventures and licensing involving Chinese technology more sensitive and harder to negotiate. M&A: amid deepening geopolitical rivalry, both Chinese outbound and foreign inbound deals face higher screening, raising cross-border uncertainty. For anyone doing business across China, Japan and Taiwan, this is another piece of the "de-risking" trend—technology and capital flows are being re-fenced under national-security banners. Watch China's concrete screening rules and the real impact on regional industry cooperation.