German companies put about €5.6 billion of direct investment into China in the first half of 2026, roughly one-third more than in the comparable 2025 period, according to a Reuters account of an IW analysis based on Bundesbank data. The unit is corporate direct investment, not exports or booked sales, so the number belongs on a capital-flow ledger before it becomes a policy argument. [E1] [E4]
Reuters' China story also frames the comparison as U.S. outlays falling, and a separate IW page describes German firms sharply reducing U.S. investments. The narrower supported comparison is directional: China investment rose while the cited U.S. material signals a pullback, without enough detail to rank the two moves on one scale. [E2] [E3]
That makes the China number a pressure point, not proof of a breakaway investment boom. The cited basis supports the first-half flow and its year-on-year rise, while the older U.S. material supports a pullback comparison; it does not by itself show whether firms were funding new projects, adding to existing operations or shifting capital inside corporate groups. [E3] [E4]
The inference is therefore modest: German companies are still allocating capital to China at a meaningful first-half level while other cited material points to reduced U.S. investment. Until fuller composition detail is available, the useful figure is the €5.6 billion flow and its one-third year-on-year rise, not a claim that firms are building a fresh China bet from scratch. [E1] [E2] [E3] [E4]