While foreign investors are losing their taste for China, Chinese businesses are getting hungrier for overseas assets.

Foreign direct investment in China's economy came in at $59.1 billion in the first half of 2012, down 3% year-to-year. That reflects slower economic growth, which makes China a less attractive place to invest. A remission in yuan appreciation, falling property prices, and dismal mainland equity markets have taken the shine off the China bet, too.

The story on China's outbound investment is the reverse. Overseas direct investment in the first half came in at $35.4 billion, up 48% year-to-year. That reflects a combination of abundant cash on the books of Chinese firms, and bargains to be had as foreign asset prices remain depressed.

It also reflects moves by Beijing to encourage Chinese firms to spend more of their foreign earnings on productive assets, rather than hand the cash over to the central bank to park in ultralow-yielding government bonds. China's holdings of U.S. Treasurys fell $6.4 billion in the year to April, the latest month for which data is available.

There are no surprises on the top sectors for surging outbound investment. Oil and gas and mining top the list for China's outbound mergers and acquisitions, according to numbers from Dealogic. That reflects a voracious appetite for energy and metals, where $9.4 billion in deals accounted for 45% of China's outbound M&A in the first half.

But there are also signs that China's list of targets is starting to expand. Superior Aviation Beijing's $1.8 billion bid for Hawker Beechcraft shows China's ambitions in aerospace, an area where it has previously relied on imports from the U.S. and Europe. China also spent $1.2 billion on outbound food-and-beverage deals—including Bright Food Group's acquisition of British cereal firm Weetabix—reflecting an appetite for foreign brands and safer food.

The deep-pocketed Chinese buyer has already put a floor under prices for energy and metal assets around the world. As China's outbound investment rises and the range of targets broadens, it's time to factor possible Chinese buyers into valuations in other sectors, too.

滬江英語快訊：盡管2012上半年，外商對(duì)中國(guó)經(jīng)濟(jì)的直接投資僅為591億美元，與去年同期相比下降了三個(gè)百分點(diǎn)，但中國(guó)的對(duì)外投資則成相反態(tài)勢(shì)，上半年同比增長(zhǎng)48%，達(dá)到354億美元。雖然中國(guó)并購(gòu)領(lǐng)域現(xiàn)在仍然集中在能源方面，上半年成交量達(dá)94億美元，占并購(gòu)總量的45%，但中國(guó)各行業(yè)的投資額都有所增長(zhǎng)，如航空領(lǐng)域。