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No.951 Foreign Firms in Vietnam and the US–China Trade War
by Kazunobu Hayakawa, Chuc Nguyen Dinh
January 2025
ABSTRACT
This study empirically investigates ownership of foreign firms in Vietnam during the US–China trade war. In our empirical analysis, we identify firm’s nationality by two indicators: the country of the largest shareholder or investor, and the directors’ nationalities. This differentiation plays a key role in identifying so-called "Singapore-washing" in Chinese firms. Our findings can be summarized as follows. First, foreign direct investment from Singapore is mostly conducted by non-Singaporeans. However, there are only a small number of Chinese directors’ firms with an investment source from Singapore. Second, among firms in Vietnam with Chinese directors, those that entered after the start of the US–China trade war or those with an investment source from countries other than China have a lower propensity for trade. Third, the larger presence of firms with an investment from China is associated with higher export growth to the US, but firms with Chinese directors are not.
Keywords: US–China trade war, Chinese firms, Vietnam
JEL classification: F15, F53
PDF available at https://hdl.handle.net/2344/0002001242
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