This week The Heritage Foundation released the 2011 China Global Investment Tracker. Heritage Asian Studies Center Derek Scissors explained the product:

China’s investment overseas is increasingly important to the United States and the international community.The China Global Investment Tracker created by The Heritage Foundation is the only publicly available, comprehensive dataset of large Chinese investments and contracts worldwide beyond Treasury bonds. Details are available on well over 300 attempted transactions—failed and successful—over $100 million in all industries, including energy, mining, transportation and banking.

Chinese investment and business contracts now span the globe. There is a clear effort to diversify across countries and regions but the Western Hemisphere has become especially prominent.

China’s investment total could be higher. Close to $140 billion in proposed spending has been rejected by foreign or Chinese regulators or has failed due to mistakes by Chinese firms. However, the annual value of these failed transactions is falling and there are clear signs Chinese firms are learning to be better investors.

You can download the China Global Investment Tracker, here.