China has overtaken the US for the first time as the world's biggest "acquiring nation" for M&As in tech, accounting 45 percent share of the market in the first four months of this year.

China's outbound tech deals reached a new annual high of 17.6 billion US dollars in Q1. That tops the 14.9 billion US dollars for the whole of last year.

Europe has been Chinese companies' favourite shopping place so far. Almost half of the Chinese investments this year have poured into that area. North America is also attractive for Chinese M&A bidders. The Middle-east and Africa account for a tiny share in China's outbound M&As.

Analysts say many assets in tech are undervalued due to economic downturns at their home countries. That's why the Chinese are seeing good opportunities to acquire core technologies and know-hows for their global expansion.

But there are also legal risks, high financing costs for highly leveraged buying, and conflicts of different corporate cultures in those deals. One company in Switzerland are paying local low level employees much higher salary than their Chinese expat executives due to local labor protection laws. That just wouldn't work in the long run.