While there has been an obvious surge in Chinese overseas investment, many recent attempts at cross-border mergers and acquistions have been given red lights. Last year, China jumped to be the world's second largest source of outward foreign direct investment. And it gained further traction in the first three quarters of this year -- a more than 50% increase year-on-year, in fact, to nearly 135 billion US dollars.

However, Western governments started to put a stop to this activity around the middle of last year, reportedly scuppering acquisitions that were worth in the region of 40 billion dollars. According to investment bank Grisons Peak, Chinese companies were forced to drop eleven major M&A deals, due to rulings from authorities in the United States, Australia and Europe. The total value of these foiled deals amounted to about one-seventh of all deals involving Chinese companies since July of last year.

 Most of the blocks were, ostensibly, attributed to competition or security concerns, but they came amid a growing call for more protectionism in Western countries.