China in Tax Havens

We document the rise of China in offshore capital markets. Chinese firms use global tax havens to access foreign capital in both equity and bond markets. In the last 20 years, China's presence went from raising a negligible amount of capital in these markets to accounting for more than half of equity issuance and around a fifth of global corporate bonds outstanding in tax havens. Using rich micro data, we show that a range of Chinese firms, including both tech giants and state-owned enterprises, use these offshore centers. We conclude by discussing the macroeconomic and financial stability implications of these patterns.