Replication Data for: Chinese Power and the State-Owned Enterprise

China has become a leading source of outward foreign direct investment (FDI), and the Chinese state exercises a unique degree of influence over its firms. We explore the patterns of political influence over FDI using a comprehensive firm-level dataset on Chinese outward FDI from 2000-13. Using six country-level measures of affinity for China, we find that state-owned and globally diversified firms appear to conform most closely to official guidance. Official investment directives and state visits link investments to state policies; Taiwan recognition and Dalai Lama meetings anchor our political interpretations; UN General Assembly voting and temporary UN Security Council membership suggest that this intervention may be systematic. The results are robust to country, year and sector fixed effects, and most do not hold for private or small firms. The results suggest that China uses FDI by prominent state-owned firms as an instrument to promote its foreign policy.