Tiger or pussycat? The emergence of China's sovereign wealth fund

Ever since its launch in 2007, China Investment Corporation, China’s sovereign wealth fund, has attracted widespread fear and suspicion. But its potential to move markets may have been overplayed.

CIC's head office in the New Poly Plaza building in Beijing

Sovereign wealth funds: the potential for conflicts of interest is in the name. Some SWFs, such as Norway’s government pension fund (the second-largest worldwide with assets under management of $443 billion), are transparent about their investment strategy and have a clear mandate to generate return. They are essentially wealth funds.

Others, however, are watched with suspicion, as investors and governments try to decipher whether the fund’s investment ideology is purely returns-driven or if its