The paper analyzes systematic patterns of investment treaty rule-making using a large sample of bilateral investment …

The growing importance of foreign direct investment (FDI) to U.S.-China relations was highlighted when the U ….S.-China Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED) in 2008 mandated the negotiations of a bilateral investment treaty (BIT). Intended to further … liberalizing investment policies of either country, the U.S.-China BIT-to-be came at a time of soaring economic tensions between …