Although domestic economic growth is slowing, overseas mergers and acquisitions by Chinese companies are still going strong, highlighting the global M&A market.

China's Anbang Insurance Group Co. challenged the merger between Marriott International Inc. and U.S. hotel operator Starwood with a bid of $12.9 billion on Monday.

The non-binding bid was offered just days after Blackstone agreed to sell Strategic Hotels & Resorts along with its portfolio of 17 luxury hotels to Anbang for about $6.5 billion.

Anbang is not the only Chinese investor with eyes on overseas acquisitions. On Jan. 12, Chinese Dalian Wanda Group bought Hollywood's Legendary Entertainment, the maker of films such as “Batman,” for $3.5 billion. It was the first Chinese acquisition of a major U.S. film company. Right around the same time, China's home appliance giant Haier integrated the GE appliance business for $5.4 billion.

In February of this year, Hainan Airlines Group announced its $6 billion acquisition of U.S. IT company Ingram. In the same month, China National Chemical Corp. was nearing an agreement to buy Syngenta AG, the Swiss maker of pesticides and seeds, for about $43 billion.

Data shows that in just the first two months of this year, over 100 Chinese companies initiated overseas acquisitions. The total foreign investment exceeds $80 billion.

More and more private Chinese enterprises have recently been involved in overseas M&A in real estate, technology, film and other areas. However, Li Junjie, deputy director of the International Merger & Acquisition and Investment Institute of Renmin University, stressed the risks of M&A for those companies that are pinning their hopes on overseas markets in the search for profit in new sectors.