China is becoming increasingly vigorous in international mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and this year has become the world's largest acquirer.

Under the "going out" strategy, China's outbound mergers and acquisitions has continued to heat up.

The first 9 months of 2016 saw Chinese companies complete 521 overseas M&A deals worth 67.4 billion USD, which exceeded last year's annual transaction amount.

In the same time period, China's outward direct investment in the non-financial sector had hit 134.2 billion USD, an increase of 12.8 billion USD compared to last year's total.

China's big outward purchases this year have included HNA's 6.3 billion USD acquisition of Ingram Micro and Haier's 5.4 billion USD bid for General Electric's appliances unit.

German companies have been very popular among Chinese acquirers.

Around 200 German companies have been acquired by Chinese enterprises so far this year, according to the German Federal M&A Association.

Chinese public companies are the main acquirers in outward M&A deals with Germany.

The German "entrepreneur" magazine editor Stephen Genzna said Chinese companies were previously interested in Germany's automobile and mechanical manufacturing industries, but now they are also keen on electronics and injection molding industries.

Daily Economic news reported that the reason Germany became the focus of China's overseas acquisition was because economic recovery in Germany had slowed down since 2011.

Many German companies had to go bankrupt.Chinese public companies have traveled to Germany to seek potential M&A targets in groups since 2012, and their purchasing power has been overwhelming.

German companies have also increasingly started to purchase Chinese companies, and 164 Chinese companies were bought out by German companies in 2016.

Marcus Kapust, General Manager of German's Strategic Communications of VPC Group, said there had been concerns from Germans that Chinese rich acquirers might buy up all the German companies, but these concerns are unnecessary.

China's Midea Group Co's started to make an effort to buy out German industrial robot maker Kuka in May this year. This caused a furious debate over Chinese outbound M&As in Europe, and some German politicians have appealed for tougher restrictions.

The deal passed through the anti-trust scrutiny of the European Union and the outcries have died down gradually.