China’s degree change.

(a) Panel A shows China’s degree change from 2005 to 2016; the blue histogram indicates an increase, and the red histogram indicates a decrease, and the value above the histogram is the degree change value. (b) Panel B shows China’s international investment partners in 2016, in which the weight value is the sum of the inward investment weight and the outward investment weight for China, and the red plot shows the Belt and Road countries that began international investment activities with China from 2012.