This year, China became the third-largest overseas direct investor, after the United States and Japan.

The gap between its outward and inward investment is narrowing. Some international organizations have forecast China will become a net investor by 2017.

More than half of the Chinese-owned companies in Europe are making a profit, according to the report while, by contrast, more than 80 percent of the European businesses in China are making a profit.

The difference probably reflects the worsening economic situation in Europe, Zhang said.

Zhang said that Chinese companies have intensified their cross-border merger and acquisition activity in Europe, targeting knowledge-intensive and high-tech manufacturing and services companies in West and North Europe.

Trade investigations have, in a way, propelled Chinese investment in Europe. Putting money directly into companies doing business there helps Chinese companies avoid tariff barriers, said Zhang.

Although China's potential future overseas investment is generally estimated to be very high, so far the country has only supplied a small part of the European Union's inward foreign direct investment.

The cumulative share of China in the EU's inward FDI stock from non-EU member countries was less than 0.4 percent in 2011.

"This extremely low percentage should certainly assuage the fears expressed by some politicians and media about the spreading influence of China in the European market and industries," the investment report said.

Paul De Grauwe, former economic adviser to the European Commission president, said the rapid increase of China's investment in Europe has reflected the impact of the country's economic restructuring, which focuses on domestic consumption.

De Grauwe, now a professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science, said that to satisfy its middle class, China will import more agricultural products and luxury goods from Europe.

To make the partnership more efficient, De Grauwe said: "Chinese businesses have chosen to directly invest in those European enterprises and this will continue."