China’s sovereign wealth fund suffered its worst year in 2011, losing 4.3 per cent on its global investment portfolio.

In an annual report that has become the focal point of its efforts to portray itself as transparent, China Investment Corpalso confirmed that it had received a $30bn capital injection from the government at the end of last year, boosting its investment firepower.

CIC was established in 2007 with money carved out from China’s foreign exchange reserves and given a mandate to make investments that would generate higher returns. However, it quickly ran into concerns about its government background and so has been at pains to demonstrate that it is a long-term investor focused on profits, not politics. In its annual report CIC emphasised that point, noting its board decided in 2011 to make rolling 10-year annualised returns a key measure of performance.