Chinese venture capital investment into US biotech companies in the first half has already surpassed the record set for the whole of last year, underlining Beijing’s focus on medicine as a strategic sector — a development that has flown under the radar of regulators in Washington.

Chinese funds participated in investment rounds in US biotech companies worth $5.1bn in the first half of this year, beating the $3.9bn in 2017, the first year of large Chinese inflows into the sector, according to Seattle-based data provider PitchBook.

“We’ve seen tremendous growth,” said Kitty Lee, a partner at consultancy Oliver Wyman. “You can’t forget how much the Chinese government is pushing biotech as a strategic industry and trying to build up the industry to become competitive globally. A natural part of that is investing.”