1. Buy ADRs.
American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) entitle investors to foreign shares being held on their behalf at a bank.
2. Buy H-Shares (Chinese stocks listed in Hong Kong)
Those are called H-shares, and U.S. investors need Hong Kong dollars to purchase H-shares. You have two options: a) convert U.S. dollars to Hong Kong dollars; b) buy Hong Kong stocks on margin, borrowing Hong Kong dollars from a brokerage firm with U.S. investments as collateral.
Interactive Brokers, Fidelity, Vanguard, and Charles Schwab all support this option.
3. Buy A-Shares (China's domestic listed stocks) through two special programs
The Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect and Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect programs are cross-boundary channels that allow investors in each market to trade shares on the other market using local brokers and clearing houses.
Only Interactive Brokers supports this option.
4. Buy ETFs that hold Chinese stocks
For investors who don't want to directly own any Chinese stocks, here are some major ETFs that mainly hold China A-shares or H-shares:
- Xtrackers Harvest CSI 300 China A-shares (ASHR): A-shares only
- KraneShares Bosera MSCI China A (KBA): A-shares only
- iShares MSCI China A (CNYA): A-shares only
- iShares China Large-cap (FXI): Hong Kong-traded shares only
- SPDR S&P China (GXC): mainly H-shares