The number of Americans on Chinese company payrolls has surged more than five-fold over the past five years along with growing foreign direct investment (FDI) by China in the United States, according to a report by the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and the economic think tank Rhodium Group. Observers said this underscored the growing interdependency between Beijing and Washington despite their strained bilateral relations. The report, titled “New Neighbors: Chinese Investment in the United States by Congressional District”, showed Chinese firms had invested USD46 billion in the U.S. since 2000. Considering only full-time jobs, it said Chinese firms now provided more than 80,000 direct jobs in the U.S. “While this is still modest compared with the total number of jobs provided by foreign firms, it is significant growth from less than 15,000 jobs five years ago,” the report said. As of the end of last year, there were 1,583 investments by Chinese firms in the U.S. The biggest recipients in terms of cumulative investment between 2000 and 2014 were districts in North Carolina, Illinois, New York, Virginia, and Texas, the South China Morning Post reports. The report estimated the U.S. could receive between USD100 billion and USD200 billion of investment from China by 2020, and between 200,000 and 400,000 full-time U.S. jobs would be created.