Chinese investors or firms have also bought large hotels in California, including the Sheraton Universal in Universal City; the Crowne Plaza in Burlingame, near the San Francisco airport; and the Hilton Ontario in Ontario. They have also purchased a riverfront parcel in Toledo, Ohio, and, earlier this year, an office building in Morristown, N.J.

Chinese firms and investors are also betting that the potential returns in American commercial property markets will be higher than in other areas of the world. The market for office, industrial and retail property appears to have bottomed out. Office vacancy rates have fallen and rent prices have stabilized amid signs of economic improvement. And while competition is heating up — three Manhattan office buildings have sold for more than $1 billion so far this year — many of the big bidders and lenders from Europe have pulled back as their home economies struggle.

In addition to buying commercial real estate, China is emerging as a powerful force in financing other players’ deals. In particular, the Bank of China, China’s premier lender and one of the country’s four major state-run banks, has assumed an increasingly large role. “A few years ago, the U.S. branches of German banks were the top three or four foreign lenders for commercial property deals, now it’s the Bank of China,” said Matthew Anderson, a managing director at Trepp L.L.C., a data and analytics firm that tracks bank lending.

Some analysts say the Chinese money flowing directly into real estate pales in comparison with the money that is moving through private investments or real estate funds.

In recent years, China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange, which manages foreign exchange reserves, agreed to invest $500 million in a $13 billion real estate fund overseen by the Blackstone Group, a Wall Street investment firm.

China’s main sovereign wealth fund, the China Investment Corporation, has taken direct stakes in properties but has also invested more billions of dollars in real estate funds overseen by large private investment funds.