Our research investigates the internationalization motives and related top manager staffing practices of Chinese companies in France. Drawing from previous studies and in-depth interviews with managers, we find that Chinese investors expand the business to France for three main motives. Although the Chinese investors are interested in market expansion in Europe, they also seek to increase strategic assets through learning technology and management practices. Meanwhile, Chinese foreign direct investment in France has responded to the Chinese government’s ‘go-global’ initiative. Concerning the staffing practices for overseas operations, our findings show that Chinese companies prefer to use local management when they have investments in France. They tend to staff their subsidiaries with French managers who are comfortable in both cultures by having work experience in China and having demonstrated high loyalty to the parent companies. The authors extend this analysis to provide recommendations at the end.