A growing literature that examines the impact of FDI on the productivity and innovative behavior of Chinese enterprises reports a wide range of differing findings. This paper demonstrates the sensitivity of these results to the use of different research strategies, including heterogeneous characteristics that are assigned to the recipient Chinese firms and the choice of functional form.Controlling for initial technological differences among Chinese firms results in estimates of FDI impacts that differ in both magnitude and sign. Using translog functional forms identifies factor- biased productivity spillovers, whereas the Cobb-Douglas approach may show neutral or non-existent productivity impacts.