Most China ETFs land between 0.28% and 0.74% a year in fees — a narrow band, but it compounds. Here is what the main funds cost and, just as importantly, what each one actually tracks.
| ETF | Ticker | Tracks | Expense ratio (TER) |
|---|---|---|---|
| iShares MSCI China | MCHI | MSCI China (broad, ~600 names) | ~0.59% |
| SPDR S&P China | GXC | S&P China BMI (broad) | ~0.59% |
| Xtrackers CSI 300 A-Shares | ASHR | CSI 300 (mainland A-shares) | ~0.65% |
| VanEck China Growth Leaders | GLCN | MarketGrader China Growth | ~0.62% |
| KraneShares CSI China Internet | KWEB | CSI Overseas China Internet | ~0.69% |
| Invesco Golden Dragon | PGJ | Nasdaq Golden Dragon (US ADRs) | ~0.70% |
| iShares China Large-Cap | FXI | FTSE China 50 (HK large-caps) | ~0.73% |
| HSBC MSCI China UCITS | — | MSCI China (UCITS, EU/UK) | ~0.28% |
| iShares China Large-Cap UCITS | — | FTSE China 50 (UCITS, EU/UK) | ~0.74% |
Pattern: broad funds are cheaper than narrow ones. A broad US-listed fund (~0.59%) costs less than an internet-only or ADR-only fund (~0.69%–0.70%), and a UCITS broad fund can be the cheapest of all — or the dearest, depending on the issuer.
A 0.40% gap in annual fee sounds trivial, but over 20–30 years it quietly compounds against you. The cheaper fund keeps more of the market return working for you every year. For a buy-and-hold China allocation, fee is one of the few things you can control with certainty — the index return is not.