It comes down to how transparent a country is and how much rule of law there is there for poeple who are outside of that country.
To use your example, there isn't a lot someone in North American can do to track down and get a debt paid by someone in China as the banking system will not cooperate, and the legal system will not cooperate.
France on the other hand tends to use the same banks and has very close legal ties so the legal system and the banking system will both cooperate in a way that you could never get from the Chinese legal or banking system if someone from that country owes you money and has assets in France and a North American court has a judgement against them.
If a North American court has a judgement against a Chinese citizen residing in China, how cooperative do you think their legal system or banking system will be?
So yes, which foreigners that own property can matter a great deal if there is ever a dispute with them.