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The beginning of this century is characterized by deepening globalization and one of the main features of this process is global foreign direct investment flows. The relevance of foreign direct investment as a source of economic growth is inevitable and it has sound theoretical foundation. Despite this fact, many forces shaping the global economy receive a significant amount of attention, but foreign direct investment is often overlooked. Technological progress, trade and foreign direct investment are interrelated. Namely, foreign direct investment has greatly accelerated the spread of innovation and technology, while the technological advances especially in the era of Industry 4.0 have been driving the dynamics of foreign direct investment. Due to expected positive impacts, many countries are continuing policy efforts aimed at attracting foreign direct investment. However, foreign direct investment is experiencing new trends. Over the last few decades the global map of inward and outward foreign direct investment has changed significantly. There are new players with increasing roles in the global foreign direct investment area which are reshaping the world economy. Global foreign direct investment is undergoing a shift as emerging markets countries both inflows and outflows rise dramatically. For example, China's outbound foreign direct investment has been growing dramatically in recent years, and impacted significant shifts in the global economy. Motives for foreign direct investment, as well as the type are changing due to globalization and new trends, especially high liberalization of trade. The proliferation of global value chains also influenced foreign direct investment trends. One of the examples is necessity of rethinking the framework on motives of foreign direct investment when analyzing emerging market multinational enterprises and their interdependent relationships within global value chains. The contribution of the paper is three-fold. Firstly, the paper gives an overview of key global and regional foreign direct investment trends. Secondly, key factors, as well as potential impacts of these changes are explored. Thirdly, paper offers recommendations for new investment policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asian giant China witnessed a vibrant growth regime over the last decade and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has played a major role in China's economic growth process since 1990s. This paper attempts to analyze the trends and determinants of FDI inflows and outflows of China in the light of its transition from production-led economy towards a services-led economy. Ordinary least squares estimation method is used to find out the impact of economic and governance variables on FDI inflows and outflows. It was found that apart from the economic variables such as GDP and inflation, five governance-related variables also impact the FDI inflows and outflows. This study has originality value, as traditional theories of FDI inbound and outbound flows cannot be applicable to China since the economy was not capitalist form of government. However, with liberalization and China's increased role in global economy, there is a need for studying the factors driving FDI inflows and outflows using the available data. This research study aimed to estimate the model to find the economic and governance determinants of FDI flows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's growing presence in Africa is not news: the expansion of bilateral trade and investment ties has garnered intense media and political focus over the past decade. However, less is known about the people accompanying these increasingly intensive flows of goods and capital. This paper focuses on Zambia, drawing on multiple primary datasets to shed light on both the scale and nature of Chinese migration to the continent. Two years of Department of Immigration employment-permit data serve as the basis for the first quantitative analysis of the "Chinese" in "Africa," illuminating the increasing diversity of this population flow. While the growing Chinese presence in Africa is often viewed as a coherent neocolonialist strategy planned and implemented by the Chinese state, this paper demonstrates that it is in fact typified by a multitude of both public and private actors with independent motives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the debate over whether China's emergence as an economic superpower has been a complement or threat to ASEAN by examining data in the eleven years following China's accession to the WTO. Employing a qualitative approach, it seeks to understand whether China's growing dominance has hindered ASEAN GDP growth, exports and attractiveness as a destination for FDI. The evidence suggests that China's rise has caused a shift in global trade patterns, with China dominating Western markets at the expense of ASEAN countries. Despite this, China's dominance does not appear to have had a significant negative effect on growth rates for ASEAN GDP, exports, or FDI stocks. Given this, the paper concludes that while China is crowding ASEAN out of Western markets, increased Chinese demand for ASEAN imports has more than offset this effect. The result is that ASEAN exports and GDP have grown despite shifting trade patterns in the short run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the beginning of bilateral ties in 1950, the China–Pakistan relationship has grown significantly. Known as Pakistan's 'all-weather friend', bilateral economic cooperation has been advanced by the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) agreement, worth US$62 billion of Chinese investment in Pakistan. Due to its geo-economic and geopolitical importance, the CPEC is considered a 'game changer' by Beijing and Islamabad. However, since its initiation in 2015, the CPEC has also been a source of tension between centre and provincial governments in Pakistan. This paper analyses the impact of the CPEC on nation-building in Pakistan. In the light of nation-building theories, it further argues that the CPEC has provided Pakistan with much-needed opportunities to address inter-provincial and federal–provincial discord through dialogue and compromises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper aims to establish the level (if any) of Chinese State influence on setting the terms of Foreign Direct Investment in Zambia, specifically their influence on improving access for Chinese investors through the establishment of Special Economic Zones. Design/methodology/approach - The paper presents a process trace to test primary archival data and elite interviews against growing academic and popular "China in Africa" literature. Findings - After examining primary data, existing academic and popular literature is found to poorly describe China's economic influence in Zambia, primarily by largely speculating on non-evident coercive investment practices. Instead, the paper concludes that similarities between new Chinese investment and retreating Western sources in Africa can better be described as "Sino-Substitution". Research limitations/implications - The primary research has focused on English language Zambian sources; access to further Chinese sources would improve the breadth of the study. Practical implications - The study has found the terms of new Chinese investment in Zambia to be far more calculated, consensual and symbiotic than described in the existing literature. This more balanced view of Chinese investment is important if other foreign investors are to retain or regain competitive advantage in the region. Originality/value - No existing research has traced empirically the process through which the Zambian Government developed Special Economic Zones into the country's largest investment vehicle, or how Chinese investment came to dominant capital flows within them. As investment in these zones grows, a better understanding of the Zambia-China relationship should help other investors compete, and improve Zambia's access to capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, much attention is paid to the political aims and influence of Chinese outward investment, especially in developing Africa. This paper attempts to fill the knowledge-gap of international entrepreneurship literature by analyzing the entrepreneurial behavior of Chinese firms under the background of south-south economic cooperation. Through the case studies, we analyze the distinctive entrepreneurial behaviors and characters of different types of Chinese firms with high entrepreneurial spirits in Africa during the transitional time. After comparing the various entrepreneurial behaviors between Chinese and West investors, this paper sheds light on the potential positive roles of the entrepreneurial spirit, high risk-behavior and adaptability to foreign environment, which are necessary to successfully seek new, overseas entrepreneurial opportunities from an emerging market. Applications for firms' managers and policy makers are also offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on data for actual and approved Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from 1989-2011, this paper explores the major trends in FDI in Myanmar, focusing on changes over time in the source and sector of investment. It argues that over the last decade Myanmar's inward FDI has become heavily concentrated in the extractive and power sectors, while investment in manufacturing, services and other secondary and tertiary sectors has been almost non-existent. This is mostly the result of a poor investment climate, including import and export regulations, a weak judicial system, currency controls and weak property rights. The paper shows that China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Thailand have been the main investors in Myanmar, while Singapore, India and Western countries invested little in the 2000s. This divergence is driven partly by the differing investment patterns of the source countries, yet also reflects commercial and geopolitical realities, sanctions and concerns over energy security. The paper then examines whether and how FDI can lead to economic development in Myanmar, and, closes by discussing the importance of recent political and economic reforms for rebalancing Myanmar's FDI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper empirically tests the existence of contagion using data on China's five parallel markets with different entry barriers for foreign capital. Taking the 1997 stock market crash as our experiment and using data on A, B and H shares, red chips and American depository receipts, the present paper tests whether these China-backed market returns respond differently to foreign shocks during the pre-1997 and post-1997 crash period. Evidence suggests that the contagion effects are stronger in markets with fewer entry barriers. An important implication of our findings is that countries vulnerable to contagion could be justified to impose some limits on capital flows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I examine the economic links first between the European Union (EU) and China and then I focus on the economic relationships between Germany and China. The links I will consider include international trade and direct investment. Lastly I highlight some elements of the so-called “German Model” or the “Berlin Way” and examine if they can be of policy relevance to China. There are four main results: first, EU-China trade and investment relationships are strong, deepening rapidly but they are somewhat unbalanced and asymmetric. Second, the economic relationships between Europe and China are focused on manufacturing. Third, the EU-China relationships are primarily Deutschland-centric. Lastly, elements of the “German Model” such as Mitbestimmung, Mittelstand and the German apprenticeship system can have important structural and policy implications as China continues to grow and experiment with reforms aiming at combining stability, harmony and competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we examine the direction of causality between US-China (bilateral) trade and GDP growth in China. We do so by performing Granger causality tests and estimating VAR equations on relevant variables and data covering the period 1985-2013. The empirical results indicate that imports from the US have benefited China and in turn Chinese's GDP growth has led to more imports from the US. However, we fail to find statistical evidence in support of a direct positive impact from exporting to the US on Chinese GDP growth. We identify a potential indirect effect through the interplay of inward FDI and China's exports to the US. We discuss the main policy implications of these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on a case study on a Chinese investment proposal in Iceland and sets out to explore the different ways in which actors from different backgrounds, with an extensive range of expectations and ideas of what a destination could and should be, produce and sustain ideas about tourism development. Our point of departure is how tourism represents a new globalised economic expansion possibly reflecting processes of empire building of days gone by. This research suggests that the conflicting worlds of Chinese investment plans, seemingly pregnant with imperial aspirations, core-periphery dichotomies, as well as contesting ideas of regional development, represent a need to begin re-thinking our understanding of tourism regional development from the perspective of what empires are. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the Trilateral Investment Agreement (TIA), the Bilateral Investments Agreements ("BITs") and the BIT programme concluded among China, Japan, and Korea. The relative weight of the outgoing direct investment among these three countries has continuously and sharply increased. Japanese and Korean BITs focus on seeking to liberalize as well as protect their overseas investment due partly to the relatively small domestic markets. China has largely embraced global norms of the treatment of foreign direct investment (FDI) but still takes a more defensive posture than Japan or Korea on the conclusion of BITs. While these three countries has taken an important, albeit symbolic, step for regionalism in deciding to conclude a trilateral investment agreement, BITs still play a very important role so far. This paper examines these three countries' substantive clauses on the protection of FDI under BITs and the TIA. It conducts a comparative and qualitative research, an approach not seen in existing literature, on the investment treaty protections offered by three East Asian countries. This research would be useful for the further development of IIAs or FTAs among these countries, especially for China in light of its relative weaker investment protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the global forest sector has shifted from developed to developing economies (currently accounting 73% of total) during the past two decades. China has been the main global driver with its annual FDI soaring from USD 130 million in 2002 to USD 550 million in 2010. In light of international economic and business theories, choice of foreign entry mode is considered the most critical issue in corporate expansion strategy, which, however, has not been empirically studied in the forest sector. To fill this gap, our paper focuses on modeling two equity-based entry mode choices (i.e. wholly owned subsidiary or joint ventures) of foreign investment projects in China based on data from 109 activities of the Top 100 forest, paper, and packaging industry companies. By using logistic modeling, the main determinants of corporate entry mode choice are found to be cultural and geographical distance between the corporate home country and China, duration of corporate presence in China, and spatial concentration of local-level forest industry. Instead, investment project size and local resource availability are found to have no significant impact on corporate entry mode choice in China. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Improving trade conditions is considered fundamental to create jobs, to increase the quality of living conditions, to reduce geopolitical tensions and so on. In spite of the new tendencies in favour of protectionism, which reflect both nationalistic sentiments and geopolitical turmoil in world's strategic regions, China and the EU represent one of the most dynamic trade and economic relation at international level. This trade relation has increased in the last 20 years reaching 42% of global traffic in 2015. In June 2017, for example, the European Council's President Donald Tusk underlined the EU-China strong cooperation and the good perspective for future development. In this respect, Chinese implementation of the BRI is a unique opportunity. However, EU-China relations in the framework of the BRI have to confront with many geopolitical and geo-economic criticalities. In this paper, we firstly present some main strategic complementarities and problems in the EU-China economic cooperation in the framework of the BRI, emphasizing positive trends of the recent years and at the same time the existing political criticalities. Secondly, we focus on the EU institutional process to amend and issue the new European Trade Defence Rules between 2016 and 2017. The new regulation is aimed to protect EU members from dumped and subsidized imports from not EU member and was thought in relation to China's "market economy status". Thirdly, a section is dedicated to the European Commission's new proposal of regulation to scrutinize inbound investments from third countries. These debates and the related legislative procedures hold important implications for China, because as a matter of facts China is indeed the main, quasi-exclusive, target of the EU antidumping (AD) and anti-subsidize (AS) probes, but also of the new regulations on foreign investments in certain sectors. Finally, concluding remarks with policy advice summarize the main points emerged from the entire analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Österreichische Zeitschrift für Soziologie is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Papel Político is the property of Pontificia Universidad Javeriana and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Traditionally, China and North Korea have been described as 'blood brothers' because of their common socialist ideological ground. Since 2000 the basis of their relationship has shifted from one-sided economic support by China into strategic and mutual cooperation. In this paper, we analyse changes in their relationship by examining two specific points: first, China's growing investment and trade in North Korea, and second, close linkages of regional development strategies between the two countries. While the prevalent discussions around North Korea and its relations with China concentrate on geopolitical issues, this research shed more light on geoeconomic engagement between China and North Korea. This paper argues that it is crucial to grasp how China and North Korea perform geoeconomic calculations toward each other and how this affects geopolitical conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why is the British Virgin Islands a bigger source of foreign direct investment into China than the USA, the European Union and Japan combined? Why is there 10 times more investment from China in the Caymans Islands than there is in the USA? This paper argues that these flows represent the efforts of Chinese and foreign investors to reduce governance and measurement transaction costs. Investors avail themselves of efficient institutions in offshore centers that are absent locally. These institutional attractions include the ease of raising capital on foreign stock markets, access to reliable courts, and more flexible and sophisticated financial products. Existing explanations of these capital movements, characterizing them as criminal money or tax arbitrage, are insufficient. Evidence is drawn from government statistics, private legal advice and interviews in offshore financial centers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper attempts, through a comparative analysis, to assess the significance of foreign direct investment to the growth and development of both China and India, from the period following the introduction of economic reform programmes, to the last few years. It suggests that foreign direct investment (FDI) has had a significant positive bearing on the Chinese economy and a considerably more moderate effect on that of India. This discrepancy is attributed, in particular, to the composition and nature of FDI, and the institutional framework within which FDI is received. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper constructs a two-level model to explain China-U.S. relations. We find that at the state level, the interdependence between China and the United States, which comes from their bilateral trade and foreign direct investment, is asymmetric. Such asymmetric interdependence favors the United States in pushing the Chinese government to make concessions when they have conflicts. However, at the society level, China can penetrate into American society to intervene or influence American foreign policymaking. In this paper, it is argued that the outcome of China-U.S. relations is determined not only by the asymmetric interdependence at the state level or societal penetration respectively, but also by the interaction of these two factors in the process. Finally, the new development of China-U.S. relations since the inauguration of the Obama administration is also examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has become recognized a fourth world economy and is playing a much more important role than ever before in the world economy. In this paper, we study the relationship between the China and the international main stock markets, including the stock markets in the U.S., the U.K., Japan and Hong Kong. Both long-term and short-term dynamic linkages between the China and the international main stock markets are explored by applying a Markov-Switching Vector Error Correction Model (MS-VECM), which takes into account the three regimes of depression, boom and speculation in the market. Our new findings with the data under study include: (i) There has been a significant trend of long-term co-movement between the China and the international stock markets since 1999. (ii) In short term, the stock market in China has been impacted directly or indirectly by the international main stock markets, which varies under different regimes. This impact is still weak in the depression regime, but strong in the boom regime, and, in particular, it has become very strong through the co-integration error correction in the regime of speculation. These findings are different from those documented in the literature and are potentially interesting for international investment and risk management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's engagement with African countries is growing rapidly, spanning trade, investment and development cooperation. Some observers have suggested that poor operating standards among Chinese investors may contribute to the social ills associated with extractive industries and undermine host countries' sustainable development. Drawing on case study data from the copper mining sector in Zambia, this paper argues that the economic and political context surrounding Chinese investment risks undermining the effectiveness of local environmental, social and fiscal regulation. The analysis first explores particular characteristics of large-scale Chinese investment, including the prevalence of state-led financing and the challenges of effectively monitoring overseas Chinese projects. It proceeds to place these characteristics within the host country regulatory context, which in the case of Zambia features significant capacity constraints, political interventionism and a pervasive lack of transparency. The paper argues that, within a weak regulatory setting, Chinese investment may pose significant challenges for effective business regulation. Yet the resulting state-firm dynamics are by no means exclusive to Chinese investment. Rather, it is host country regulatory characteristics, in combination with certain features of investors' corporate governance, that together herald a new set of challenges for business regulation in developing African countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Regional Studies is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The present paper introduces the overall situation of investment in China by Japanese enterprises. It focuses on the cooperation between Chinese and Japanese enterprises in the software industry. It gives a detailed account of strategic investment by Japanese enterprises, their joint-venture projects with Chinese investors and establishment of R&D centers and laboratories in China's software industry, and it analyzes the problems and prospects of Japanese investment in China's software industry. The paper suggests that it is of vital to maintain friendly Sino–Japanese relations, to strengthen bilateral economic cooperation and to enhance mutual political confidence. (Edited by Xinyu Fan) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the ethical performance of foreign-investment enterprises operating in China in comparison to that of the indigenous state-owned enterprises, collectives and private enterprises. It uses both the deontological approach and the utilitarian approach in conceptualization, and applies quantitative and econometric techniques to ethical evaluations of empirical evidences. It shows that according to various ethical performance indicators, foreign-investment enterprises have fared well in comparison with local firms. This paper also tries to unravel the effect of a difference in business culture and competitive market forces on ethical performance by comparing the behavior of foreign-investment enterprises with that of the indigenous state-owned enterprises and collectives on the one hand, and with that of the indigenous private enterprises on the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid growth and high levels of internationalization by Chinese firms raise a natural interest in the study of the factors that have led to the notable international presence of Chinese firms. To contribute to this effort, we use data from the 2008-10 survey of China's high-tech firms, conducted by the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology, to estimate the determinants of Chinese firm outward foreign direct investment (OFDI). In our analysis, the primary independent variables include hightech intensity, human capital acquisition, and institutional factors. We also controlled for various firm characteristics such as firm age, total value of fixed assest, and firm ownership. Estimation from our fixed-effects model uncovers a number interesting patterns in OFDI outcomes. Most notable among the significant determinants of OFDI, the number of Chinese returnees employed by a firm seems to be more important than tax reduction policies. Further, the influence of the Chinese returnees have a stronger effect on non-state-controlled firms than they do for state-controlled firms. This finding is intuitive, because the Chinese returnees who were trained in the West have an understanding of product markets, labor markets, financial markets, language and business culture, and trade laws in both China and the West. Their unique skill sets and knowledge appear to serve as an important catalyst in the growth of OFDI and internationalization by Chinese firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A significant body of literature has held that Chinese interest in Africa is driven by a hunger for resources. This makes Ethiopia an important case study. Ethiopia experienced high rates of economic growth from 2003 onwards, thanks to rapid agricultural development. This period was also characterized by an intensification of Ethiopia--China relations. Bilateral trade between the two countries expanded rapidly, and China is currently the country's top trading partner. Ethiopia gained from China's zero-tariff policy on agricultural imports, and there was a dramatic growth in its sesame exports to China. China is also a major source of manufactured goods and machinery for Ethiopia. Despite being an agricultural exporter, it has attracted significant volumes of Chinese official financial flows and foreign direct investment (FDI). Chinese official finance is directed to building infrastructure, whereas Chinese FDI is directed to the manufacturing sector. This article concludes that the overall impact of China on Ethiopia is beneficial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the question of how China's systemic impact on the world economy and growing presence in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) affects processes of structural change in SSA countries through the framework of combined and uneven development: Global economic forces can act to perpetuate underdevelopment, but these global forces, of which China's rise in the world economy is one among many, need to be studied in conjunction with the societal forces that mediate them. This article argues that many China-related effects actually work in favor of manufacturing development, but the size and composition of China-related effects vary considerably across countries. Therefore, the article uses cluster analysis to find groups of SSA countries with similar patterns of interaction with China and shows that we do, indeed, observe differences in average manufacturing output growth across these groups. However, the cluster analysis also reveals considerable variations within the groups of countries with similar China-related effects. The article provides a case study on Angola to illustrate the interplay between global factors linked to China and the domestic political economy setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article comments on the pattern of China's trade and investments and its impact on other's countries trade, based on the reading of. "How China is reorganizing the world economy," by Eichengreen B. and Tong H. The writer of the article also makes a mention of the dual trade structure of China, as a very open export-processing regime and a very closed ordinary trade regime.

While transforming the investment, trading and infrastructural landscape in Africa, Chinese firms are also generating much-publicised controversy about their real motives. Many of the large Chinese firms operating in Africa focus mostly but not exclusively on engineering, infrastructural projects and mining. This Africa–China engagement has only recently begun to receive critical attention in the area of management and organisation studies. With reference to Kenya, we found that this phenomenon is characterised by four key themes: the unique yet diverse motivations of investors, the challenge of reconciling cross-cultural differences, the impact of low-cost strategies and the boundary-spanning role of managers. This paper also considers the extent to which post-colonial theory might serve as an analytical lens for examining the perceptions and attitudes of Chinese managers as well as the experiences of the Africans who work for them. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper contributes to the literature on Chinese and Indian multinationals investing in Europe through an empirical investigation about their identity, their characteristics and the association between their features and their international strategies. The investigation exploits a database, named EMENDATA (Emerging Multinationals’ Events and Networks DATAbase), at the level of the investing firms. In relation to the mode of entry, we find that greenfield investments are a more likely option for large-sized companies. Moreover a high propensity for innovation is associated with a high probability to enter with an acquisition and with technological asset-seeking investments. Finally, high profitability is needed to invest in the EU-core countries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Argumenta Oeconomica Cracoviensia is the property of Cracow University of Economics and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article is based on the years from 1991 to 2012 of the nine categories of the provincial pollutant discharge indexes of China, uses the "vertical and horizontal method" to calculate the comprehensive indexes that can fully measure the provincial pollutant discharge situation of China, establishes a dynamic inter-provincial panel data regression model and makes an empirical test on the relationship among foreign direct investments, foreign trade and pollutant discharge these three factors. The results show that foreign direct investment and foreign trade in different regions have a different impact on pollutant discharge. Therefore, local governments should at all levels be based on local conditions to attract foreign investment and develop foreign trade for the targeted optimization of the structure of introducing foreign investment and improving the quality of foreign trade growth, thus improving the overall situation of China's pollutant discharge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite China’s rapid economic growth in the past three decades, Chinese officials and experts are increasingly worried that the country is slowly heading towards the ‘middle-income trap’. The fear is that China might suffer the same stagnation and turbulence as Latin American economies did in the 1980s and 1990s. Will China be able to avoid this trap? Building on the insights of world-systems theory, this paper argues that China’s dependent development, although enabling it to escape the ‘poverty trap’, is likely to bog it down in the ‘middle-income trap’. China’s heavy reliance upon foreign technologies and investment has harmful effects on its economy. Dependent development not only increases China’s economic vulnerability but also truncates domestic industries. To escape the trap, the Chinese state should play a more active role in shifting its growth model away from low-end commodity manufacturing to knowledge-based, high value-added activities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Since 2003, Chinese outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) location choice has focused on three groups of host countries or regions, namely: countries or regions rich in natural resources but with high risk, developing countries or regions with abundant cheap labor, and highly developed countries or regions with plentiful sophisticated technologies. In order to realize the two national strategic goals-resource security and industrial structure adjustment, the Chinese government resorts to the twisted domestic financing system to grant preferential loan to the OFDI industries seeking SOEs (state-owned enterprises) to increase their investment capability in those countries or regions where economic risk is relatively high. Also, the Chinese government has actively promoted the establishment of foreign economic and trade cooperation zones in both Asian and African developing countries, improved the local supporting industries, and facilitated traditional Chinese manufacturing enterprises in their search of cheap labor in Asian-African countries to exert their industrial agglomeration advantages. Furthermore, the Chinese government has issued export-oriented policies and the foreign investment policies to increase the internationalization experience of Chinese firms and to promote their investment capability in the host countries or regions. The above-mentioned are the mechanism of how country-specific advantage influences Chinese OFDI location choice. This paper examines Chinese OFDI location choice from 2003 to 2010, and finds that Chinese OFDI does prefer countries or regions which have plenty of natural resources, cheap labor and/or strategic resources. In addition, with country-specific advantages, Chinese OFDI which seeks natural resources has stronger preference for countries or regions with high economic risk; for the OFDI which seeks cheap labor has less preference for host countries or regions of close geographic distance; and the internationalization experience becomes the key attraction for Chinese OFDI seeking strategic capital. The highlights of this paper lie in three aspects. Firstly, for the empirical model, this paper turns Buckley's generalized FDI model into one that can explain different OFDI location choices by integrating the factors affecting investment motivation with the factors affecting investment capability. Secondly, to explain where the ownership advantage of Chinese OFDI firms comes from, this paper embeds Chinese OFDI into China's macro-economic development background, relying on country-specific advantages to distinguish three different types of ownership advantage. Thirdly, to discover the unique Chinese OFDI location preferences, this paper finds that Chinese OFDIs prefer to invest in high-risk countries such as Iran or Iraq, that driven by the search for both natural resources and cheap labor, Chinese OFDI to Africa has surged, and that Chinese OFDI which seeks strategic resources tends to invest in countries or regions where China has had internationalization experience before, such as Japan and South Korea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, China is perceived to be a new colonizer of Africa which just exploits the continent's natural resources in order to support its own economic growth. This paper presents a thorough analysis of trade and investment in African oil countries in order to prove whether the statements about the Chinese neo-mercantilism are tenable or not. China is the biggest or second biggest import partner in five of the ten African oil countries. It is not the main investor in any of them, but in Angola and Sudan it has a greater share. The oil sector of Africa was seized long time ago by Western companies. Western concerns about losing the economic power over Africa can be considered as the main reason for the criticism of the Chinese investments there. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since China adopted the policy of "reform and opening up" attracting foreign investment has long been part of China's bringing in strategy. The remarkable economic achievements in China over the past 30 years have proved this to be a right choice. However, with the gradual perfection of Charm's market-oriented economy, problems caused by the foreign investment have been emerging. Foreign investment goes into the host country market mainly via greenfield investments and cross-border acquisitions. Since the late twentieth century, cross-border acquisitions have replaced greenfield investments as the major way for multinational companies to enter new markets. In their attempts to occupy the Chinese market and extend the industrial chain, foreign enterprises took vertical mergers of China's upstream enterprises as one of their strategic choices. In this process, we noticed two typical facts: one is that multinational companies produce more high-end products than Chinese enterprises; and the other is that mergers do not immediately change the product positioning of acquired upstream enterprises. In other words, the short-term effects and long-term effects seem to be different. In order to better reflect these realities, we have constructed a theoretical framework based on the extended low-end to high-end distributed Hotelling model, which can be employed to explore the impact of foreign vertical mergers of the upstream enterprises on the downstream enterprises in China from the perspective of product positioning and market share. To the previous studies, this paper has made the following three contributions: First, we investigate the impact of mergers on China's downstream enterprises under both monopoly pricing and single pricing. Second, we study both the endogenous decisions made by upstream firms and the sequential decisions made by both upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain. Third, we divide the impact of merger into short-term effects and long-term effects according to whether the product positioning of upstream firms can be changed or not, which may better reflect the reality of poor compatibility between the foreign high-end downstream enterprise and the acquired upstream enterprise in the short-term after the merger occurs. We find that foreign vertical merger can lead to an improvement of the product positioning of China's low-end downstream enterprises, and even an expansion of market share in the short run. The impact of foreign vertical merger in the long run is associated with the cost of the upstream enterprises: upstream enterprises' lower costs will lead to a decline in the product positioning of China's low-end downstream enterprises, and the size of reduction will be in negative correlation with the cost of the upstream enterprises. The higher cost of upstream enterprises results in the upgrading of product positioning of low-end downstream enterprises and the size of upgrading is in positive correlation with the cost of the upstream enterprises. Whatever the cost of the upstream firm is, foreign vertical merger will bring about a decline in the market share of China's low-end downstream enterprises in the long run. The conclusion is robust under quadratic transport cost. By calculating the boundary condition, we also find that foreign vertical merger only occurs in the upstream industry of higher production cost or more technology intensity, which can be explained by the stronger input price effect with the increase in the upstream production cost. Because of limited space and data availability, this paper does not discuss the issues of consumer welfare effects, nor has strong detailed empirical support. Nevertheless, the conclusions of our paper do have practical insight and significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1991, the state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) commenced the first Chinese national oil company equity oil investment overseas when it invested in a UN-sponsored oil sands project in Canada. Since then, the CNPC and the other Chinese national oil companies (Sinopec and the CNOOC) have steadily increased their equity oil investments in developing nations, sometimes with the assistance of various Chinese party and government organs. Viewed in the context of China's burgeoning oil consumption and plateauing oil production, these investments have led to accusations by Western analysts and policy makers that China is engaging in "mercantilism" by "locking up" oil supplies from vulnerable developing nations to assuage their mounting energy-security woes. Through examining Chinese oil engagement in Kazakhstan, this paper will analyze whether accusations of "mercantilism" can adequately capture the complexities and dynamics that drive Chinese oil company investment in developing nations. This will be achieved by first surveying contemporary debates regarding Chinese oil engagement abroad and then linking these debates to historical and contemporary conceptualizations of mercantilism. This will allow for a new multi-faceted definition of "oil mercantilist" behaviour, which will shift the label from a statement of ethical value to a statement of empirical fact that can be tested. This definition will then be used to examine the institutional contexts in China that support and counter contemporary accusations of oil mercantilism, and then to explore Chinese oil engagement in Kazakhstan from 1996 to the present day. This paper will contribute to emerging literature that suggests Chinese oil investment and diplomacy cannot be simply understood through mercantilist perspectives. Analyses of Chinese oil engagement need to recognize the important influence that China's institutional reforms have had on Chinese national oil companies' increasingly commercial approach to foreign investment, in addition to the unique host-country contexts China encounters through its oil investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic relations between China and Latin America have grown rapidly over the past decade. This paper documents the growth of trade, foreign direct investment (fdi) and other financial flows between China and Latin America and identifies the interests of China in the region as a source of raw materials, a market for exports of manufactured goods and an area of diplomatic competition with Taiwan. It points to the asymmetric nature of the relationship in terms of the relative importance of bilateral trade to each partner, the composition of trade flows, and the balance of fdi flows. It shows that these show many of the characteristics of centre–periphery relations. However, China is far from becoming a new hegemonic power in Latin America and the latter's relations with the USA and Europe continue to be more significant than those with China. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Academic thinking on foreign direct investment has evolved over the years. This paper reviews this evolution for its usefulness in understanding EU-Chinese investment relations today. It then explores the idea of a new dynamic policy regime as a more appropriate means to address the complex issues of investment liberalisation rather than the traditional trade liberalisation approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses foreign direct investment from Southeast Asia to China. With the exception of some government-linked companies, most investments from Southeast Asia have been dominated by the region's overseas Chinese businesses. In addition to cheap labour costs, large domestic market and growing economy, China has provided business opportunities to investors from Southeast Asia thanks to their geographic proximity and ethnic connections, at least during the initial investment period. However, the network effects seem to decline soon after. As the Chinese economy becomes more globalised and more competitive, the success of foreign investment in China will increasingly depend on business competency rather than ethnic relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China, once a major recipient of foreign direct investment (FDI), has recently become one of the main 'emerging' investors, especially in developing countries. Chinese Outward Foreign Direct Investment (OFDI) plays a very prominent role in economic interaction with many African countries. This paper empirically investigates the determinants of Chinese OFDI versus 41 African countries over the period 1998-2007. The analysis is novel because it provides empirical support to the existing, so far purely anecdotic, evidence describing Chinese FDI to Africa as driven by natural resources endowments and market potential. The econometric analysis highlights strong interrelationships between Chinese FDI and economic cooperation, which make standard models of investments unfit when assessing the role of China in Africa. It also suggests some new lines of research, exploiting the strong links between these different sources of financing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents an analysis of the economic relationship between the two most important economies in Asia. Over the last decades, the Chinese and Japanese economies have become more economically interdependent, a development which will, in the long run, impact the countries' political relationship. The paper seeks to answer the question: How can China and Japan gain from the current economic situation, further enhance their relationship and increase their synergies for regional economic development? Data on trade and Foreign Direct Investment are used in combination with primary data from interviews with Japanese and Chinese companies on how they perceive the current business situation and future potential. The result of the data analysis shows that the countries have much to gain from their economic interdependence. The firms see great potential in their respective markets but are concerned about political turbulence. Three possible scenarios for the future economic relationship are presented, including fierce competition on all markets and a leveraging of resources for mutual development between Chinese and Japanese companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses provincial socioeconomic and environmental data and investigates whether there exists an intra-county pollution haven effect for China. We examine whether differences in the stringency of environmental regulations affect the choice of location for FDI in China. We use a five-year panel dataset for 30 provinces in China that includes three measures of environmental regulations, which vary across time and province, and a significant number of control variables including measures of agglomeration and factor abundance. We control for unobserved heterogeneity by using a feasible generalised least square estimator. Our results suggest that environmental stringency has a significant and negative effect on FDI, leading us to conclude that, ceteris paribus, FDI prefers to locate into regions with relatively weak environmental regulations. This provides some support for the existence of a pollution haven within China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]