Is China Buying the World? E-Book

Peter Nolan

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 177

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

China has become the world's second biggest economy and its largest exporter. It possesses the world's largest foreign exchange reserves and has 29 companies in the FT 500 list of the world's largest companies. 'China's Rise' preoccupies the global media, which regularly carry articles suggesting that it is using its financial resources to 'buy the world'. Is there any truth to this idea? Or is this just scaremongering by Western commentators who have little interest in a balanced presentation of China's role in the global political economy? In this short book Peter Nolan - one of the leading international experts on China and the global economy - probes behind the media rhetoric and shows that the idea that China is buying the world is a myth. Since the 1970s the global business revolution has resulted in an unprecedented degree of industrial concentration. Giant firms from high income countries with leading technologies and brands have greatly increased their investments in developing countries, with China at the forefront. Multinational companies account for over two-thirds of China's high technology output and over ninety percent of its high technology exports. Global firms are deep inside the Chinese business system and are pressing China hard to be permitted to increase their presence without restraints. By contrast, Chinese firms have a negligible presence in the high-income countries - in other words, we are 'inside them' but they are not yet 'inside us'. China's 70-odd 'national champion' firms are protected by the government through state ownership and other support measures. They are in industries such as banking, metals, mining, oil, power, construction, transport, and telecommunications, which tend to make use of high technology products rather than produce these products themselves. Their growth has been based on the rapidly growing home market. China has been unsuccessful so far in its efforts to nurture a group of globally competitive firms with leading global technologies and brands. Whether it will be successful in the future is an open question. This balanced analysis replaces rhetoric with evidence and argument. It provides a much-needed perspective on current debates about China's growing power and it will contribute to a constructive dialogue between China and the West.

Leseprobe

Is China Buying the World?

For Maeve

Peter Nolan

IS CHINA BUYING THE WORLD?

polity

Copyright © Peter Nolan 2012

The right of Peter Nolan to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in 2012 by Polity Press

Polity Press

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Cambridge CB2 1UR, UK

Polity Press

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Malden, MA 02148, USA

All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-6094-3

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Contents

List of Tables

Acknowledgements

Introduction

1  Who are We? Who are They?

2  Who are We?

2.1  Globalization and industrial concentration

2.2  Evidence from automobiles and beverages

2.3  Globalization and ‘going out’ by global firms

3  Who are They?

3.1  China catches up

3.2  China is still far from ‘catching up’

3.3  China’s deepening relationship with developing countries

3.4  Oil companies and energy security

3.5  Multinational companies ‘going in’ to China

3.6  Chinese firms ‘going out’ of China into the high-income economies: ‘I have you within me but you do not have me within you’

3.7  Constraints on China ‘buying the world’

4  The Complexity of ‘Us’ and ‘Them’: The Case of Strategic Industries

4.1  Banks

4.2  Commercial aircraft

Conclusion

Is China buying the world?

Who are we?

Who are they?

The complexity of catching up

References

List of Tables

  1  Industrial concentration among systems integrator firms, 2006–9

  2  Industrial consolidation among selected firms within global value chains, 2006–8

  3  Industrial concentration and the global business revolution

  4  Relative growth of trade and FDI, 1990–2009

  5  Increase in FDI during globalization

  6  International operations of selected UK companies, 2008

  7  International operations of selected German companies

  8  International operations of selected US companies

  9  Stock of inward FDI in developing countries, 2000 and 2009

10  China and the world turned upside down

11  Foreign-invested enterprises in the Chinese economy, 2007–9

12  Balance between China’s inflows and outflows of FDI

13  Globalization and FDI

14  Distribution of China’s outward stock of FDI, 2009

15  Revenue and R&D expenditure of leading aerospace sub-systems integrators, 2008–9

Acknowledgements

This book is based on a paper delivered to the board of the US–China Business Council in Washington, DC, on 1 June 2011. I am grateful to John Thompson both for his suggestion to turn this paper into a short book for a wider audience and for his close involvement in all aspects of the book’s publication. I am grateful to Jin Zhang (Judge Business School, University of Cambridge) for her meticulous comments on the draft manuscript and to Bob Ash (School of Oriental and African Studies, London University), Vaclav Smil (University of Manitoba) and Ed Steinfeld (MIT) for their comments on the original paper.

Introduction

China’s rise has astonished and mesmerized the public in the high-income countries.1

In 1990 China’s GDP (at market prices) was just 1.6 per cent of the world total and it was the world’s eleventh largest economy. By 2008 its share of world GDP had increased to 7.1 per cent and it had risen to become the world’s third largest economy (World Bank, 2006, 2010). If national output is measured in ‘purchasing power parity’ dollars instead of using market prices, then China’s share of total world output is 11.4 per cent and it is the world’s second largest economy. Indeed, using this measure, China’s gross national income is already 54 per cent of that of the USA (World Bank, 2010). China’s GDP growth rate in the past two decades has been over 10 per cent per annum compared with less than 3 per cent in the high-income economies. If things continue in this fashion, China’s GDP will soon exceed that of the USA.