Is China Buying the World? (ePub)

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.