CFIUS in the Age of Chinese Investment

As China’s economy has developed, its companies, both state-owned and privately held, have moved to expand their operations in the United States to the point where many now seek to invest in—and on occasion, acquire—U.S. counterparts. This trend has set off alarm bells over fears that China’s unique political and economic system, which gives the state extensive influence over all corporations regardless of their ownership structure, renders such transactions national security threats. Recent hostility toward Chinese-led inbound investment is not a new trend; Congress has attempted to assert itself into the screening process undertaken by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) since its establishment. This Note examines both the framework the U.S. government has utilized to screen potential national security threats posed by foreign investment and how the eccentricities of China’s state-capitalist system present unique challenges to that framework. It argues for an executive order to mandate CFIUS review for transactions in sensitive industries which touch upon national security issues, particularly telecommunications in an age of increasing cyberwarfare. This will prepare CFIUS to handle the challenges posed by increasing investment in the United States by Chinese corporations without needlessly constructing barriers to the same where no real security threat exists

Rising Powers and State Transformation: The Case of China

This article draws attention to the transformation of statehood under globalisation as a crucial dynamic shaping the emergence and conduct of ‘rising powers’. That states are becoming increasingly fragmented, decentralised and internationalised is noted by some international political economy and global governance scholars, but is neglected in International Relations treatments of rising powers. This article critiques this neglect, demonstrating the importance of state transformation in understanding emerging powers’ foreign and security policies, and their attempts to manage their increasingly transnational interests by promoting state transformation elsewhere, particularly in their near-abroad. It demonstrates the argument using the case of China, typically understood as a classical ‘Westphalian’ state. In reality, the Chinese state’s substantial disaggregation profoundly shapes its external conduct in overseas development assistance and conflict zones like the South China Sea, and in its promotion of extraterritorial governance arrangements in spaces like the Greater Mekong Subregion

The motivation and impact on the foreign banks entrance in China

Since the 1970s, the world economy integration and financial globalization has become an irreversible trend. Each country is facing to opening up or further opening their banking system. The international experience shows that foreign banks’ entering has a deep impact on the host country banking sector. With the deepening of China's reform and opening up and the accession to WTO, foreign banks have adjusted and accelerated their development in China. With the continuous expansion and development, foreign banks are playing a dominated position in doing business in Chinese financial market. Therefore, the studies of the efficiency influence by foreign banks entering Chinese financial market become an important research topic

Trade, Aid and Human Rights: China’s Africa Policy in Perspective

This paper looks at China’s aggressive hunt for resources in Africa, reviews thecriticisms levelled against China regarding its involvement in the contine examines continuities,changes and the dynamics of China’s Africa policy, and evaluates the prospects of integratinghuman rights into China’s foreign policy. Given growing trade and investment relationship betweenChina and Africa, what is the role of human rights in hina’s Africa policy? Can China integratehuman rights into its foreign policy considerations? Drawing on the history of US’ attempt tointegrate human rights into the United States’ foreign policy, what are the prospects of andchallenges to integrating human rights into China’s Africa policy? Instead of ‘human rights’, mightthe concept of ‘development’ be a more useful but no less effective paradigm for infusing peopleoriented values into China’s Africa policy calculations

Consumer Finance and Financial Repression in China

China is rapidly becoming the world’s largest consumer market. As the number of middle-class Chinese consumers has grown, so too has the size of China’s consumer finance system. To date, there has been little scholarship on consumer finance in China. This article takes a first step at filling this gap in the literature. It argues that China’s consumer finance system is fundamentally a tool of the state, which uses “financial repression” of Chinese consumers to acquire capital through shadow taxation. This political-legal system allows reallocation of consumers’ capital for political purposes and underwrites China’s rapid growth. But cheap consumer capital has primed the Chinese economy for an economic collapse by encouraging unsustainable asset bubbles. Ironically, this very problem makes it impossible for China to liberalize its consumer finance system, lest a shortage of easy capital precipitate a collapse. China’s elite are also against financial liberalization because it is not in their personal interest. Ultimately, meaningful liberalization of China’s consumer finance system is unlikely because change would require the type of political-legal liberalization which China’s government has been unwilling to pursu

The Neglected Role of International Altruistic Investment in the Chinese Transition Economy

This Article discusses the positive role of altruistic investment in any transition economy by making specific reference to altruistic investment in the Chinese economic transition. The Article discusses the social welfare hardships arising from the transition process and then discusses the U.S. and Chinese tax incentives and barriers to altruistic investment that would lessen that hardship. After that, the Article discusses the reasons why both countries might prefer to retain those barriers. Finally, the Article concludes that altruistic investment has more positive then negative consequences and makes a simple proposal to stimulate altruistic investment in China in a manner that would assist the transition process without sacrificing either country\u27s mutually exclusive goals. The proposal, that the WTO recognize, encourage, and integrate altruistic investment through international tax policy, is useful not only in China but in other developing or economically reforming countries

China Came, China Built, China Left? The Sarawakian Experience with Chinese Dam Building

This paper uses a political ecology approach to unpack the experience of local governments and displaced communities in Sarawak, Malaysia, with Chinese dam construction at the Bakun Hydroelectric Dam. Data for the study was collected over 32 months from 2014 to 2016. The field site offered a unique insight into how recipient countries of aid are also often at the receiving end of domestic politics of donor countries. The paper finds that Chinese and Australian enterprises involved in the dam construction and resettlement of indigenous communities displayed different understandings with regards to social and environmental safeguards, resulting in a dysfunctional handover of the project from Australian to Chinese leadership. Consequently, indigenous communities were dispossessed from their land, affecting their ability to successfully reconstruct their livelihoods, with their attempts to do so causing further damage to the environment around the reservoir of the dam