China's outward foreign investment from a political perspective.

摘要

The research, by exploring the characteristics of China's outward foreign investment, its motivation, its sector distribution and its geographical distribution, illustrates the current pattern of "merchant-state dualism" in China's overseas foreign direct investment. Merchant-state dualism is a hybrid relationship between the state and society that maintains state control over merchants, while giving them some autonomy.; China's overseas foreign direct investment is different from that of the advanced western nations. It is also distinguished from that of the other Asian countries. The sector and geographical distribution of Chinese foreign investment reflects China's domestic political and economic conditions. Chinese investment in services is primarily located in the highly industrialized countries, and its investment in natural resources is concentrated in a few resource-rich countries. The largest part of Chinese foreign investment is, however, concentrated in neighboring economies. In some cases, political considerations play a major role. In other cases, Chinese foreign investment is initiated out of a calculation that the economic benefits outweigh political and other costs.; By an exposition and analysis of China's overseas investment, the research examines the characteristics of current merchant-state dualism in China. Merchant-state dualism was a dominant pattern of operation from the late Qing dynasty through the Nationalist period and up to the Communist revolution. This dualism was replaced by a state-dominated singular structure in the Maoist era. China's current economic reforms, however, are restoring merchant dynamism in post-Mao China.; By investigating the interactions between business and government elites in determining Chinese outward foreign investment, and by exploring the reasons for selecting certain foreign investments in light of internal political and economic concerns and the external effect of investing in politically sensitive countries, the dissertation highlights the political underpinnings and calculations of China's foreign investment. It thus sheds light on current merchant-state dualism, by concluding that merchant-state dualism is the most suitable model for explaining contemporary Chinese government-business relations. That is, businesses have dual functions---they serve as instruments of state control and also lobby on behalf of the merchants. The state, at the same time, deploys a corporatist strategy to control these business groups.