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Apple in Tokyo
Apple opened its first Apple store outside the United States in Japan in 2003 and introduced the iPhone to Japan in 2008. After some initial struggles, the firm made great strides partly because of its partnership with SoftBank. Within a relatively short period, Apple’s iPhone became the best selling smartphone in Japan by a large margin.
Bank of China in Hong Kong
The Bank of China (BoC) is the oldest bank in mainland China and one of the largest banks in the world in terms of assets. As of 2016, it had over USD $2.6 trillion of assets, $2 trillion of deposits, and branches on every inhabited continent. BoC (Hong Kong) Limited came into being in 2001 and is active in providing personal, corporate, and treasury banking services.
McDonald’s in Shanghai
McDonald’s, the iconic American hamburger chain, opened its first store in China in 1992. Facing challenges along the way, it expanded steadily, opening almost 1,000 stores by the end of the 2000s. Recently, a Chinese investment firm CITIC and an American private equity firm Carlyle bought control of McDonald’s China operations.
Singapore, a global financial powerhouse
Singapore is a leading global financial center that remains attractive to foreign companies because of its well-developed business environment, high-quality infrastructure, extensive links offering great access to global markets, deep pool of high quality human capital, and stability.
China's Chery races to the top in Latin America
Chery is making huge gains in Latin American markets and has established assembly plants in Brazil, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Chery's cars rank in the top-ten best-selling cars in major Latin American markets like Chile, Peru, and Uruguay, with Chery selling a record 3.6 million units in Brazil in 2012.
Sanyo electrifies Piccadilly Circus
Sanyo, a subsidiary of Panasonic, one of the world's largest electronic product manufacturers with almost US $71 billion in annual sales and 300,000 employees, has been a prominent icon on Picadilly Circus since 1987. It's iconic sign will be replaced by a Hyundai sign, perhaps an indicator of the rise of Korean MNCs.

MNCs in the News

MNCs in the News-2017-08-04

August 8th, 2017

Donald Trump administration contemplates using Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act to challenge China’s technology transfer and intellectual property right protection practices. Foreign businesses increasingly fret about the burdens to be flowing from China’s rejection of non-approved virtual private networks (VPNs) and other data controls/restrictions. China’s Ministry of Finance issues a guideline to limit risk of overseas investments by state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Foxconn Technology Group announces major...

MNCs in the News-2017-07-28

August 2nd, 2017

The China Banking Regulatory Commission moves to allow foreign banks to purchase Chinese lenders through a locally incorporated subsidiary. Analysis claims China is cracking down on acquisitive private actors, so-called “Grey Rhinos,” because of risks they pose to the Chinese economy. The United Kingdom is moving to tighten its foreign investment regime partly to deal with investors like China which have been investing in sensitive areas. Toyota to produce electric vehicles in Thailand to take advantage of various...

Wong MNC Center News

Ambassador Jorge Heine joins the Wong MNC Center Advisory Board

July 25th, 2017

Dr. Jorge Heine, Ambassador of Chile to the People's Republic of China, has joined the Mr. & Mrs. S.H. Wong Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations. Ambassador Heine previously was CIGI Professor of Global Governance at the Balsillie School of International Affairs and a Professor at Wilfrid Laurier University. He previously served as Ambassador of Chile to India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka and has held other high government posts. He has consulted for...

Wong MNC Center Executive Director Blanchard speaks at the 10th Baltic Sea Region Forum

June 30th, 2017

At the end of May, Dr. Jean-Marc F. Blanchard, Executive Director of the Mr. & Mrs. S.H. Wong Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations (Wong MNC Center) participated in a panel called “The Art of Attracting Investments and Doing Business in the Baltic Sea Region” at the international 10th Baltic Sea Region Forum orchestrated by the Centrum Balticum and held in Turku, Finland. On the panel, which involved academics/researchers, investment promotion...

Wong MNC Center sponsors panel on China’s Evolving Trade and Investment Relationship with Latin America

June 30th, 2017

The Mr. & Mrs. S.H. Wong Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations (Wong MNC Center) sponsored a panel entitled “China’s Evolving Trade and Investment Relations with Latin America” at the Association of Chinese Political Studies 30th annual meeting held in June 2017 in Tianjin, China. Participants on the well-attended panel included Wong MNC Center Executive Director Dr. Jean-Marc F. Blanchard who spoke about Brazil’s foreign policy towards China, Mr....

Wong MNC Center Executive Director Blanchard gives public lecture on China's Maritime Silk Road Initiative and Southeast Asia

May 28th, 2017

On May 26, 2017, Dr. Jean-Marc F. Blanchard, Executive Director of the Mr. & Mrs. S.H. Wong Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations (Wong MNC Center), spoke at a public seminar entitled “China’s Maritime Silk Road Initiative (MSRI): Implications for Southeast Asia and the World” that was initiated by the Wong MNC Center and co-sponsored with Stanford University’s Shorenstein APARC Southeast Asia program. At the public seminar, Dr. Blanchard gave...

Wong MNC Center Executive Director Blanchard speaks at 2017 Government Affairs Forum in Beijing

May 28th, 2017

On May 18, 2017, Dr. Jean-Marc F. Blanchard, Executive Director of the Mr. & Mrs. S.H. Wong Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations, participated in a panel entitled “Managing GR in a Time of Geo-Political Risk” at the 2017 PublicAffairsAsia China Government Affairs Forum in Beijing, China. There, he offered his thoughts on matters such as the evolving political risk situation for business post-Brexit and the election of United States (US) President...

Wong MNC Center orchestrated special section on China's Maritime Silk Road Initiative and South Asia is published

April 12th, 2017

The April 2017 issue of Geopolitics (Vol. 22, No. 2, 2017), a leading journal in the field, will feature a special section on The Geopolitics of China's Maritime Silk Road Initiative (MSRI) that focused on the MSRI and South Asia. The special section provides background on the MSRI, surveys China's economic and political goals at the national and sub-national level, and identifies a number of number of the political and economic factors at the national and sub-national...

Wong MNC Center Executive Director Jean-Marc F. Blanchard interviewed by South China Morning Post

March 15th, 2017

For a story on India that focused extensively on Sino-Indian economic relations especially those relations in the context of China's One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative, Dr. Jean-Marc F. Blanchard, Executive Director of the Wong MNC Center, was interviewed by the South China Morning Post for his thoughts regarding Indian concerns about the scheme. Dr. Blanchard noted that “'The Indian security services are worried about the One Belt, One Road, particularly when it...

Executive Director Blanchard becomes editor of the Palgrave Studies in Asia-Pacific Political Economy series

September 28th, 2015

The Executive Director of the Mr. & Mrs. S.H. Wong Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations Jean-Marc F. Blanchard has become the editor of the Palgrave Studies in Asia-Pacific Political Economy series. The series aims to publish works, which will be meaningful to academics, businesspeople, and policymakers and broaden or deepen their knowledge about contemporary events or significant trends, or enable them to think in new ways about the interaction of...

Why Is Vietnam Korea’s Favorite FDI Destination in ASEAN?

Dr. Hwy-Chang Moon
Posted: Jul 29, 2017

The Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) has become a major destination for Korean foreign direct investment (FDI). In 2016, this region alone attracted about one half of Korea’s outward FDI (OFDI). Moreover, one half of Korea’s FDI flows within this regional bloc were concentrated in Vietnam.

Liberal Investment Policy a Key Path to Realize the National Interest

Mr. Naoyuki Haraoka
Posted: Jul 15, 2017

Contemporary business firms face the Fourth Industrial Revolution, a large-scale ICT revolution. Innovations emerging during this transformative period have made it possible for manufacturing companies to divide the production process into many separate operations such as new product development, component production, assemble, sales, after-sales services, and so on. East Asia is no stranger to these dynamics. The horizontal division of labor in manufacturing has been common in this region since the 1980s.

Kicking around Heavy Handed Policies against Chinese Outward FDI

Dr. Jean-Marc F. Blanchard
Posted: May 30, 2017

It is widely known that not that long ago China adopted measures to limit capital outflows following several years of massive declines in its foreign currency reserves. One of these was new review processes for deals crossing certain thresholds, which were lower in situations where an overseas deal was unrelated to the investor’s “core” business. Regarding the latter, policymakers opined that numerous deals were “‘irrational and abnormal.’”

Will RCEP Promote Investments in the Asia-Pacific?

Dr. Amitendu Palit
Posted: May 02, 2017

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is being looked upon as the most promising framework for regional economic integration in the Asia-Pacific Region (APR) after the United States (US) decided to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Negotiated by sixteen countries—the ten member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea and New Zealand, RCEP is not as ambitious as the TPP.

Bad THAAD, THAAD’S Bad: Reflections about China’s Economic Sanctions and their Implications for Multinational Corporations

Dr. Jean-Marc F. Blanchard
Posted: Apr 22, 2017

For about the past three months, Beijing has been escalating economic pressure on South Korea because of the latter’s decision to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system to counter North Korea’s missile threat. Chinese economic coercion has encompassed barriers to Korean cultural products like K-Pop bands, television shows, and online games entering China, bans against Chinese tourists going to Korea, the shutdown of Korean stores in China, the cessation of investment deals, and reduced buying of Korean products.

“America First” policy should be reinterpreted as “America’s MNEs First” Policy

Mr. Naoyuki Haraoka
Posted: Apr 15, 2017

United States (US) President Donald Trump aims to keep American companies inside the US to secure American employment. International trade analysis suggests, though, this is a wrongheaded policy. The present situation is one where Japan, Korea, and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) export intermediary goods to China, these countries’ subsidiaries or factories in China use a large proportion of these goods to assemble final goods for export to the US, European Union (EU), Japan, and elsewhere, and the US imports substantial amounts of assembled goods from China while exporting much less to China than those East Asian nations.

South Korea Must Provide a Better Business Environment to Attract Foreign Direct Investment

Dr. Hwy-Chang Moon
Posted: Mar 27, 2017

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in South Korea has grown continuously over the past two years and currently is at historical highs. However, challenges flowing from American President Donald Trump administration’s protectionist trade and reshoring policies and increasing competition from other countries proactively moving to enhance their respective business environments to attract FDI will challenge Korea’s ability to continue to successfully attract FDI. In order to remain an attractive destination for FDI, the Korean government needs to offer a more attractive business environment to foreign investors.

Shipping, Trade, and China

Dr. Scott MacDonald
Posted: Mar 17, 2017

Shipping remains a critical factor in global trade and also has been a key factor in the rise of the Chinese economy since the last decades of the 20th century. However, the 2008 Great Recession caught global shipping in a period of fleet expansion and greater capacity to carry freight per ship. Post-2008 the shipping industry has faced tough times. Trade has not recovered from levels prior to that year. Rates have been drastically cut, company revenues have plummeted, some companies went into bankruptcy (as with South Korea’s Hanjin Shipping in 2016), and other companies have merged.

AIIB’s new robust policy on prohibited practices

Ms. Susan Finder
Posted: Mar 17, 2017

On 8 December 2016, about a month after my previous blogpost entitled “Chinese Companies and the World Bank’s Procurement Blacklists” was published on this website, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) re-issued its Policy on Prohibited Practices. The policy has not received much attention outside of China, but is significant for both the legal and business community. In the Policy on Prohibited Practices, the AIIB sets out its rules and procedures. Prohibited Practices are defined in Section 3.2.

China’s Expanding Investment in Renewable Energy Development in the Middle East and North Africa

Dr. Manochehr Dorraj
Posted: Feb 19, 2017

China is the number one producer of and investor in renewable energy globally. Illustrating this, it has over 500 solar panel manufacturing companies, including the world’s top three solar panel producers. Its capabilities have allowed it to take a leading role in renewable energy investment in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The latter’s interest in renewables seems surprising given that MENA countries are primarily known for their massive oil and gas reserves and reliance on fossil fuel as a major source of domestic energy and export earnings.

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Data Snapshots, Rankings, and Indexes

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China-Japan FDI flows seem little correlated with other economic flows

U.S. FDI in China continues to Increase in the Aggregate and in Most Sectors

China is Myanmar's Largest Foreign Investor, 2005-2013

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Wong MNC Center Publications and Sponsored Publications

India’s Economic and Strategic Perceptions of China’s Maritime Silk Road Initiative

Amitendu Palit

The Maritime Silk Road Initiative (MSRI) is a part of China’s experiment in scaling up economic corridors across vast swathes of diverse economic geographies. China’s involvement in a large number of ongoing transport corridor projects has encouraged it to embark on the most ambitious of them all till date. The heterogeneity among the economic capacities and integrations of various regions constituting the MSRI, particularly in efficiency of infrastructure and ability to trade, is noticeable.

Silk Roads and Strings of Pearls: The Strategic Geography of China’s New Pathways in the Indian Ocean

David Brewster

Control over access to the Indian Ocean is often seen through a highly securitised lens. Strategic actors have long sought to use geographical constraints to maintain the region as a relatively enclosed strategic space. It has only a few narrow maritime entrance points and the littoral is not well connected to the interior of the Eurasian continent.

Publications of Wong MNC Center Staff & Research Fellows

Chinese FDI to Germany in the Renewable Energy Sector: Pre- and Post-Entry Psychic Distance Perceptions on Regulations-Related Dimensions

Katiuscia Vaccarini, Christoph Lattemann, Francesca Spigarelli, and Ernesto Tavoletti

Countries differ on various dimensions such as culture, language, business practices, policymaking, and regulation. Research shows that the amount of "distance" between countries on these dimensions impacts foreign direct investments (FDI) flows. Specifically, the greater the distance the greater the difficulties for investors. In this paper, the authors analyze the perception of "psychic distance" (PD) between China and Germany, by surveying Chinese managers who invested in Germany in the renewable energy (RE) sector.

The Future of Sino-Iran Relations

Manochehr Dorraj

Iran and China's expanding economic and political relations have a significant regional and global impact that as of yet has not received much scholarly scrut iny. This chapter examines the historical roots, evolution, and development of the Sino-Iranian relationship with a special emphasis on post 1979 period. Many bilateral economic and political issues bind the two nations, such as trade in arms, energy, manufactured goods, and technology. But this relationship also has a political and strategic dimension that serves both nations well. Based on the analysis of the present dynamics, I speculate on possible future trends.

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MNCs in the News

Wong MNC Center News

Featured Blog Postings

Why Is Vietnam Korea’s Favorite FDI Destination in ASEAN?

Liberal Investment Policy a Key Path to Realize the National Interest

Kicking around Heavy Handed Policies against Chinese Outward FDI

Will RCEP Promote Investments in the Asia-Pacific?

Bad THAAD, THAAD’S Bad: Reflections about China’s Economic Sanctions and their Implications for Multinational Corporations

“America First” policy should be reinterpreted as “America’s MNEs First” Policy

South Korea Must Provide a Better Business Environment to Attract Foreign Direct Investment

Shipping, Trade, and China

AIIB’s new robust policy on prohibited practices

China’s Expanding Investment in Renewable Energy Development in the Middle East and North Africa

Translate this Page

Data Snapshots, Rankings, and Indexes

Upcoming Events

Wong MNC Center Publications and Sponsored Publications

India’s Economic and Strategic Perceptions of China’s Maritime Silk Road Initiative

Silk Roads and Strings of Pearls: The Strategic Geography of China’s New Pathways in the Indian Ocean

Publications of Wong MNC Center Staff & Research Fellows

Chinese FDI to Germany in the Renewable Energy Sector: Pre- and Post-Entry Psychic Distance Perceptions on Regulations-Related Dimensions

The Future of Sino-Iran Relations

MNC Bloggers

Dr. Jean-Marc F. Blanchard

Dr. Manochehr Dorraj

Ms. Susan Finder

Mr. Naoyuki Haraoka

Dr. Scott MacDonald

Dr. Hwy-Chang Moon

Dr. Amitendu Palit

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