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Diving into News about MNCs

Businesses and the Risk of Taking Stock in the Infrastructure Alphabet Soup Game
July 6th, 2022
At the recent Group of Seven (G-7) meeting in Germany, the attending countries put forth the “Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment” (PGII), which is a revised version of the Build Better Back World (B3W) scheme that was launched at last year’s G-7 meeting. While there was never any concrete figure attributed to B3W, the United States (US) touted B3W would catalyze “hundreds of billions of dollars of infrastructure investment” for developing countries.
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MNCs in the News - 2022-February
March 7th, 2022
Didi Global retreats from its announced decision to cease operations in Russia. Chinese businesses in Ukraine have taken various steps to protect their workers and projects following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Indian tax officials launch tax probe of Huawei’s offices in India, raising further concerns about India’s stance towards Chinese tech companies. China Unicom Global criticizes the United States (US) Federal Communication Commission’s decision to terminate the operating license of its US subsidiary. As...
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Wong MNC Center News

Mr. & Mrs. S.H. Wong Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations orchestrates successful workshop on Chinese seaports in Europe and the Americas
December 14th, 2021
In mid-December, the Mr. & Mrs. S.H. Wong Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations (Wong MNC Center) hosted a workshop entitled Chinese Seaports in Europe and the Americas: Cutting through the Waves in the San Francisco Bay Area (California, USA). This 1-1/2 day workshop, also organized and sponsored by the Wong MNC Center, drew leading academics, researchers, and policymakers from Brazil, Denmark, Ecuador, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the...
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Ms. Tatiana Rosito joins the Advisory Board of the Mr. & Mrs. S.H. Wong Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations
September 7th, 2021
Ms. Tatiana Rosito has joined the Advisory Board of the Mr. & Mrs. S.H. Wong Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations. Ms. Rosito is a Brazilian economist and diplomat, currently senior consultant to the New Development Bank in Shanghai. She is a Senior Fellow at the Brazilian Center for International Relations and a member of the China-Brazil Business Council’s consultative committee. Tatiana was Petrobras’ China Chief-Representative and served as a...
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Executive Director Jean-Marc F. Blanchard interviewed for The Diplomat article about US-China Foreign Direct Investment Dynamics
May 9th, 2021
Dr. Jean-Marc F. Blanchard, Founding Executive Director of the Mr. & Mrs. S.H. Wong Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations, was interviewed for an article in the The Diplomat. Dr. Blanchard offered his thoughts about the state of China-United States (US) foreign direct investment (FDI) and how various dynamics in China and the US and between the two countries might affect FDI going forward. For example, he commented on how China’s 14th Five-Year Plan,...
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Wong MNC Center orchestrated volume entitled China’s Maritime Silk Road, Africa, and the Middle East: Feats, Freezes, and Failures publicized on Palgrave MacMillan
October 27th, 2020
China’s Maritime Silk Road, Africa, and the Middle East: Feats, Freezes, and Failures is now publicized on the Palgrave MacMillan website. This edited volume, initiated and brought to fruition by the Mr. & Mrs. S.H. Wong Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations (Wong MNC Center), features contributions by a distinguished group of experts on Africa-China and Middle East-China economic and political affairs on topics such as Iran’s relations with China in...
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Founding Executive Director Jean-Marc F. Blanchard interviewed for Financial Times story about plummeting China-US bilateral investment
October 27th, 2020
Dr. Jean-Marc F. Blanchard, Founding Executive Director of the Mr. & Mrs. S.H. Wong Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations, was interviewed for a Financial Times story covering plummeting foreign direct investment (FDI) flows between China and the United States (US). The story described trends in bilateral FDI statistics, identified some of the reasons such as Covid-19 and tensions between Beijing and Washington for the depressed numbers, and noted some...
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Executive Director Jean-Marc F. Blanchard participates in Brazilian Center for International Relations China Analysis Group Webinar on Asian Supply Chains and Decoupling
June 1st, 2020
On May 6, 2020, 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 webinar organized by the China Analysis Group of the Brazilian Center for International Relations (CEBRI). For this timely CEBRI webinar, which focused on the theme of “Asian production chains and technological decoupling,” and included participants representing institutions in Brazil,...
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Mr. Kenneth Jarrett joins the Advisory Board of the Mr. & Mrs. S.H. Wong Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations
April 14th, 2020
Mr. Kenneth Jarrett has joined the Advisory Board of the Mr. & Mrs. S.H. Wong Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations. He is a Senior Advisor with the Albright Stonebridge Group, a strategic advisory firm based in Washington, D.C. He previously served as President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai from September 2013 to December 2018. Prior to that he was the Greater China Chairman for APCO Worldwide, a Washington-based public affairs...
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Executive Director Jean-Marc F. Blanchard interviewed for Frankfurter Allgemeine story on the China-United States Phase I Trade deal
February 11th, 2020
Dr. Jean-Marc F. Blanchard, Executive Director of the Mr. & Mrs. S.H. Wong Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations, was interviewed for a Frankfurter Allgemeine, Germany’s equivalent of the Wall Street Journal, article published in the wake of the conclusion of the Phase I Trade deal between China and the United States (US) in mid-Januaruy. This wide-ranging piece asked why the deal was struck, which side won, and what is the likely direction of the...
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Executive Director Jean-Marc F. Blanchard speaks at EU-China Roundtable on “The Business of Trade, Investment, and Global Politics.”
October 27th, 2019
Dr. Jean-Marc F. Blanchard, Executive Director of the Mr. & Mrs. S.H. Wong Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations, participated in a EU-China Roundtable on “The Business of Trade, Investment, and Global Politics” organized by the University of Pittsburgh Asian Studies and European Studies Centers. At the Roundtable in Pittsburgh, held on October 24, Dr. Blanchard spoke about some of the challenges and opportunities for European businesses contemplating...
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Executive Director Jean-Marc F. Blanchard presents paper on China-India Relations in the Context of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) at Seminar on “The Future of Sino-Indian Relations”
October 27th, 2019
Dr. Jean-Marc F. Blanchard, Executive Director of the Mr. & Mrs. S.H. Wong Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations, presented a paper on China-India Relations in the Context of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) at a seminar on “The Future of Sino-Indian Relations: Problems and Prospects” held at Heidelberg University, Germany in mid-October 2019. Dr. Blanchard analyzed China’s economic, political, and military reaction to India’s multifaceted and...
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Executive Director Dr. Jean-Marc F. Blanchard invited to participate on panel for Bay Area Council “2019 California Technology Business Matchmaking” forum (Shanghai, China)
July 3rd, 2019
On June 24, Dr. Jean-Marc F. Blanchard, Executive Director of the Mr. & Mrs. S.H. Wong Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations, participated on a Panel entitled “Exploring the Benefits and Challenges of Cross-Border Collaboration on Innovation” at the Bay Area Council orchestrated “2019 California Technology Business Matchmaking” forum in Shanghai, China, which included entrepreneurs, investors, consultants, government officials, and industry association...
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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...
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Publications of Wong MNC Center Staff, Advisory Board Members, and Research Fellows

A Bargaining and Property Rights Perspective on the Belt and Road Initiative: Cases from the Italian Port System

Cristian Luise, Peter J. Buckley, Hinrich Voss, Emmanuella Plakoyiannaki, and Elisa Barbieri

Drawing upon the bargaining power literature and property rights economics, this article explores how and why host country actors at different levels of governance influence foreign direct investment (FDI). Exploiting these analytical tools, it conducts a comparative case study analyzing four Chinese company attempts to enter Italian seaports. It finds there must be consistency in the distribution of rights among the various participants in the property relationship for a Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) port investment to occur.

Bibliometric Review on FDI Attractiveness Factors

Vanessa P.G. Bretas, Ilan Alon, Andrea Paltrinieri and Kavilash Chawla

This article reviews the literature on the attractiveness of foreign direct investment (FDI) through bibliometric and content analysis. It combined co-citation, bibliographic coupling, and keyword co-occurrence time analysis with content analysis of the most cited articles by using the Bibliometrix R-package and VOSviewer software. A study of 499 articles extracted from the Web of Science database reveals five main research categories: FDI structure, market conditions, entry conditions, institutional framework, and resource availability.

Wong MNC Center Publications & Sponsored Publications

China’s Maritime Silk Road and Small States: Lessons from the Case of Djibouti

David Styan

This article sheds light on the factors shaping China’s Maritime Silk Road Initiative (MSRI) in small states through a study of Djibouti and the MSRI. It also analyses the establishment of China’s first overseas military base and thus evaluates the military-security implications of Chinese MSRI ports.

Domestic Politics as Fuel for China’s Maritime Silk Road Initiative: The Case of the Gulf Monarchies

Jonathan Fulton

China’s involvement with the Gulf monarchies has been built upon an economic foundation. With the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Maritime Silk Road Initiative (MSRI) this has expanded, as the Gulf monarchies see cooperation with China through MSRI projects as a means of advancing economic development programs necessary to move beyond single-resource rentier economies and relationships with external powers as a means of ensuring their security in an unstable region.

Data Snapshots, Rankings, and Indexes

Click to enlarge displayed image

Japan and Korea long have been Vietnam's dominant FDI sources
Japanese FDI Flows to Southeast Asian Countries Not Reaching Old Highs
China-Japan FDI flows seem little correlated with other economic flows

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The theme of the 2022 FIDIC Global Infrastructure Conference is “building a better tomorrow, by investing today: Sustainable infrastructure development to improve...

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