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,...
Archives: Blog entries
April 22, 2017
March 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...
February 18, 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...
February 1, 2017
There has been growing angst in the United States (US) about China’s designs in the semiconductor sector. What seems to have elevated the level of anxiety is the fact Chinese firms now are throwing around billions of dollars to acquire American and European semiconductor firms like Lattice Semiconductor (US) and...
December 19, 2016
Over the past year or so, China’s foreign exchange reserves have been “plummeting,” falling several hundred billion (US) dollars as a result of Chinese investors pouring massive sums of money into foreign assets such as real estate and overseas stock markets and Chinese companies undertaking record levels of outward foreign...
November 26, 2016
As our readership knows, one of China’s signature foreign policy initiatives is the Maritime Silk Road Initiative (MSRI), a key part of its larger One Belt, One Road (OBOR) scheme. If fully accomplished, the MSRI has the potential to vastly increase hard (e.g., land and sea) and soft (e.g., legal,...
October 28, 2016
The World Bank and other multilateral development banks have robust fraud and corruption policies relating to procurement and consulting services, with due process procedures that permit the accused firms to challenge the banks’ findings. A quick search of the World Bank’s list of Debarred & Cross-debarred Firms & Individuals...
October 15, 2016
China’s impressive success in rapidly expanding its investment and ties with the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in the last two decades is a significant, yet under-investigated subject. What factors contribute to China’s success? China’s prudent policies of win-win trade ties and investment in building infrastructure have paid...
September 2, 2016
For diverse reasons, Chinese companies have long been underestimated. Drawing upon his theory of the multinational enterprise based in transaction cost economics, Professor Jean-Francois Hennart argued, however, at the recent 10th annual China Goes Global meeting that such presumptions were ill-advised. In his view, the allure of the China market...
July 30, 2016
Chinese companies like Bright Foods, Dalian Wanda, Fosun Group, Midea, and State Grid have been active buyers of European companies over the past few years. In 2014, they invested USD $18 billion while in 2015 they poured $23 billion into Europe. Reasons include inter alia purchasing brands, acquiring technology, and...
