March 2022 Newsletter

The Mr. & Mrs. S.H. Wong Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations, a California (US) think tank, promotes discussion about and research on the politico-economy of MNCs investing, operating, or domiciled in East Asia.


MNC Center News

Wong MNC Center Executive Director Jean-Marc F. Blanchard, Ph.D. Presents Paper at International Studies Association Annual Meeting
At the 2022 International Studies Association annual meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, Dr. Jean-Marc F. Blanchard, Founding Executive Director of the Mr. & Mrs. S.H. Wong Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations, presented a paper about Chinese outward foreign direct investment (FDI) and technology transfer (TT) to host countries; i.e., the places where FDI takes place, focusing on developing countries.  Dr. Blanchard...
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Danielly Ramos has joined the Wong MNC Center as a Senior Research Fellow
Dr. Danielly Ramos has joined the Mr. & Mrs. S.H. Wong Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations as a Senior Research Fellow.   She is Associate Professor at the Institute of International Relations and Director of the Center for Global Studies at the University of Brasília.  A specialist on Chinese foreign policy and China-Latin American relations, she researchs topics such as Chinese FDI in Latin...
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Bas Hooijmaaijers has joined the Wong MNC Center as a Senior Research Fellow
Dr. Bas Hooijmaaijers has joined the Mr. & Mrs. S.H. Wong Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations as a Senior Research Fellow.   He is Associate Research Professor in the School of Politics and International Relations at East China Normal University and focuses on China-EU relations including Chinese investment in Europe and China's Digital Silk Road.  For more information, please see http...
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Blog Postings

Finding Greatness in China’s Greater Bay Area (GBA), part III: The GBA as (yet) another “Silicon Valley”

Dr. Jean-Marc F. Blanchard
This series’s first blog notes the GBA seeks to create a global innovation, research, and technology hub in the mold of “Silicon Valley.”  There are many reasons to expect success.  These range from a “cocktail of inputs” including massive government support to huge capital pools to a strong ecosystem for research to prominent artificial intelligence, health tech, robotics, smart city, and telecommunications players with extensive...
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MNCs in the News

MNCs in the News - 2022-February

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...

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MNCs in the News-2022-January

China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) touts that China will act to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) despite a challenging environment. In the wake of a backlash following its removal of Xinjiang products from its...

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Publications of Wong MNC Center Staff & Research Fellows

Emerging Market Multinationals Report 2021: Building the Future on ESG Excellence

Lourdes Casanova and Anne Miroux

This report provides data on emerging market multinational corporations (MNCs) in the new stage of globalization, highlighting the special features of Chinese MNCs. In addition, it discusses environment, society, and governance (ESG) in emerging economies, the ESG performance of emerging MNCs (EMNCs), and supplies case studies on countries like China, Thailand, and India. It adds to our knowledge about sustainability and ESG in emerging markets and ways to improve it. The report further analyzes the changing logic of EMNC in corporate social performance.

Governance, Foreign Aid, and Chinese Foreign Direct Investment

Roger Fon and Ilan Alon

This article explores the interaction between Chinese foreign aid in shaping Chinese state-owned enterprises’ (CSOE’s) foreign direct investment (FDI) in Africa and the quality of host country’s governance. It finds the quality of governance in the host country has a negative impact on CSOEs’ FDI and official aid and loans from China are detrimental to the relationship between the quality of host country governance and CSOE FDI. In short, CSOE FDI in locations with weak governance increases when it is integrated with less concessional Chinese foreign aid.

The EU-China comprehensive agreement on investment: Between strategic opportunity and strategic autonomy

Henry Gao

This article critically analyzes the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) concluded in principle between the European Union (EU) and China in December 2020. The EU previously hailed the CAI as “the most ambitious agreement China has reached with a third country.” However, this article argues the CAI does not add much in substance and that the key factor in understanding the agreement lies in the larger strategic and geopolitical rather than economic interests of the EU and China.

FDI Activities and Integration in ASEAN and East Asia

Shandre Mugan Thangavelu, Shujiro Urata, and Dessie Tarko Ambaw

This chapter examines foreign direct investment (FDI) activities and investment integration in Asia, focusing on Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries. To do so, it makes use of the FDI literature on linkages, spillovers, the global value chain, the network economy, and FDI’s impact on economic growth. The chapter also discusses the development of ASEAN’s investment institutions such as the ASEAN Comprehensive Investment Area, which builds upon frameworks adopted in the 1980s and 1990s, and falls within ASEAN’s larger ASEAN Economic Community endeavor.

MNEs and the Practice of International Business Diplomacy

Jonathan P. Doh, Nicolas M. Dahan, and Michelle Casario

This article develops a clearer conceptualization of International Business Diplomacy (IBD) as a set of practices that multinational enterprises (MNEs) use to implement their non-market strategy (NMS). Scholars have long documented IBD as a practice of multinational enterprises (MNEs). The article contends IBD constitutes a set of practices in the implementation of global NMS and that the most appropriate practices depend upon two key dimensions of the global institutional governance regime confronting MNEs: the governance level and the degree of rule formality.

Pondering Anew RCEP’s Political Ramifications

Jean-Marc F. Blanchard and Wei Liang

This Op-Ed appeared in The Diplomat in January 2022. It constitutes the third in a four-part series contemplating the consequences of RCEP. It focuses on the political implications of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which many assume will be an incontrovertible success for China in terms of its regional and global political standing, rule setting authority, and soft power. In line with earlier pieces in the series, this piece challenges conventional wisdom about RCEP’s effects.

China and the Impact of Economic Globalization: A Complex Tale of Gains and Losses Viewed Through the Lenses of FDI

Jean-Marc F. Blanchard

From the time it began to reengage with global economic flows in the late 1970s, and especially after joining the WTO in 2001, China has steadily enmeshed itself in economic globalization (EG). It has become the world’s largest trading nation, one of the largest recipients of foreign direct investment (FDI), and a major player in the international currency regime. At first glance, it is hard to dispute that China has been anything but a beneficiary of EG given the growth, foreign exchange, jobs, technology, and tax revenues it has derived from it. Yet the reality is far more complex.

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