The Oppression Argument on Foreign Investment in China, 1895–1937

1961 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 435-448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chi-Ming Hou

Few would deny that one of the most important factors shaping the Chinese economy in the past hundred years or so was the economic contact between China and the West. This external economic confrontation has been widely held by the Chinese as a factor detrimental to the development of the Chinese economy. First, it is argued that foreign trade and foreign investment in China upset the Chinese economy by ruining handicraft industries and disrupting agriculture. Secondly, foreign trade and investment in China are alleged to have drained the Chinese economy of its wealth because of the secular unfavorable balance of trade of China and the large amount of income made or remitted to their home countries by Western enterprises in China. Thirdly, it is maintained that foreign enterprises in China were so effective in their competitive power or enjoyed so many advantages secured on their behalf by their respective governments that the Chinese-owned modern enterprises were hopelessly oppressed and had little chance, if any, to grow.


2007 ◽  
Vol 191 ◽  
pp. 720-741 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Ya Qin

AbstractThis article assesses the impact of China's accession to the World Trade Organization on its foreign trade and investment regime. While the government had begun liberalizing the Chinese economy long before joining the WTO, the accession induced regulatory, institutional and normative changes that have transformed the landscape of trade and investment in China. The profound impact of the WTO stems directly from the extensive commercial and rule commitments China undertook in its accession. Focusing on the most significant of these commitments, the article examines their implications for Chinese constitutional law and their effect on the regulation of foreign trade, foreign investment, intellectual property rights and domestic governance. Additionally, it looks at the impact of WTO disputes on Chinese law and practice. It concludes that China's accession has made its foreign trade and investment regime far more liberalized and less opaque than a decade ago. More importantly, the accession has institutionalized the process of China's domestic reform externally through the force of WTO obligations. Although much uncertainty remains concerning the future direction of government policies, WTO membership ensures that the course of China's economic development will be charted within the disciplines of the WTO system.



1992 ◽  
Vol 131 ◽  
pp. 637-690 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Y. Kueh

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in China is the most dramatic manifestation of China's open-door policy. Together with continuous import and export expansion, FDI has increasingly exposed the Chinese economy to the western world during the past decade. There are, however, several differences between FDI and foreign trade in terms of their implications for the domestic economy. The most obvious is that FDI directly helps to relieve domestic capital supply bottlenecks and to promote employment and economic growth. By contrast, increased capital formation through imports of machinery and equipment must be financed by extra export earnings.



Author(s):  
Jai S. Mah ◽  
Sunyoung Noh

The current paper compares the patterns of Japanese outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) in China with that of Korea. As a result of the opening up of the Chinese economy together with the accumulating foreign exchange reserves, their FDI in China has risen over the past decades. The share of Japanese FDI in China has remained less than 20 percent of Japanese OFDI as a whole, while Korean FDI in China reached two-fifths of its total OFDI. The gravity model appears to be suitable for explaining the pattern of Korean FDI in China. By industries, the manufacturing sector has accounted for as much as or over three quarters of Japanese and Korean FDI in China. The former appears to be focused more on value-added industries such as machinery contributing to transfer of advanced technologies, while the latter is relatively more concentrated on labor intensive industries contributing to employment generation.



2015 ◽  
Vol 16 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 800-842 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia T. Salomon ◽  
Sandra Friedrich

Many countries in the East Asian and Pacific (EAP) region have strengthened their networks of bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and other international investment agreements (IIAs). This growth in investment protection instruments not only illustrates the region’s continued attractiveness to foreign investors, but also reflects a shift of several developing EAP countries from having been predominantly recipients of foreign investment in the past, toward becoming important sources of foreign investment abroad. Reflecting trade and investment patterns, as of December 2014, EAP countries concluded a total of at least 712 BITs and 69 other IIAs. On the heels of this development, the region has seen a rising number of investment arbitrations. As of December 2014, at least 49 investment arbitrations have been brought against EAP countries and/or by EAP investors. Most recently, the number of new cases has picked up pace significantly, making the region a veritable ‘hot bed’ of investment arbitration.



Author(s):  
Ana Salvador Chamorro

<p>El proceso de reforma económica que ha experimentado la economía de China es uno de los fenómenos de mayor relevancia en la evolución de la Economía Mundial en los últimos treinta años y, sin duda, seguirá siéndolo en el futuro. Dentro de este proceso, la apertura al exterior, que el gobierno chino inició en 1978, ha situado al país en un lugar de máxima relevancia dentro de los flujos comerciales y financieros internacionales. En este contexto, el objetivo de este trabajo es intentar realizar un análisis general de la evolución del comercio exterior de China en las últimas décadas, prestando especial atención a sus exportaciones de bienes y poniendo énfasis en los cambios experimentados durante los últimos años.</p><p>The process of economic reform that has experienced the Chinese economy is one of the most important events in the evolution of the World Economy in the past 30 years, and will undoubtedly remain so in the future. Within this economic reform, the opening process that the Chinese Government began in 1978, has put the country in a place of utmost importance in the international trade and financial flows. In this context, this paper try to perform an analysis of the evolution of China's foreign trade in recent decades, with particular attention to its exports and emphasizing the changes in recent years</p>



1986 ◽  
Vol 106 ◽  
pp. 291-305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shu-yun Ma

The importance of international trade to the Chinese economy has been growing since the formal approval of the open-door policy at the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party in 1978. However, trade expansion in China faces three constraints. First, there is the theoretical problem that orthodox ideology makes it illegitimate for a socialist country to have a large foreign trade sector. Secondly, there is the institutional problem that the Soviet-type foreign trade mechanism, characterized by a state monopoly of foreign trade, a centralized foreign trade plan, and insulation of domestic from foreign prices, is incapable of handling trade expansion in an efficient manner. Thirdly, there is the economic problem that the lack of competitiveness of domestic goods in the international market limits the country's export and thus import capacity. While the new Chinese leaders are making immense efforts to remove these constraints, this article will focus only on the first. The anti-trade attitude of Communist China is the combined result of China's historical heritage and Marxist ideology. The long history of self-sufficiency in “feudal” China meant that trade was never an imperative economic need. When contact with the west increased in the 19th century, international trade was associated with an influx of opium, an outflow of silver, and a series of unequal treaties. Such an unhappy, early experience of contact with the west has left China sensitive to any increase in international trade.



1996 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas R. Lardy


1995 ◽  
Vol 32 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 227-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. J. Venter ◽  
A. R. Deacon

Six major rivers flow through the Kruger National Park (KNP). All these rivers originate outside and to the west of the KNP and are highly utilized. They are crucially important for the conservation of the unique natural environments of the KNP. The human population growth in the Lowveld during the past two decades brought with it the rapid expansion of irrigation farming, exotic afforestation and land grazed by domestic stock, as well as the establishment of large towns, mines, dams and industries. Along with these developments came overgrazing, erosion, over-utilization and pollution of rivers, as well as clearing of indigenous forests from large areas outside the borders of the KNP. Over-utilization of the rivers which ultimately flow through the KNP poses one of the most serious challenges to the KNP's management. This paper gives the background to the development in the catchments and highlights the problems which these have caused for the KNP. Management actions which have been taken as well as their results are discussed and solutions to certain problems proposed. Three rivers, namely the Letaba, Olifants and Sabie are respectively described as examples of an over-utilized river, a polluted river and a river which is still in a fairly good condition.



Author(s):  
Farhad Khosrokhavar

The creation of the Islamic State in Iraq and Sham (ISIS) changed the nature of jihadism worldwide. For a few years (2014–2017) it exemplified the destructive capacity of jihadism and created a new utopia aimed at restoring the past greatness and glory of the former caliphate. It also attracted tens of thousands of young wannabe combatants of faith (mujahids, those who make jihad) toward Syria and Iraq from more than 100 countries. Its utopia was dual: not only re-creating the caliphate that would spread Islam all over the world but also creating a cohesive, imagined community (the neo-umma) that would restore patriarchal family and put an end to the crisis of modern society through an inflexible interpretation of shari‘a (Islamic laws and commandments). To achieve these goals, ISIS diversified its approach. It focused, in the West, on the rancor of the Muslim migrants’ sons and daughters, on exoticism, and on an imaginary dream world and, in the Middle East, on tribes and the Sunni/Shi‘a divide, particularly in the Iraqi and Syrian societies.



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