The Risks of Reining in Foreign Investment From China (World Politics Review)

By Kimberly Ann Elliott 

In just four decades, China has become a major global economic power. In recent years, it has surpassed Germany as the world’s largest exporter of merchandise. It is the world’s second-largest source of foreign investment, and third-largest recipient. Using an exchange rate that takes into account the lower cost of living in China, it has surpassed the United States to become the world’s largest economy, though still a much poorer one. And under its “Made in China 2025” industrial plan, the government wants to become an innovation hub and move up the manufacturing value chain to become largely self-sufficient in cutting-edge technologies, such as artificial intelligence and 5G mobile communications, and emerging sectors including robotics and green cars. 

Although there is much to welcome in the sharp reduction in poverty that has accompanied China’s economic success, the means by which it achieved this growth, and how it plans to maintain it, are an increasing source of concern around the world. 

Read the full article here.