Global dominance potential of Chinese corporations

Abstract

Thispaper assesses the corporate strength of Chinese firms in the global market and addresses the question: does China's growing corporate strength indicate a rise in its global influence, or, in other words, what are the prospects for the emergence of capitalism with Chinese characteristics as the new dominant paradigm. It finds that Chinese corporations have significantly improved their global profit share in several sectors during 2007-2013. Many of these corporations are Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) that play a dominant role. Summarizing a recent case study of Chinese SOE strategy in the Zambian copper belt it provides evidence for close interaction between the state and corporate management which is dependent on state and party support. SOE management also partially shares the ideological perspective of the state elite. The state can use this SOE corporate strategy as an instrument for the pursuit of Chinese national interests but its ability to do is constrained by the bargaining capability of other states. However, China does not intend to play the type of adversarial role that the USSR did during the Cold War era. China's challenge to the West is nationalistic and not ideological and is therefore unlikely to stimulate distributional reform in the West.