The International Origins of China鈥檚 National Champions
The International Origins of China's National Champions
The global rise of Chinese state-owned enterprises demands greater policy and scholarly attention. There are 82 Chinese state-owned enterprises on the 2019 Fortune Global 500 list of the world鈥檚 largest firms by revenue, up from just 5 in 2003. How did Chinese state-owned enterprises evolve from state-run factories during the Mao era to today鈥檚 partially privatized multinational corporations? Existing research largely attributes this transformation to domestic actors and policy experimentation occurring within China鈥檚 borders. In contrast, this project argues that the emergence of China鈥檚 鈥榥ational鈥 champions鈥攍arge, state-owned enterprise groups鈥攊s deeply embedded in transnational movements of people and ideas about corporate organization and the state鈥檚 role in the economy. Chinese policy-makers transformed state-owned enterprises through iterative 鈥減olicy collaging鈥: seeking out, selecting among, and creatively combining policy ideas and practices from multiple international sources. By demonstrating how transnational engagement can yield points of congruence but not convergence, this study establishes more realistic expectations about the ability of external actors to influence Chinese policy-making.
Wendy Leutert
Dr. Leutert is the GLP-Ming Z. Mei Chair of Chinese Economics and Trade at Indiana University鈥檚 Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies and the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures. Her work focuses on Chinese political economy, specifically the historical evolution and global expansion of China's state-owned enterprises. Other areas of her research include leadership in China's public sector, China鈥檚 early reform and opening, corporate governance in state-owned enterprises, and international investment and trade. Her articles are forthcoming or have been published in journals including The China Quarterly, Pacific Affairs, China Perspectives, and Asia Policy. Her commentary has been featured in media outlets including the Financial Times, New York Times, Reuters, Washington Post, The Guardian, and South China Morning Post. For further details, see: .