China's Chance to Lead
Acquiring Global Influence via Infrastructure Development and Digitalization

Explains China's growing global influence by considering the interests of both China and countries which receive Chinese investment.

Richard W. Carney (Author)

9781009385886, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 16 November 2023

386 pages
23.5 x 16 x 2.5 cm, 0.698 kg

'… a well-structured academic work that provides a systematic theoretical explanation, clear and measured indicators, and rigorous empirical analyses.' Alvin Camba, The Developing Economies

How is China acquiring global influence? Rather than focusing exclusively on China's interests, this book considers a vital but overlooked feature – the interests of recipient countries. Richard W. Carney argues that countries in which political leaders rely more heavily on clientelism coupled with greater control over the corporate sector have a higher demand for Chinese infrastructure spending. Through a combination of statistical analyses and case studies, Carney shows that electoral autocracies (in contrast to closed autocracies, electoral democracies, and liberal democracies) display these features most prominently and are the most avid recipients. This in turn contributes to elevated levels of Chinese digital technologies imports which facilitates the spread of Chinese technical standards, enabling China to create the scale to assert its dominance over the emerging digital economy. Electoral autocracies are the most prevalent type of regime, and are therefore essential partners to China's global ambitions.

1. Introduction
2. Market failures and China's chance to lead
3. Measuring infrastructure needs and foreign infrastructure investment
4. Theory: why countries vary in their participation in the belt and road initiative
5. Measuring clientelism and the corporate sector across political regimes
6. Political regimes and BRI country level patterns
7. Political regimes and BRI project characteristics
8. Case studies of political regimes and the BRI
9. Chinese exports of digital technologies and standards
10. Conclusions and implications .

Subject Areas: Political economy [KCP]