Speaker: Dr. Yuan Wang, (Assistant Professor at Duke Kunshan University)
Chair: Dr Yuezhou Yang (Research Fellow, LSE-Fudan Global Public Policy Hub)
Abstract
What is the role of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in state-owned enterprises’ (SOEs’) overseas operations? Extensive literature have examined the functions of Party in Chinese SOEs, particularly focusing on CCP’s efforts in maintaining control over the increasingly powerful businesses and whether the Party institutions contribute to the effectiveness of corporate governance. The roles of CCP institutions in overseas SOEs remain rarely examined, however, and this paper serves as an initial attempt to fill this gap with innovative evidence. We argue that Chinese Party organizations in overseas SOEs penetrates in various aspects of project management and in professional, social, and even personal life of Chinese employees, to the level that it may no longer be possible to distinguish the Party structure from the corporate management structure. Variegated forms of party-building activities serve not only to demonstrate political loyalty, but also provide mechanisms for social mobilization targeting Chinese employees for effective project implementation, as well as resource mobilization for financial and diplomatic support from their headquarters and government. Internally oriented, these party activities do not aim at ideological spreading to host countries; in fact, these party activities are carefully concealed from their local employees and host communities. Empirical data is collected through one-month participatory observation in a Chinese construction SOE in Ethiopia in August 2024 and multi-year fieldwork in Kenya, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Angola, Pakistan and Beijing on Chinese SOEs’ overseas operations. These primary data is triangulated with online ethnography of the social media accounts of Party organizations in various SOEs as well as policy and media documents. This study represents one of the first attempts to understand CCP’s role in overseas SOEs by detailing several grassroot party-building activities and their rationale and functions drawing on original physical and digital ethnographical work and multiyear interview data. This study also seeks to contribute to an emerging call in the field of Chinese political economy to “bring the party back in,” and discuss the daily realities of “party-state capitalism” beyond China.
Bio
Dr. Wang is an Assistant Professor of International Relations at Duke Kunshan University starting from July 2022. Her teaching and research interests include global China, African politics, and comparative political economy of development. Her research covers African state effectiveness and China’s economic and political engagement with Africa. Her book The Railpolitik (Oxford University Press) investigates why Chinese-financed and -constructed develop into starkly different trajectories in different African countries.
How to attend
This seminar will be hosted in hybrid format,via Zoom (https://lse.zoom.us/j/82109719675) and in-person at LSE Connaught House 7.05, LSE