China's Acquisitions Abroad - Global Ambitions, Domestic Effects

Authors

Nicholas C. Howson, University of Michigan Law SchoolFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-2006

Abstract

In the past year or so, the world has observed with seeming trepidation what appears to be a new phenomenon-China's "stepping out" into the world economy. The move, labeled the "Going Out Strategy" by Chinese policy makers, sees China acting in the world not just as a trader of commodities and raw materials, or the provider of inexpensively-produced consumer goods for every corner of the globe, but as a driven and sophisticated acquirer of foreign assets and the equity interests in the legal entities that control such assets. The New Yorker magazine, ever topical and appropriately humorous, highlighted this attention with a cartoon in its October 17,2005 edition. That drawing shows two prosperous and no doubt Upper East Side-dwelling matrons holding cocktails before a fireplace. Above the fireplace hangs the formal portrait of a balding, well-fed, elderly, man. Looking at the portrait, one lady says matter-of-factly to the other: "That's Karl, before he was purchased by the Chinese."

Recommended Citation

Howson, Nicholas C. "China's Acquisitions Abroad - Global Ambitions, Domestic Effects." Law Quad. Notes 48, no. 3 (2006): 73-84. (This essay is based on a talk delivered to the Law School's International Law Workshop on October 17, 2005)