ABSTRACT
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has become ‘the workshop of the world’ (Chandler, 2003; Roberts and Kynge, 2003). In 2002, China overtook the United States as the world’s largest FDI recipient (US$52.7 billion). The FDI in China further increased by US$53.5 billion in 2003 by which a total of 465,277 foreignfunded enterprises, including more than 400 of the Fortune Global 500, were operating on the Chinese soil. China’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001 and forthcoming hosting of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics and the 2010 Shanghai World Expo have lifted the PRC to the very frontier of international business. When this chapter was being written, the 2004 World Economic Forum was taking place in Davos, Switzerland. ‘China’ was the simple, one-word answer for many of the key questions facing the world:
The world’s fastest-growing economy? China. The market you can’t afford not to be in? China. The source of the funds needed to keep the US economy from going bust? China. The engine behind global trade growth? China. The unfair trader manipulating the value of its currency at the expense of Europe and the United States? China. The giant gorilla siphoning off jobs from the West?
