ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we will drill down into the impact of foreign investment on individual municipalities in China. We will focus on four municipalities, Shenzhen, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing. Geographically, these cities represent the South, North, East, and West in China. Temporally, they represent different periods of economic opening. Shenzhen started to receive significant foreign investment in the 1980s, Tianjin and Shanghai in the 1990s, and Chongqing in the 2000s. Sectorally, they also represent different mixes with Shenzhen initially focused on light manufacturing and then high technology development mostly for export; Shanghai on a widely diversified mix of industrial, service, and headquarters activities linking to global markets; Tianjin on manufacturing industries geared for the domestic market, then services; and Chongqing with a mix of resource-based industries, transportation equipment, computers, and real estate. In each case, foreign investment and foreign invested enterprises have been instrumental to the municipality’s economic development and remain highly relevant today.
