ABSTRACT
China’s interactions with Southeast Asia and the wider world are shaped by its domestic political economy, including its ambitious ‘Made in China 2025’ strategy that aims to push for cutting-edge technological innovation. With China’s ongoing transition from a labor-intensive economy to a knowledge-driven one, the state has vigorously promoted diasporic Chinese returnee entrepreneurs as a new dynamic force for the nation’s economic development and innovation. This chapter examines one of the major actors, the diasporic entrepreneurs’ interactions with the state, focusing on how the Chinese government has orientated and structured them into the state’s national and globalization agendas. By analyzing the mechanisms and limitations of the top-down relationship between the state and returnee entrepreneurs, it argues that the latter’s acquisition of political capital is a critical factor to successfully convert transnational cultural capital into economic capital. The chapter concludes with a discussion on the theoretical implications of the Chinese experiences for transnationalism. It calls for a reversed analytical perspective on diaspora returnees’ transnational practices and on the conversion of cultural capital in the new political economy of a rising China.
