Introduction on Journal Special Issue: The Regulatory Response to China's State-Owned Enterprise Investment Abroad

Abstract

Chinese direct investment abroad has become a major component of global direct capital flows over the past decade. In this time, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) have been at the forefront of Chinese investors' push into international markets. By definition, SOEs and SWFs have a connection to their home government, which may take a number of forms, including their having government representatives in executive roles and preferential access to state capital. The connection between SOEs and their home government is sometimes seen to complicate competitive and political economy considerations for privately owned competitors, along with host governments and their citizens. SOEs, like privately owned enterprises, are in fact heterogeneous. Their management and access to state resources depends on which country they originate from, and how they are administered within that country. Understanding an SOE's connection with their home country's political regime and how that connection could impact on the host economy is a difficult task for host governments attempting to maximise capital flows while ensuring their national interests remain protected. Managing the tension between maximising productive capital inflows and national interests has created some headaches for host governments around the world.