IBGC Speaks: China's Chance to Lead - Acquiring Global Influence via Infrastructure Development and Digitalization

How is China acquiring global influence? Come learn from Prof. Richard Carney who joins us from China in advance of a book of the same title he is publishing in summer 2023. His work considers a vital but overlooked feature – the interests of recipient countries. He will discuss countries in which political leaders rely more heavily on clientelism coupled with greater control over the corporate sector have a higher demand for Chinese infrastructure spending. Through a combination of statistical analyses and case studies, his talk shows that electoral autocracies (in contrast to closed autocracies, electoral democracies and liberal democracies) display these features most prominently and are the most avid recipients. This in turn contributes to elevated levels of Chinese digital technologies imports which facilitates the spread of Chinese technical standards, enabling China to create the scale to assert its dominance over the emerging digital economy. Because electoral autocracies are the most prevalent type of political regime, they are essential partners to China's global ambitions.

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