China's Acquistions Abroad - Global Ambitions, Domestic Effects

The following essay is based on a talk delivered to the Law School's International Law Workshop on October 17, 2005. In the past year or so, the world has observed with seeming trepidation what appears to be a new phenomenon - China's "stepping out" into the world economy. This move, labeled the "Going Out Strategy" by Chinese policy makers, sees China acting in the world not just as a trader of commodities and raw materials, or trhe provider of inexpensively-produced consumer goods for every corner of the globe, but as a driven and sophisticated acquirer of foreign assets and the equity interests in the legal entities that control such assets.