Laboratory China

For decades now, political economic analysis of China’s going out strategy has emphasized the problem of overaccumulation. As the story goes, industrial overcapacity, weak consumption, and large trade surpluses have prompted the export of surplus capital. There are various versions of this argument. Giovanni Arrighi takes China’s outward investment as a sign of hegemonic transition. Minqi Li understands it as a spatial fix that attempts to stave off a systemic capitalist crisis. Matthew C. Klein and Michael Pettis focus on policies that suppress domestic consumption and exacerbate economic inequalities. Whatever the truth of this matter, China’s capital export has expanded since the late 1970s, although not without setbacks.