Changing Lanes in China: Foreign Direct Investment, Local Governments, and Auto Sector Development [Hardcover]

This book explains at the regional level how China has used foreign direct investment to promote local development.The primary purpose of the book is to understand how China has used foreign investment to promote local development. It uses the case studies of five Chinese regions that have joint venture projects in the auto industry. The analysis covers two decades, both before and after Chinese accession to the World Trade Organization, and is based on hundreds of interviews. The auto industry provides a window into the strategies of the global multinationals that seek access to the vast Chinese market--companies such as Volkswagen, General Motors, and Honda --and a country that hopes to use these multinationals to leap forward in the development process.The primary purpose of the book is to understand how China has used foreign investment to promote local development. It uses the case studies of five Chinese regions that have joint venture projects in the auto industry. The analysis covers two decades, both before and after Chinese accession to the World Trade Organization, and is based on hundreds of interviews. The auto industry provides a window into the strategies of the global multinationals that seek access to the vast Chinese market--companies such as Volkswagen, General Motors, and Honda --and a country that hopes to use these multinationals to leap forward in the development process.This book addresses two of the most important trends in political economy during the last two decades--globalization and decentralization--in the context of the world's most rapidly growing economic power. The development of the Chinese auto industry is a classic example of China's efforts to re-make inefficient and technologically backward Chinese firms into powerful national champions, and it is an industry on which many of the world's most powerful multinationals have staked their future. The intent of the book is to provide a better understanding of how local political£V