Policy Collaging: Transnationalizing Analysis of Chinese Policymaking

• In Event: China, Global Economic Engagement, and International Responses

Abstract

Transnational movements of people and ideas have shaped the economy and enterprises of the People’s Republic of China since 1949. Chinese officials and researchers routinely engaged with foreign actors and ideas via multiple mechanisms, including international advisors, exchanges, examples, joint projects, and diaspora linkages. Cross-border movements of people and ideas can affect Chinese policymaking in multiple ways, ranging from policymakers’ firsthand experiences while abroad to the internal circulation of studies about foreign economies and firms. Through transnational engagement, Chinese policymakers conduct what I term “policy collaging”: seeking, selecting, and creatively combining policy ideas and practices from multiple international sources. I illustrate this practice using a case study of Chinese state-owned enterprise restructuring since the 1970s. Policy collaging highlights the international content and context of Chinese policymaking, foregrounds domestic agency, and suggests that China's convergence with other countries may be unlikely.

Author

• Wendy Leutert, Indiana University