Global Corporate Networks Amid the Rise of China’s Geopolitical Party-State Capitalism

• In Event: Political Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Geopolitics (Table 16)

Abstract

Recent research in international political economy has increasingly focused on China’s new state-capitalist economy and its geopolitical influence. This paper contributes to this burgeoning scholarship by examining the rise of Chinese corporations and their role in shaping global corporate elite network formation, aiming to go beyond traditional global/transnational capitalism theories by incorporating a geopolitical dimension into the study of corporate China. An up-to-date analysis of the board of directors’ networks among the 2024 Fortune Global 500 companies reveals a distinct organizational structure of China’s party-state capitalism: not only state-owned enterprises (SOEs) but also private firms in China tend to be more state-oriented, rather than forming a self-organizing corporate community—let alone integrating with the Western-centered transatlantic corporate community. The divergent corporate network structures between Chinese state capitalism and Western liberal capitalism, in turn, offer a compelling lens to theorize the return of geopolitics and the escalating US-China great power competition.

Author

• Dawei Chen, University of Toronto