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Many Australian and international policymakers and commentators have expressed deep concern about the expansion of Chinese corporations overseas. They are especially uneasy about Chinese firms being utilised as tools to serve Chinese Communist Party (CCP) goals.
 
The Chinese Corporate Ecosystem (Cambridge University Press, 2022) by Dr Colin Hawes, Associate Professor in the Law Faculty at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and a Research Associate at the Australia-China Relations Institute at UTS (UTS:ACRI) makes the case that the influence of the CCP over Chinese business corporations is surprisingly limited, due to the complex and fragmentary structure of the political ecosystem in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Rather than viewing Chinese corporations as subservient tools of a CCP-led authoritarian hierarchy, the book argues, their capacity to act as autonomous agents within this fractured corporate-political ecosystem – that is, pursuing their own commercial interests in the PRC and overseas in ways that regularly subvert Communist Party policies – should be recognised. 
 
The UTS Law Faculty's Private Law and Beyond Interest Group in partnership with UTS:ACRI hosted the launch of The Chinese Corporate Ecosystem. Dr Hawes presented key insights from his book, followed by audience Q&A.

 

A transcript of the event is available.

 

About the speaker

Colin Hawes

Dr Colin Hawes is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and a Research Associate at the Australia-China Relations Institute at UTS (UTS:ACRI). He has an LL.B. and a Ph.D. in Chinese studies from UBC, Canada, and a B.A. Hons. from Durham University, UK. He also studied Chinese language at People’s University in Beijing and Wuhan University. He has published widely on Chinese corporations, law, and culture, including three books, the latest of which is The Chinese Corporate Ecosystem.

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