Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-30T22:31:44.419Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The strange case of pluralist lobbying in a corporatist setting: Defending Western business interests in China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 May 2017

Stefanie Weil
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

E.U. and U.S. businesses in China are actively shaping the business environment according to their interests. As a state-corporatist framework is applied, the question arises as to how Western businesses go about lobbying China's policies. This article provides insights on what kind of lobbying tools Western interest groups apply to actively influence China's party state. Drawing on a large data set of lobbying actions toward indigenous innovation policies, this article aims to demonstrate that China's political system is receptive to influence from the outside. The argument builds on evidence showing that China's state corporatist system provides some leeway for pluralist lobbying strategies. It is hypothesized that Western interest groups are not completely co-opted by China's state-corporatist system, which increases the number of membership driven lobbying strategies. As Western groups stand outside the system, they are expected to devote their lobbying efforts to the international level. Specifically, this article analyzes how constrained access in domestic China affects transnational venue shopping versus domestic strategies.

Type
Research Article
Information
Business and Politics , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , March 2018 , pp. 70 - 97
Copyright
Copyright © V.K. Aggarwal 2017 and published under exclusive license to Cambridge University Press 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ash, Robert, Porter, Robin, and Summers, Tim. 2014. “Rebalancing towards a Sustainable Future: China's Twelfth Five-Year Programme.” In China and the EU in Context, Insights for Business and Investors, edited by Brown, K.. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Barroso, José Manuel Durão. 2010. Speech by President Barroso at the EU China Business Summit. Retrieved from Brussels.Google Scholar
Baumgartner, Frank, Berry, Frank, Hojnacki, Marie, Kimball, David, and Leech, Beth L.. 2009. Lobbying and Policy Change: Who Wins, Who Loses, and Why. Chicago, IL: Univeristy of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Baumgartner, Frank, Gray, Virginia, and Lowery, David. 2009. “Federal Policy Activity and the Mobilization of State Lobbying Organizations.” Political Research Quarterly 62(3): 552–67. doi:10.2307/40232400.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baumgartner, Frank and Jones, Bruce D.. 2009. Agendas and Instability in American Politics. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Baumgartner, Frank and Leech, Beth L.. 2001. “Interest Niches and Policy Bandwagons: Patterns of Interest Group Involvement in National Politics.” The Journal of Politics 63(4): 1,191–213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bennedsen, Morten and Feldmann, Sven E.. 2002. “Lobbying and Legislative Organization: The Effect of the Vote of Confidence Procedure.” Business and Politics 4(2): 187–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berins Collier, Ruth and Collier, David. 1979. “Inducements versus Constraints: Disaggregating Corporatism'.” The American Political Science Review 73(4): 967–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beyers, Jan. 2002. “Gaining and seeking access: The European adaptation of domestic interest associations.” European Journal of Political Research 41(5): 585–612.Google Scholar
Beyers, Jan. 2004. “Voice and Access.” Political Practices of European Interest Associations. European Union Politics 5(2): 211–40.Google Scholar
Beyers, Jan, Eising, Rainer, and Maloney, William. A. (eds.). 2010. Interest Group Politics in Europe. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Blecher, Marc and Shue, Vivienne. 2001. “Into Leather: State-Led Development and the Private Sector in Xinji.” The China Quarterly (166): 368–93.Google Scholar
Boessen, Sandra and Maarse, Hans. 2009. “A Ban on Tobacco Advertising: The Role of Interest Groups.” In Lobbying the European Union, edited by Coen, D. & Richardson, J.. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Boumil, James S. 2012. “China's Indigenous Innovation Policies Under the TRIPS and GPA Agreements and Alternatives for Promoting Economic Growth.” Chicago Journal of International Law 12(2): 756–62.Google Scholar
Bouwen, Pieter. 2002. “A Comparative Study of Business Lobbying in the European Parliament, the European Commission and the Council of Ministers.” Max-Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung 2(7): 1–41.Google Scholar
Bouwen, Pieter. 2009. “The European Commission.” In Lobbying the European Union: Institutions, Actors and Issues, edited by Coen, D. & Richardson, J.. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Broscheid, Andreas and Coen, David. 2007. “Lobbying activity and fora creation in the EU: empirically exploring the nature of the policy good.” Journal of European Public Policy 14(3): 346–65.Google Scholar
Chen, Minglu. 2015. “From Economic Elites to Political Elites: private entrepreneurs in the People's Political Consultative Conference.” Journal of Contemporary China 24(94): 613–27.Google Scholar
China Brief. 2011. “AmCham-China in the Press.” China Brief 15.Google Scholar
Coen, David. 1997. “The evolution of the large firm as a political actor in the European Union.” Journal of European Public Policy 4(1): 91–108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coen, David. 1998. “The European business interest and the nation state: large-firm lobbying in the European Union and member states.” Journal of Public Policy 18(1): 75–100.Google Scholar
Coen, David. 1999. “The Impact of U.S. Lobbying Practice on the European Business-Government Relationship.” California Management Review 41(4): 27–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coen, David and Richardson, Jeremy (eds.). 2009. Lobbying the European Union: Institutions, Actors, and the Issues. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dickson, Bruce J. 2000–1. “Cooptation and Corporatism in China: The Logic of Party Adaptation.” Political Science Quarterly 115(4): 517–40.Google Scholar
Dickson, Bruce J. 2003a. Red capitalists in China the party, private entrepreneurs, and prospects for political change. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Dickson, Bruce J. 2003b. “Whom does the Party represent? From ‘Three Revolutionary Classes’ to Three Represents.” American Asian Review XXI(1): 4–24.Google Scholar
Dickson, Bruce J. 2008. Wealth into Power, The Communist Party's Embrace of China's Private Sector. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Dittmer, Lowell and Liu, Guoli. 2006. China's deep reform: Domestic politics in transition. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.Google Scholar
Eckhardt, Jappe and de Bievre, Dirk. 2015. “Boomerangs over Lac Léman: Transnational Lobbying and Foreign Venue Shopping in WTO Dispute Settlement.” World Trade Review 14(3): 507–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eising, Rainer. 2004. “Multilevel Governance and Business Interests in the European Union.” Governance 17(2): 211–45.Google Scholar
Eising, Rainer. 2005. “The access of business interests to European Union institutions: notes towards a theory.” Oslo University: ARENA Working Papers (29).Google Scholar
Eising, Rainer. 2007. “The access of business interests to EU institutions: towards elite pluralism?” Journal of European Public Policy 14(3): 384–403.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ernst, Dieter. 2011. Indigenous Innovation and Globalization—the Challenge for China's Standardization Strategy. Honolulu, HI: East-West Centre.Google Scholar
European Chamber of Commerce in China. 2015a. European Union Chamber of Commerce in China Position Paper 2015/2016. Beijing: European Chamber of Commerce in China.Google Scholar
European Chamber of Commerce in China. 2015b. Position Paper 2015/2016. Beijing: European Chamber of Commerce in China.Google Scholar
European Commission. 2000. Report from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament on the Implementation of the Communication “Building a Comprehensive Partnership with China. Brussels: European Commision.Google Scholar
Fan, Zhang. 2011. European Business in China Position Paper 2011/2012 released in Beijing [Press release].Google Scholar
Foster, Kenneth W. 2002. “Embedded within State Agencies: Business Associations in Yantai.” The China Journal (47): 41–65.Google Scholar
Gang, Qian and Bandurski, David. 2011. “China's Emerging Public Sphere: The Impact of Media Commercialization, Professionalism, and the Internet in an Era of Transition.” In Changing Media, Changing China, edited by Shrink, S.. New York: Oxford Univeristy Press.Google Scholar
Goldman, Merle and McFarquhar, Roderick (eds.). 1999. The paradox of China's post-Mao reforms. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Green Cowles, Maria. 1996. “The EU Committee of AmCham: The powerful voice of American firms.” Journal of European Public Policy 3(3): 339–58.Google Scholar
Greenwood, Justin. 1997. Representing Interests in the European Union. London: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Greenwood, Justin and Aspinwall, Mark. 1998. Collective Action in the European Union, Interests and the New Politics of Associability. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Gueguen, David. 2007. European Lobbying. Brussels: Europolitics.Google Scholar
Guosheng, Deng and Kennedy, Scott. 2010. “Big Business and Industry Association Lobbying in China: The Paradox of Contrasting Styles.” The China Journal (63): 101–125.Google Scholar
Heilmann, Sebastian. 2004. Das politische System der Volksrepublik China (Vol. 2). Wiesbaden, Germany: Sozialwissenschaften/GWV Fachverlage GmbH.Google Scholar
Holbig, Heike. 2010. Fragmented Corporatism Interest Politics in China's Private Business Sector. Paper presented at the ECPR Joint Sessions 2006 in Nicosia Workshop 25, “Interest Politics in Post-Communist Democracies.” Nicosia, Cyprus.Google Scholar
Holbig, Heike and Gilley, Bruce. 2010. “In Search of Legitimacy in Post-revolutionary China: Bringing Ideology and Governance Back in.” GIGA Working Papers (127): 6–34.Google Scholar
Holbig, Heike and Reichenbach, Thomas. 2005. Verbandliche Interessenvermittlung in der VR China, Der Bund fuer Industrie und Handel zwischen staatlichem Kontrollanspruch und privatwirtschaftlicher Selbstbehauptung. Hamburg: Institut fuer Asienkunde.Google Scholar
Holyoke, Thomas T. 2003. “Choosing Battlegrounds: Interest Group Lobbying across Multiple Venues.” Political Research Quarterly 56(3): 325–36.Google Scholar
Holyoke, Thomas T., Brown, Heath, and Henig, Jeffrey R.. 2012. “Shopping in the Political Arena: Strategic State and Local Venue Selection by Advocates.” State and Local Government Review 44(1): 9–20.Google Scholar
Howell, Jude 1994. “Refashioning State-Society Relations in China.” The European Journal of Development Research 6(1): 197–215.Google Scholar
Hrebenar, Ronald. 1997. Interest Group Politics in America. Armonk, U.K.: M.E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Hrebenar, Ronald and Morgan, Bryson B.. 2009. Lobbying in America. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, Inc.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hsu, Jennifer and Hasmath, Reza. 2013a. “The changing faces of state corporatism.” In The Chinese Corporatist State; Adaption, survival and resistance, edited by Hsu, J. and Hasmath, R.. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hsu, Jennifer and Hasmath, Reza (eds.). 2013b. The Chinese Corporatist State—Adaption, Survival and Resistance. New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.Google Scholar
Hula, Kevin W. 1999. Lobbying Together: Interest Group Coalitions in Legislative Politics. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Interview, 3 April 2014 [Authors' interview on China's business environment].Google Scholar
Interview I, 22 June 2011.Google Scholar
Interview II, 17 March 2011.Google Scholar
Interview IX, 7 April 2011.Google Scholar
Interview VI, 2011.Google Scholar
Interview VIII, 12 April 2011.Google Scholar
Interview X, 2013.Google Scholar
Interview XIV, 21 June 2011.Google Scholar
Interview XV, 8 April 2011.Google Scholar
Interview XVI, 2011.Google Scholar
Interview XX, 25 August 2015.Google Scholar
Interview XXI, 2011.Google Scholar
Jinping, Xin. 2014. The Governance of China Beijing: Foreign Languages Press.Google Scholar
Kennedy, Scott. 2003. “The Price of Competition: Pricing Policies and the Struggle to Define China's Economic System.” The China Journal (49): 1–30.Google Scholar
Kennedy, Scott. 2005. The Business of Lobbying in China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennedy, Scott. 2006. “The Political Economy of Standards Coalitions: Explaining China's Involvement in High-Tech Standards Wars.” Asia Policy 2: 41–62.Google Scholar
Kennedy, Scott. 2008. “The Price of Competition: The Failed Government Effort to Use Associations to Organize China's Market Economy.” In Associations and the Chinese State, edited by Unger, J. (pp. 149–74). New York: M.E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Kennedy, Scott. 2009. “Comparing Formal and Informal Lobbying Practices in China.” China Information XXIII(2): 95–222.Google Scholar
Key, Valdimer O. 1949. Southern Politics in State and Nation. New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Kohler-Koch, Beate and Eising, Rainer (eds.). 1999. The transformation of governance in the European Union. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kohler-Koch, Beate and Larat, Fabrice (eds.). 2009. European Multi-Level Governance, Contrasting Images in National Research. Cheltenham and Northampton, U.K.: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited.Google Scholar
Kohler-Koch, Beate and Quittkat, Christine. 1999. “Intermediation of Interests in the European Union.” Arbeitspapiere—Mannheimer Zentrum für Europäische Sozialforschung 9: 1–15.Google Scholar
Kroeber, Arthur R. 2011. “Developmental Dreams, Policy and Reality in China's Economic Refors.” In Beyond the Middle Kingdom, Comparative Perspectives on China's Capitalist Transformation, edited by Kennedy, S. (pp. 44–66). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Kueh, Y. Y. 1992. “Foreign Investment and Economic Change in China.” The China Quarterly (131): 637–90. doi:10.2307/654900.Google Scholar
Lehmann, Wilhelm. 2009. “The European Parliament.” In Lobbying the European Union: Institutions, Actors, and Issues, edited by Coen, David & and Richardson, Jeremy. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lehmann, Wilhelm, Tušar, Anita, and Bosche, Lars. 2003. Lobbying in the European Union: Current Rules and Practices (AFCO 104 EN). Brussels: Constitutional Affairs Series, European Parliament.Google Scholar
Linden, Greg. 2004. “China Standard Time: A Study in Strategic Industrial Policy.” Business and Politics 6(3): Article 4.Google Scholar
Lowery, David and Gray, Virginia. 2004. “A Neopluralist Perspective on Research on Organized Interests.” Political Research Quarterly 57(1): 163–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mahoney, Christine. 2007. “The Role of Interest Groups in Fostering Citizen Engagement: The Determinants of Outside Lobbying.” In Politics Beyond the State, edited by Deschower, Kris and M, Theo. Jans. Brussels: VUBPRESS Brussels University Press.Google Scholar
Mahoney, Christine. 2008. Brussels Versus the Beltway: Advocacy in the United States and the European Union (American Governance and Public Policy). Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Mazey, Sonia and Richardson, Jeremy. 2004. Lobbying in the European Community. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Mazey, Sonia and Richardson, Jeremy. 2006. “Interest Groups and EU Policy-Making.” In European Union, Power and Policy Making, edited by Richardson, Jeremy (pp. 217–37). New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
McGrath, Conor. 1968. Lobbying in Washington, London, and Brussels; The Persuasive Communication of Political Issues. New York: Edwin Mellen Press.Google Scholar
McNally, Christopher. 2011. “China's Changing Guanxi Capitalism: Private Entrepreneurs between Leninist Control and Relentless Accumulation.” Business and Politics 13(2): Article 5.Google Scholar
McNally, Christopher. 2012. “Sino-Capitalism: China's Reemergence and the International Political Economy.” World Politics 64: 741–76.Google Scholar
McNally, Christopher. 2013. “Refurbishing State Capitalism: A Policy Analysis of Efforts to Rebalance China's Political Economy.” Journal of Current Chinese Affairs 42(4): 45–71.Google Scholar
McNally, Christopher. 2014. The ‘Great Rebalance:’ The Evolutionary Dynamics of China's State Capitalism. Paper presented at the 26th Annual Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE) Conference at the Panel “Dynamics of Asian Capitalisms: Refurbishing State Capitalism?” Chicago, IL.Google Scholar
McNally, Christopher, Lüthje, Boy, and Ten Brink, Tobias. 2013. “Rebalancing China's Emergent Capitalism: State Power, Economic Liberalization and Social Upgrading.” Journal of Current Chinese Affairs 42(4): 3–16.Google Scholar
Mertha, Andrew. 2005. The Politics of Piracy, Intellectual Property in Contemporary China. Ithica, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Naughton, Barry. 2007. The Chinese Economy Transitions and Growth. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Nee, Victor and Opper, Sonja. 2012. Capitalism from Below, Markets and Institutional Change in China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oi, Jean C. 1992. “Fiscal Reform and the Economic Foundations of Local State Corporatism in China.” World Politics 45(1): 99–126.Google Scholar
Pearson, Margaret. 1994. “The Janus Face of Business Associations in China: Socialist Corporatism in Foreign Enterprises.” The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs (31): 25–46.Google Scholar
Pearson, Margaret. 2005. “The Business of Governing Business in China: Institutions and Norms of the Emerging Regulatory State.” World Politics 57(2): 296–322.Google Scholar
Potter, Pitman B. 1995. “Foreign Investment Law in the People's Republic of China: Dilemmas of State Control.” The China Quarterly (141): 155–85.Google Scholar
Princen, Sebastian and Kerremans, Bart. 2010. “Institutions and Interest Groups, Opportunity Structures in the EU Multi-Level System.” In Interest Group Politics in Europe, Lessons from EU Studies and Comparative Politics, edited by Beyers, Jan, Eising, Rainer, and Maloney, William. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Qi, Zhang and Mingxing, Liu. 2010. “Local Political Elite, Partial Reform Symptoms, and the Business and Market Environment in Rural China.” Business and Politics 12(1): 1–39.Google Scholar
Rae, A. E. I. 1982. “Talking Business in China.” The China Quarterly 90(June): 271–80.Google Scholar
Saich, Tony. 2000. “Negotiating the State: The Development of Social Organizations in China.” The China Quarterly 161(March): 124–41.Google Scholar
Schattschneider, Elmer E. 1957. “Intensity, Visibility, Direction and Scope.” The American Political Science Review 51(4): 933–42.Google Scholar
Schattschneider, Elmer E. 1975. The Semi-Sovereign People: A Realist's View of Democracy in America. London: Wadsworth Publishing.Google Scholar
Schmitter, Philippe C. 1974. “Still the Century of Corporatism?” The Review of Politics 3(6): 85–131.Google Scholar
Shue, Vivienne. 1994. “State Power and Social Organization in China.” State Power and Social Forces: Domination and Transformation in the Third World. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Snyder, Francis. 2009. The European Union and China, 1949–2008: Basic Documents and Commentary. Oxford, U.K.: Hart Publishing Ltd.Google Scholar
Solís, Mireya. 2013. “Business advocacy in Asian PTAs: a model of selective corporate lobbying with evidence from Japan.” Business and Politics 15(1): 87–116.Google Scholar
Tanasescu, Irina. 2009. The European Commission and interest groups: towards a deliberative. Brussels: VUB Press Brussels Univeristy Press.Google Scholar
The American Chamber of Commerce in the People's Republic of China. 2011. White Paper—Information and Communications Technology and Cyber Security Beijing: The American Chamber of Commerce in the People's Republic of China.Google Scholar
The U.S.-China Business Council. 2011. USCBC Special Report: Innovation and Procurement Policy Changes: China Eliminates Three Key Regulations that Link Indigenous Innovation to Government Procurement.Google Scholar
Tsai, Kelee. 2007. Capitalism Without Democracy: The Private Sector in Contemporary China. Ithica, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Unger, Jonathan. 1996. “‘Bridges’: Private Business, the Chinese Government and the Rise of New Associations.” The China Quarterly 147(September): 795–819.Google Scholar
Unger, Jonathan (ed.). 2008. Associations and the Chinese State. New York & London: M.E. Sharpe, Inc.Google Scholar
van Schendelen, Rinus. 2005. Machiavelli in Brussels. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.Google Scholar
Wilson, Graham. 1993. “American Interest Groups.” In Pressure Groups, edited by Richardson, J. J.. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Wilson, Scott. 2008. “Law Guanxi: MNCs, state actors, and legal reform in China.” Journal of Contemporary China 17(54): 25–51.Google Scholar
Woll, Christine. 2006. “Lobbying in the European Union: From Sui Generis to a Comparative Perspective.” Journal of European Public Policy 13(3): 456–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xua, Guangdong and Guia, Binwei. 2013. “The Connection between Financial Repression and Economic Growth: The Case of China.” Journal of Comparative Asian Development 12(3): 385–410.Google Scholar
Yan, Yanni. 2000. International Joint Ventures in China: Ownership, Control and Performance. Houndmills, U.K.: MacMillan Press, Ltd.Google Scholar
Yang, Keming. 2013. “Keep business for business, Associations of private enterprises in China.” In The Chinese Corporatist State — Adoption, survival and resistance, edited by Hsu, J. Y. J. and Hasmath, R.. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar