《《DRAFT - Mapping Chinese Mining Investment with a Focus on Latin America - Ruben Gonzalez-Vicente》.pdf

MAPPING CHINESE MINING INVESTMENT, WITH A FOCUS ON LATIN AMERICA: POLITICS OR MARKET? Ruben Gonzalez-Vicente (University of Cambridge, Department of Geography Investigador Asociado al CIUP, 2011). Paper prepared for the China – Latin America meeting at UCLA Asia Institute: “From the Great Wall to the New World: China and Latin America in the 21st Century”, 15-16 April 2011. Abstract Analyses of Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) sometimes question the investment criteria of Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs), suggesting that market rules are not fundamental but secondary to political and geostrategic concerns. This, supposedly, challenges the competence of Chinese FDI and its ability to award well-functioning regimes for their ‘good business environments’. While questioning the apolitical nature of markets, the present article uses the internationalization of China’s mining industry as a case study to ascertain the criteria that guide Chinese FDI. It examines quantitative data which suggests that Chinese mining companies prioritize mature mining economies and respond chiefly to economic incentives informed by their own perspectives of risk and opportunity. Besides, owing to their ability to commit to large infrastructure development, they are increasingly able to outbid other transnational companies in less-established mining economies. The article discusses the implications of these trends for the future developmental trajectories of Latin American countries. Introduction Academic research and media coverage tend to emphasize what is new and different about China’s growing engagement in the global economy. Often unintentionally, this has created the perception that there exists an insurmountable gap between the ways in which China and western countries conduct