China inward FDI and Chinese exports to High-Income Countries (HICs): a historical perspective based on bibliometric method

Abstract

PR China is capturing FDI mainly from the overseas Chinese territories and from High-Income Countries (HICs); this last group is also the most important Chinese export-market. Adopting an inductive methodology, based on the bibliometric method, our purpose is the understanding of which were the determinants that led to attract inward FDI and, later, to increase exports from PR China to HICs. Taking into account the time frame 1980–2010, 367 different publications were collected. Using the ISI Web of Science and the HistCite Software 10 research papers were the basis for a bibliometric diagram (LCS > or equal to 5). From this diagram was possible to extract two main streams: economic reforms toward an inward FDI attraction and world exports leadership; and inward FDI—mainly from HICs—led to an increasing value of the exports basket. A third issue emerged also, not as a stream, but as an important conclusion based on the Gilboy (2004) paper, published on Foreign Affairs: foreign companies dominate high-tech industries and a lion’s part of Chinese industrial exports. PR China has reached the world exporting ranking leadership based on economic reforms, focused on the attraction of FDI export driven, which had on companies from HICs a major contribution.