Growth of made-in-China multinationals: an institutional and historical perspective

By the mid-1990s, China became the largest outward investor among emerging countries and the eighth largest supplier of outward investment among all countries (The World Bank, 1997). However, the momentum did not really become apparent until the late 1990s, when the Chinese government launched the "Go Global" strategy in 1999, followed by a series of international expansion activities by companies such as Haier Electronics Group and Shanghai International Securities Co. Recently, the world has witnessed a number of high-profile cases of Chinese firms acquiring, or attempting to acquire, well-known firms in North America and Europe. Examples include Lenovo, the leading Chinese PC maker, acquiring the IBM PC division and TCL, the leading Chinese electronics company, acquiring a majority interest in the television division of France's Thomson SA and the handset division of France's Alcatel SA. Commentators have suggested that even recent unsuccessful high-profile bids (Haier for Maytag and CNOOC for Unocal) "reflect China's global ambitions" (Hemerling, 2006)