A New Chinese Economic Order?

Shaffer, Gregory; Gao, Henry S.

A New Chinese Economic Order?

Journal of International Economic Law, Volume 23, Issue 3, September 2020, Pages 607–635, https://doi.org/10.1093/jiel/jgaa013

UC Irvine School of Law Research Paper No. 2019-21

Singapore Management University School of Law Research Paper No. 31

30 Pages Posted: 12 Apr 2019 Last revised: 6 Jul 2021

See all articles by Gregory Shaffer

Henry S. Gao

Singapore Management University - Yong Pung How School of Law

Date Written: April 11, 2019

Abstract

China is incrementally developing a new, decentralized model of trade governance through a web of finance, trade, and investment initiatives involving memorandum of understanding, contracts, and trade and investment treaties, supported by an indigenous innovation policy that is transnational in its reach. In this way, China could create a vast, Sino-centric, legal order in which the Chinese state plays a nodal role. It is a hub and spokes model, with China at the hub. In this article, we first examine China’s export of an infrastructure-based development model, implemented through Chinese state-owned and private enterprise investments and commercial contracts (Part B), before turning to China’s development of a complementary web of free trade and investment agreements (Part C), and an indigenous innovation policy (Part D). The paper theorizes and empirically traces how these Chinese initiatives shape the evolving ecology of the transnational legal order for trade.

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Shaffer, Gregory and Gao, Henry S., A New Chinese Economic Order? (April 11, 2019). Journal of International Economic Law, Volume 23, Issue 3, September 2020, Pages 607–635, https://doi.org/10.1093/jiel/jgaa013 , UC Irvine School of Law Research Paper No. 2019-21, Singapore Management University School of Law Research Paper No. 31, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3370452