Regulating the Rise of China, 1st ed. 2019 Australia's Foray into Middle Power Economics Studies in the Political Economy of Public Policy Series

This book revises the existing account of the first Rudd Government's engagement with China, placing Australian foreign direct investment screening policy at the centre of the story. At the time, the Rudd Government was accused of holding an unnecessarily interventionist approach to Chinese Sovereign-Owned Enterprise investments into the Australian mining sector. This book claims that the Australian Government had a deep and coherent understanding of the problem posed by Chinese investments that went well-beyond any simplistic 'China Inc.' or geopolitical threats. The key policymakers believed that the Chinese state-directed investments threatened the integrity of the liberal governance structures on which the Australian state is founded, and so Australian sovereignty itself. While the response of the Rudd Government was largely ineffectual, the logic underpinning it remains the best framework for guiding Australia's engagement with China into the 2020s, as well as the engagement of other liberal states coming to grips with China's rise.

Contents

Abstract

Acknowledgements

List of acronyms

List of Figures

List of Tables

Chapter One: Introduction

Chapter Two: Governmental Policy Analysis

Chapter Three: The Policy Departure

Chapter Four: The Policy Problemetisation

Chapter Six: Official Discourses of Security

Chapter Seven: A governmental account of the policy

Chapter Eight: Evaluating the Policy

Chapter Nine: Conclusion

Bibliography