Wilson Center Public Policy Scholar Jill Shankleman conducted a six-month research project to examine the impact of China's oil and mining companies' recent overseas expansion on the governance of resource wealth.

EXEC UTIVE SUMMARY
1. This report is the result of a six-month research project undertaken at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. The focus of the work is on the impact of China’s oil and mining companies’ recent overseas expansion on the governance of resource wealth.

2. The paper covers four topics:
The structure of the Chinese oil and mining industries, focusing on overseas operations; the emergence over the last ten years within the large-scale, OECD-based extractive industry, of a “new model” for resource extraction focusing on minimizing negative social and environmental impacts and on resource revenue transparency; the development of corporate social responsibility concepts in China, and the extent to which this is leading Chinese oil and mining companies to apply the “new model” for resource extraction, and the role of Chinese infrastructure loans to resource-rich developing countries in resource wealth governance.

3. China’s upstream oil industry is dominated by four large corporations that are majority state-owned, but also listed on Chinese and international stock exchanges, including the New York Stock Exchange. Each of these companies (CNPC, Sinopec, CNOOC, and Sinochem) has overseas as well as domestic upstream operations. The mining industry currently includes some twenty large corporations that have overseas exploration or production activities, and a very large number of smaller mining companies, both state and privately owned, that operate predominantly within China.

Consolidation in the state-owned mining sector to create a smaller number of large corporations is underway, and further concentration is expected. The large state mining houses are, like the oil companies, starting to secure stock exchange listings in Hong Kong and New York. Though most of the large mining companies that currently operate overseas are majority state-owned, some wholly private-sector mining companies are found overseas, too.

4. The majority state-owned oil and mining companies now operate within a rapidly evolving strategic framework established by SASAC (State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council). These companies are expected to focus on becoming internationally competitive and internationally listed corporations, signaled by securing Global Fortune 500 status. (As of mid-2008, eight Chinese extractive companies had achieved this goal.)

5. From around the turn of the century, Chinese corporations have been encouraged to “go global” and invest overseas. This has resulted in a close to global presence of Chinese oil and mining companies, involved in resource-rich countries from Australia to Zimbabwe. ...

Read Full: Going Global: Chinese Oil and Mining Companies and the Governance of Resource Wealth

PDF format, 700KB, 122Pages.

Jill Shankleman
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
One Woodrow Wilson Plaza
1300 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20004-3027

CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1
INTRODUCTION 7
PART ONE: The Chinese Extractives Industry 17
PART TWO: Resource Wealth Governance in the Extractives
Sector – before the “New Kids” Arrived 39
PART THREE: The New Kids on the Block Arrive – Capitalism with a Heart? 49
PART FOUR: Foreign Affairs 69
PART FIVE: Conclusions 77
APPENDICES 99
ABBREVIATIONS 113
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY 115

Comments (0)

Name

Email

Comment

smaller | bigger

Add Comment