Where Have All the Chinese Gone?

Multinational corporations aggressively courted China, the world’s most populous nation, in the hope of tapping into what they hoped would be the largest consumer market. However, as an Indian journalist notes, increasingly MNCs are discovering that China’s population does not necessarily translate into a consumer market. For one thing, rural Chinese – a substantial percentage of the population – are still part of informal systems and networks of consumption and exchange. This excludes them from the modern consumer market dominated by MNCs. Second, the Chinese government controls and regulates distribution networks which severely impede access to local markets. Thanks to their own local network MNC’s operating in India are in a better position to tap local markets, the article says. The article concludes that while MNCs invest in China in the hope of China’s huge consumer market it is smaller markets like India and Mexico that have consumers that are well integrated in the national capitalist economy and more amenable to purchasing foreign products. –YaleGlobal