China Comes to Town: Chinese Investment and Local Politics in the U.S. with Emily Conrad

Chinese investment in the United States has become an increasingly contentious issue that is much more complicated than headlines suggest. In this episode, we reflect on recent debates in Michigan’s democratic primary and use it as a jumping-off point to examine more than 25 years of Chinese investment in the US and subnational relationships with Chinese business. We’re joined by Emily Conrad, whose research examines Chinese manufacturing investment in the US. We discuss where investment is concentrated and how local governments interact with investments, with attitudes ranging from facilitation to passivity to obstruction. We also discuss how Chinese companies navigate the present environment and varied contexts across the US. As federal scrutiny has intensified and states have introduced new restrictions on foreign land ownership and investment, Chinese firms face mounting political and regulatory headwinds. Yet, investments have not disappeared, and companies are adapting, raising questions about how geopolitics is reshaping investment, manufacturing and subnational policies and politics in the US.

Emily’s book The Faithless?: The Untold Story of the Electoral College

Analysis of State Attitudes towards Chinese investments over time from Conrad’s research here

Other resources from the episode:

Rhodium Group’s China cross-border monitor
YouTube podcast with Abdul al-Sayed that mentions some about China: here

Wall Street Journal article about the State Armor organization: here
NPR podcast with one of the best overviews on Gotion:here
More on Gotion:

Michigan Democratic U.S. Senate primary debate audio used in this episode
Tweet on the CCP by Sen. Elissa Slotkin
Financial Times article, China’s assault on Europe’s car market has barely begun

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/economics

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(600)

Beneath the Wage: Tips, Tasks, and Gigs in the Age of Service Work with Annie McClanahan (Princeton UP, 2026)

Beneath the Wage: Tips, Tasks, and Gigs in the Age of Service Work (Princeton UP, 2026) retheorizes capitalism from the perspective of the service economy, challenging conventional assumptions about h...

18 Okt 49min

Making Sense of China's Economy with Tao Wang and Michael Leger (Routledge, 2023)

Making Sense of China's Economy (Routledge, 2023) untangles China’s complex economic structure, evolving issues and curious contradictions, and explains some key features of this most puzzling of glob...

13 Okt 53min

The Hypocrisy Trap: How Changing What We Criticize Can Improve Our Lives with Michael Hallsworth (MIT Press, 2026)

In our increasingly distrusting and polarized world, accusations of hypocrisy are everywhere. But our attempts to stamp out hypocrisy may backfire, creating what Michael Hallsworth calls The Hypocris...

4 Okt 49min

Smuggling Law: Unsettled Sovereignties in Turkey's Kurdish Borderlands with Fırat Bozçalı (Stanford UP, 2025)

The Kurdish-populated Wan/Van Province is a major smuggling hub between Turkey and Iran. Kurdish smugglers cross this 180-mile-long land border, transporting everyday consumer goods—fuel, tobacco, sug...

29 Sep 1h

The Player and the Played: From Gamed Capitalism to 21st-Century Fascism with Max Haiven (MIT Press, 2026)

A provocative examination of the ways our economy has been rigged by financialization, and the importance of games to our dangerous political moment. In an age when capitalism feels like an unwinnable...

28 Sep 58min

Joshua Specht, "Property Values: The Rise and Fall of the American Homeowner" (Princeton UP, 2026)

As affordability crises once limited to coastal cities have spread across the broader United States, the history of home and land ownership has never been more relevant. In Property Values: The Rise a...

21 Sep 1h 1min

Conor Harrison, "Brokers of Power: The Financialization of the US Electricity System" (U Minnesota Press, 2026)

The twenty-first century has seen major transformations in the US electricity sector—but while the use of coal power wanes and the need for renewable energy becomes more urgent, financial actors maint...

19 Sep 37min

Leda M Perez, "Searching for Democracy: Women, Domestic Work, and Social Reproduction in Latin America" (Temple UP, 2026)

How can we achieve lasting social and political equality for women? Dr. Leda Pérez tackles this thorny question in Searching for Democracy: Women, Domestic Work, and Social Reproduction in Latin Ameri...

13 Sep 58min