Follow the Money: Uncovering the Incorporation & Ownership STRUCTURES of Chinese Firms

Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) enabled the technology revolution in China and set China as a strategic competitor to the United States. But who exactly owns the Chinese firms undertaking this FDI?

Much policy and attention have been focused on investment by Chinese state-owned enterprises, yet the real threat is “within” and buried under complex ownership structures, subsidiaries, private equity, and holding companies. Businesses that are seemingly “American” ultimately trace to Chinese investment companies.

Stay tuned for Elly Rostoum’s forthcoming book, Bull Dragon: State Control and the Instrumentalization of the Chinese Firm.

ABOUT THE BULL DRAGON PROJECT

BULL DRAGON is a research project led by Dr. Elly Rostoum, which investigates how capital flows are shaping China’s ascendancy as a global hegemon. Bull Dragon uncovers, tracks, and maps the incorporation structures of Chinese firms undertaking investment globally. Our work focuses on three key areas:

  1. foreign direct investment and venture capital investment,

  2. Chinese investment in critical and emerging technologies (CETs),

  3. “unknown unknowns” sectors.

The BULL DRAGON project is based on Elly Rostoum’s research and Ph.D. dissertation, “Balancing Sino-American Hegemony in the Era of Critical and Emerging Technologies: Economic Statecraft as Grand Strategy and its Implications on US National Security Anxieties and the Instrumentalization of the Chinese Firm,” at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. The research has since grown and expanded to include a partnership with researchers and technologists at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab.

The BULL DRAGON project employs a multidisciplinary approach, integrating machine learning, discourse analysis, and process tracing to uncover and map the ownership and incorporation structures of Chinese commercial entities, across strategic sectors and jurisdictions. Our aim is to shed light on how China’s role, ambitions, and goals around the world are contesting its new place vis a vis the United States, and American spheres of influence around the world.

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current PROJECTS

  • This project investigates the Chinese model of economic statecraft, with a specific focus on how the Chinese state instrumentalizes commercial actors and foreign direct investment (psst..this is where we follow the money 💸).

  • This project explores the American and the Chinese legal conceptualizations of national security, and their implications on how each nation defines its respective grand strategies vis-à-vis one another.

  • This book project traces the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States’s (CFIUS) history, situating its role and impact within the USG’s interagency process. The book tells the story of the successes and failures of this powerful body, and reimagines its role in the era of critical and emerging technology.

  • *** we are telling other people about this first ***

  • This project investigates the pitfalls between national security and public health, looking at the genomics, synthetic biology, and precision medicine sectors.

ABOUT Elly rostoum

Elly Rostoum is an American political scientist, and a former U.S. intelligence analyst, serving bipartisan administrations. She is currently a Lecturer in Strategic Studies at the Zanvyl Krieger School for Arts and Sciences at Johns Hopkins University, an Adjunct Professor at the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), and a nonresident Fellow at the SAIS China Research Center. Elly teaches courses on China, international relations, international political economy, and national security vulnerabilities of emerging technologies. She was formerly the founding Managing Director of the Alperovitch Institute for Cybersecurity Studies, at Johns Hopkins University.

Elly was the recipient of the 2024 Johns Hopkins Nexus Award in Teaching for the course: Biotech, Health Security, and Artificial Intelligence. She was also the recipient of the 2023 Johns Hopkins University Discovery Awards, which recognize researchers who are poised to arrive at important discoveries or creative works. Elly is a co-founder of the RUBICON Symposium, a joint partnership with the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab. She was formerly the Associate Director of the China Research Center at Johns Hopkins University, and a Hans J. Morgenthau Fellow in U.S. Grand Strategy at Notre Dame University.

Elly speaks 5 languages, and she is also fluent in the 22 Arabic dialects. She has conducted field research throughout Europe and the Middle East. Methodologically, Elly specializes in gaming, scenario planning, and modeling. Elly began her career in the private sector, forecasting oil prices and advising C-suite executives in the energy sector. Her research has been prolifically published in industry and policymaking circles.

Elly holds a Ph.D. in Global Governance and Human Security from the University of Massachusetts, Boston, a Master’s degree in Liberal Arts in Government from Harvard University, a Certificate in Decision Analysis & Risk Management from Stanford University, a Certificate in Energy Modeling from the International Energy Agency, and a Bachelor's degree in Political Science from Bates College.

For research or speaking inquiries, please contact Prof. Rostoum at EROSTOUM @ JHU.EDU

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