Tuesday, March 19, 2019
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
UCLA Law School 1420
Please RSVP at bit.ly/UCLAChinaSeries_Li.
Chinese foreign direct investment in the United States has generated intense debates. Some welcome it for the immediate benefits such as job creation; others view Chinese investments, especially those controlled by the Chinese government, as a critical threat. The debates have so far missed an important question: how do Chinese companies investing in the US react to the host country's law? Ji Li formulates a novel analytical framework to examine the adaptation of Chinese companies to general US institutions and their compliance with US laws governing tax, employment equality, and national security review of foreign investments. The level of compliance varies, and this variation is examined in relation to company ownership, including state ownership. Li's analysis is based on interviews and a unique and comprehensive dataset about Chinese companies in the United States that has never been systematically explored.
Ji Li is Professor of Law at Rutgers University and a member of the Associate Faculty of the Division of Global Affairs. Professor Li received a Ph.D. in political science from Northwestern University and a J.D. from Yale Law School where he was an Olin Fellow in Law, Economics and Public Policy. Before joining the Rutgers faculty, he practiced corporate and tax law for several years in the New York office of an international law firm. His recent book, The Clash of Capitalisms? Chinese Companies in the United States (Cambridge University Press, 2018), examines the adaptation of Chinese companies, including state-owned Chinese companies, to general US institutions and their compliance (or lack of compliance) with US laws governing tax, employment equality, and national security review of foreign investments.
In the academic year of 2018-2019, Prof. Li is in residence at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and working on a new book that presents a unified theory to analyze judicial behavior in China.
Sponsor(s): Center for Chinese Studies