Description
How can we comprehend China's outbound capital in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) within the context of China's ascent and global (re)integration? While some argue that it stems from a top-down grand strategy of a rising power with hegemonic aspirations, others see it as market-driven commercial behavior by economic actors. To overcome the limitations in most studies that tend to approach the BRI with a binary perspective, this paper emphasizes the interwoven and juxtaposed relationship between the state and capital within China. Using Alibaba in Southeast Asia as a case study, this paper explores how China's outbound capital, especially that of non-state internet capitalist conglomerates, engages with a multitude of social forces to integrate fragmented interests from both the "top" and "bottom" in building the BRI. Drawing from official documents and interviews, this paper embeds Alibaba's business development trajectory within the broader context of Chinese political economy and the evolution of global capitalism. This paper demonstrates that Alibaba's growth is jointly nurtured by state support and its engagement with different units of transnational capital. While the state - under the territorial logic - has imposed crackdowns on Alibaba to limit its borderless expansion in China, Alibaba's global expansion, marking its transition from a domestically governed internet giant to a transnational capitalist, has been tacitly accepted by the state. This acceptance enables Alibaba’s global expansion driven by capitalist logic.
