Location Decisions of Chinese MNEs in European Regions:The Role of Overseas Chinese Communities

Barely 30 years ago, most would consider China to be a poor agricultural economy. Today, China is seen by many as an (emerging) major economic power (Morck et al., 2008). This phenomenal development started in the late 1970s with the ‘Open Door’ policies, and accelerated in the late 1990s when China introduced its ‘Go Global’ (zou chu qu) initiative, which resulted in China’s accession into the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001 (Buckley et al., 2007). Between 1978 and 2008, China’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew by an average of 9.9% per annum (World Bank, 2010). Furthermore, when GDP in current US$ is considered, China is ranked the third economy in the world, superseded only by the United States and Japan (World Bank, 2010).