Chinese railway exports and state-enabled globalization

Abstract How may a study of Chinese railway exports update our theoretical toolkit for understanding globalization? This article revisits globalization and argues that such exports exemplify a distinct mode of state-enabled globalization. Contrary to the corporate-led model dominated by multinational corporations based in the global North, China's strategy is driven by state institutions that create overseas market opportunities through diplomacy, industrial policy coordination and development finance. In turn, China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have become the mainstay of ‘going global’ for Chinese infrastructure projects and capital. We contribute to debates on state capitalism by showing how the Chinese state integrates strategic state objectives with quasi-autonomous, but still profit-oriented, SOEs through a system of market creation, standard export and resource orchestration. These go beyond the existing understanding of state capitalism, which has focused on the state's direct control of and material support to firms. Drawing on primarily Chinese-language sources, interviews, field visits and case-studies of two prominent China-exported railway projects in Kenya and Laos, this paper traces the evolution of Chinese railway exports as a microcosm of this model. The findings shed light on China's developmental state logic that extends globally, shaping the political economy of infrastructure and industrialization in the global South.