The pullback of Chinese overseas financing and its implications for a post-neoliberal global financial order
2025-06-05
Over the past 15 years, Chinese overseas financing has reached a staggering $2 trillion. Differing from neoliberal principles, Chinese finance is characterized by longer time horizons, less conditionality, and more state capital. Consequently, a consensus has emerged that China is gradually reshaping the global financial architecture toward a post-neoliberal order. Through a mixed-methods analysis, I draw from three statistical databases and 132 interviews to show that since peaking in 2017, Chinese financing has fallen drastically by end of 2023 across both debt (96 per cent) and equity (68 per cent). I find that Chinese financing is no longer perceived in China, the West, or host countries as providing a scalable alternative to Western sources. Challenging the current consensus, I argue that we need to adjust expectations to recognize a diminished impact. Instead, China’s evolving role includes promoting a variety of both neoliberal and post-neoliberal principles in the adjacent fields of debt renegotiations, development finance norms, and project finance practices.