China’s Communist Party and its leader, Xi Jinping, are tightening controls on overseas spending by the country’s biggest companies and their highly visible billionaire CEOs. The Wall Street Journal reported recently that Xi personally signed off on new rules barring state banks from lending to Dalian Wanda’s Wang Jianlin, curbing his years of recent ambitious acquisition plans in overseas real estate, international sportsfranchises, and Hollywood entertainment companies. With China’s cash surplus having recently been a major ingredient in the fuel for growth in myriad sectors around the world, what will happen—good and bad—if that outbound Chinese direct investment dries up? What sectors in what countries will be hardest hit? Has the crackdown raised global business-world skepticism about Chinese companies as good partners to new heights?
