In her new book, Alibaba: Infrastructuring Global China (Routledge 2021), Hong Shen examines the political-economic dynamics in the development of a leading global Internet giant: Alibaba. As both a prominent example of, as well as providing the basic infrastructure for, China’s outward expansion, Alibaba demonstrates the complex interplay between different state agencies and units of capital in the context of the rise of global China. Hong Shen investigates the development and expansions of Alibaba and discusses how Alibaba has not only become a leader of China’s increasingly globalizing internet but has also increasingly served as a basic infrastructure model for other Chinese companies to go global. Shen also addresses how this process has been constantly shaped and reshaped by complex state-capital interactions along the way. Her book shows how different units of capital, both inside and outside of China, have interacted with Alibaba’s developmental strategies and illustrates how different state agencies, both domestic and international, have enabled or constrained the company’s development, especially its global expansion.

Hong Shen joined this session of the Guarini Colloquium: Regulating Global Digital Corporations to discuss Alibaba’s role in China’s digital economy and beyond.