Table Of ContentPALGRAVE STUDIES OF
INTERNATIONALIZATION
IN EMERGING MARKETS
The Globalization of
China’s Health Industry
Industrial Policies, International Networks
and Company Choices
Marco R. Di Tommaso · Francesca Spigarelli
Elisa Barbieri · Lauretta Rubini
Palgrave Studies of Internationalization in
Emerging Markets
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Marco R. Di Tommaso
Francesca Spigarelli
Elisa Barbieri • Lauretta Rubini
The Globalization
of China’s Health
Industry
Industrial Policies, International
Networks and Company Choices
Marco R. Di Tommaso Francesca Spigarelli
Department of Economics and Management Department of Law
University of Ferrara University of Macerata
Ferrara, Italy Macerata, Italy
Elisa Barbieri Lauretta Rubini
Department of Economics Department of Economics and Management
Ca’ Foscari University of Venice University of Ferrara
Venice, Italy Ferrara, Italy
ISSN 2662-1185 ISSN 2662-1193 (electronic)
Palgrave Studies of Internationalization in Emerging Markets
ISBN 978-3-030-46670-1 ISBN 978-3-030-46671-8 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46671-8
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Preface
At the time of writing of this book the world has been devoting an
unprecedented amount of attention to the Chinese healthcare system.
Since the very beginning of 2020, the rapid spread of the Covid-19 virus
in China has immediately attracted the attention of international media
and public opinion. Observing the events in China, the World Health
Organization has decided to declare it a global emergency. And then,
week after week, it has gradually become clear to everybody that what
began in China would have spread all around the world. A very local
Chinese health emergency has rapidly become a global emergency, chal-
lenging our international economic and political equilibria.
The new virus has gained immediate concern for its novelty, for its
high rate of infectiousness and for the lack of appropriate preventive care
(such as vaccines). In the attempt of China and other countries to curb
contagion, policy measures have had impacts on people’s movements
within and across countries and on their daily activities, including work.
This is in turn has had huge impacts on economies and will likely have
more in the future. To this matter the International Monetary Fund
immediately cut its growth prospects and many other relevant institu-
tions—World Bank, the World Economic Forum, the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development, Deutsche Bank, Morgan
Stanley, Moody’s, just to mention a few influential ones—have shared
very similar views. Several manufacturing companies have stopped
v
vi Preface
production and financial markets have everywhere been signalling eco-
nomic difficulties and very negative expectations. Some specific filières—
like tourism, entertainment, airlines, luxury goods makers and
retail—have been the first and hardest hit at the beginning of the crisis.
Coronavirus has started to disrupt the global supply chains with some
industries—tech companies, apparel makers and industrial equipment
manufacturers—showing to be the most vulnerable.
On the one side, one local infection originated in the city of Wuhan
became a dramatic health emergency for China and for the rest of our
interconnected planet. On the other side, the social, political and eco-
nomic impacts of this health crisis moved very quickly from Wuhan, to
China and finally to our entire globalized world. The vulnerability of the
local Chinese healthcare system has, rapidly and dramatically, become a
threat for China and for our global socio-economic order.
The global coronavirus crisis has reinforced one of the main ideas we
present in this book: that the “production of health” is everywhere a vital
strategic “industry” for our contemporary complex, fragile and intercon-
nected societies. In general, as we shall see in Chap. 1, countries need an
effective and efficient health industry for several reasons. To begin with,
an effective and efficient health industry is needed because of the com-
plex relationship that exists between growth and health. But this is only
one of the reasons that make the health industry strategic, and it is not
even the most important one. In fact, as we argue with more detail in the
chapter, an efficient and effective health industry plays a central role in
the sustainability of (economic and social) structural change, paving the
way for progress in human development. Moreover, such sustainability is
also reflected in the political consensus that is normally built around the
capability of achieving “desired” levels of health by the population. The
ability to guarantee such levels of health and to guarantee safety for a
population of citizens is a crucial tool to build trust and consensus. And
again, the recent epidemic cases confirm that the need to focus more on
the study of how public health crises shape public trust, challenging the
economy and societal governance. Finally, the provision of “health” opens
up immense technological and prosperity opportunities, connected, for
instance, to digitalization and Big Data collection and analytics, that can
Preface vii
trigger major structural changes of the economy as well as in people’s
everyday lives.
In this scenario, the centrality of the health industry appears particu-
larly evident in the Chinese case because of, at least, two main sets of
motivations: (a) the relevance of the healthcare challenge in contempo-
rary political and institutional equilibria in China; (b) China’s unique
weight in globalized world, both from an economic and geopolitical
perspective
For the two above-mentioned aspects—the centrality of the health
industry and the very special implications of the Chinese case—in our
book we focus on how this industry in China is growing, innovating and
becoming global (Chap. 2). We devote special attention to the main areas
in which this path of change takes place: government policies (Chap. 3),
international flows of investments (Chap. 4) and research and innovation
(Chap. 5).
This book focuses on the experience of the Chinese health industry,
which is seen as a very sophisticated knowledge-intensive filière, ani-
mated by a plurality of interconnected networks of public and private
actors: service providers, large manufacturers, small and medium-sized
enterprises (SMEs), hospitals, clinics, laboratories, research centres, uni-
versities, financiers, investors. The producers of health goods, services and
knowledge are populated by communities of doctors, paramedics, ana-
lysts, managers, entrepreneurs, white- and blue-collar workers, employ-
ees, technicians, bureaucrats, government officials and directors,
researchers and academics. A very complex community of people and
institutions, with their goals, incentives, knowledge and practices need-
ing guidance and coordination.
In other (final) words, the future of China’s health industry is about
pushing even more the massive public, private and collective investment
in people and infrastructure, in organization and technology, in advanced
knowledge, education and research. Such a great national plan demands
a capacity of coordination of a plurality of actors and long-term strate-
gies. Also in China the production of health continues to need appropri-
ate strategic industrial policies, as currently occurs in many other sectors
and in many other countries. We refer to policies not only aimed at the
viii Preface
promotion of the sector’s efficiency or innovation capacity, but visionary
interventions driven by wide and ambitious societal goals. The success of
China in this strategic industry will be a success for the entire world.
Ferrara, Italy Marco R. Di Tommaso
Macerata, Italy Francesca Spigarelli
Venice, Italy Elisa Barbieri
Ferrara, Italy Lauretta Rubini
Acknowledgements
There are many people we would like to thank, who have offered impor-
tant contributions to our research projects on China, the health sector
and the international industry and thus to the writing of this book.
Before thanking them, we wish to underline that the ideas and opinions
expressed in this publication are entirely those of the authors and do not
necessarily reflect the views of the people who have worked with us in
China or elsewhere.
We would like to sincerely thank all the friends, colleagues and students
in China with whom we had the chance to work. First of all, the colleagues
of the South China University of Technology (Guangzhou) with whom
we have built a long-lasting and fruitful partnership. Here our gratitude
goes in particular to the leading Chinese economist Prof. Hailin Lan, for
having shared with us his knowledge on business studies, China and
Guangdong province; Prof. Manli Huang for being a reliable and highly
prepared research partner and a true friend; Prof. Zhihe Long for the long-
lasting friendship and for sharing with us his views on many occasions. We
are also very grateful to Prof. Yue Qi of the South China Normal University
and to Prof. Shenglei Pi of the Guangzhou University with whom we had
the chance to collaborate and share important moments in these recent
years. We are grateful to Prof. Ping Lv from the University of Chinese
Academy of Social Science, with whom we have been developing analyses
and sharing ideas for our research activity. We are deeply indebted to Mr.
ix
