Researcher ORCID Identifier

0009-0003-9128-9152

Graduation Year

2026

Date of Submission

4-2026

Document Type

Campus Only Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

International Relations

Reader 1

Jennifer Taw

Abstract

Chinese firms have pledged roughly $220 billion in green manufacturing and processing investment abroad since 2022, with over 75% of these projects located in the Global South. This thesis evaluates the extent to which these investments break from historical patterns by generating genuine domestic value for host countries. Certain green value chain characteristics and Chinese investment dynamics have created a structural dependence on the critical minerals and domestic markets controlled by Emerging Market and Developing Economies (EMDEs). This dependence has given EMDEs unprecedented amounts of leverage that can be used to shape the terms of foreign investment. This thesis explores how this leverage has translated into domestic value capture in the two most promising cases, Indonesia and Brazil. Ultimately, it finds that this leverage-based industrial upgrading strategy is inapplicable to most of the Global South, and even when successful produces limited domestic value while largely reproducing the value extraction and relationships of dependence that structuralist critiques predict.

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This thesis is restricted to the Claremont Colleges current faculty, students, and staff.

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