China as a Penetrable Developmental State:

A Case Study of China’s Intellectual Property Regime

Chenxi Wang

 

ABSTRACT: This article travels across the blurred boundary of international economic law and political economy to explore the legal interaction of development and globalization in China, a country that has achieved marked economic growth since the rise of neoliberal economic order. This article proposes the term ‘penetrable developmental state’ to delineate how China manages to compromise between its development-orientation and the straitjacket of international economic law. In a case study of China’s intellectual property (IP) regime, this article sketches the domestic-international dynamics in China’s IP regime by weaving the dry and technical legal cases along the line of China’s IP development strategy into the arresting political narrative, and squarely illustrates the term ‘penetrable developmental state’. This study contributes to the painting of a big picture of China’s development in the international context which should be interdisciplinary, and bears relevance to future studies of other developing countries which will also seek development in the rules-based globalization and will likely take up China’s role in the global value chain.