Presentation short abstract

This paper examines how China’s rise as a leader in green automotive technology reshapes core–periphery relations. Using cases from Mexico, Poland, Canada, and Austria, we analyze government and firm strategies amid new opportunities and geopolitical tensions.

Presentation long abstract

China’s expanding role in global socio-economic development, particularly in green technology, has sparked polarized debates in political economy. Existing literature tends to frame Chinese investment as either enabling development in peripheral countries or threatening established core–periphery power relations. This paper argues that China’s impact is more complex, operating simultaneously as both enabler and disruptor in core and peripheral contexts.

Focusing on the automotive sector - especially electric vehicles (EV) - as a crucial case, we examine how China’s evolving position as a global leader in green technology reshapes established dependency dynamics. Specifically, we ask: How do peripheral and semi-peripheral economies, historically confined to low- and mid-value positions within global supply chains, respond to these shifting dynamics, and to what extent can they leverage them for upgrading?

We compare how automotive industries in Mexico and Poland, deeply integrated with U.S. and German OEMs respectively, adapt to China’s rise, alongside cases of Canada and Austria as core suppliers to these OEMs. This comparative approach enables us to disentangle the strategies of countries with and without domestic OEMs, revealing tensions between new opportunities from Chinese foreign direct investment and risks from potential sanctions and exclusion pressures by core economies.

Methodologically, we combine documentary analysis, secondary data, and expert interviews to map government and firm tactics for navigating this emerging landscape of uncertainty and co-dependence. Our findings contribute to debates in development studies and international political economy by offering a nuanced account of how China’s green technology leadership transforms existing global hierarchies.