China’s Vulnerability Paradox: How the World’s Largest Consumer Transformed Global Commodity Markets

China’s Vulnerability Paradox explains the uneven transformations in global commodity markets resulting from China’s contemporary, dramatic economic growth. At times, China displays vulnerabilities towards global commodity markets because of unequal positions of market power. Why is it that Chinese stakeholders are often unable to shape markets in their preferred direction? Why have some markets undergone fundamental changes while other similar ones did not? And how can we explain the uneven liberalization dynamics across markets? Through a series of case studies, Pascale Massot argues that the balance of market power between Chinese domestic and international market stakeholders explains their behavior as well as the likelihood of global institutional change. At a time of deepening US-China economic tensions, this book provides an alternative, granular understanding of the interacting dynamics between the political economy of Chinese and global markets.

Pascale Massot is an assistant professor at the University of Ottawa’s School of Political Studies. In 2022, she was a member of the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs’ Indo-Pacific Advisory Committee, which advised the Minister on Canada’s recently published Indo-Pacific Strategy. She also served as the Senior Advisor for China and Asia in the office of various Canadian Cabinet ministers, including the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of International Trade, at different points between 2015 and 2021. Her research focuses on the global political economy of China’s rise, China’s impact on global commodity markets, Canada-China and Canada-Asia relations, as well as Canadian public opinion of China. Pascale Massot was the 2014-2015 Cadieux-Léger Fellow at Global Affairs Canada. She was a visiting PhD candidate at Peking University’s Center for International Political Economy. She has a Ph.D. in political science from the University of British Columbia.