About

Margaret M. Pearson is The Horace V. and Wilma E. Distinguished Professor of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her research focuses on China’s domestic political economy and Chinese foreign economic policy. She received her Ph.D. in Political Science from Yale University and was an associate professor with tenure at Dartmouth College before moving to the University of Maryland in 1996. Her publications include books such as The State and Capital in China, China's Strategic Multilateralism: Investing in Global Governance, Joint Ventures in the People's Republic of China, and China's New Business Elite: The Political Results of Economic Reform. She has also authored articles in prominent journals including the Journal of Politics, World Politics, The China Journal, Public Administration Review, Journal of Contemporary China, and Review of International Political Economy.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Economics
• Law
• Economic system
• International trade
• Political economy
• Business
• Finance
• Geography
• Public relations
• Market economy
• Development economics

Selected publications

• Economic Benefactor or Risky Dependence? Ambivalence in China–Brazil Agribusiness Ties

  Journal of Politics in Latin America · 2026-03-17

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  China's growing economic presence in developing countries raises important questions about the political impact of its activity in those countries, and its interaction with domestic politics. This issue is highly salient in Brazil, where trade ties with China have deepened considerably in recent years in tandem with rising anti-China sentiment on the political right. This study examines how Brazilian right-wing agribusiness elites reconcile the extraordinary economic benefits they have reaped from exports to China with their partisan and negative views towards China. Our analysis of thirty-eight long-form interviews with agribusiness-linked producers, legislators, business association representatives, and experts, plus a quantitative sentiment analysis, finds systematic tensions between pragmatic acceptance of economic benefits from agribusiness exports and deep concerns about reliance on China, which together create attitudinal ambivalence. These results contribute to theoretical development of the concept of “ambivalence,” extending it for the first time to the arena of comparative political economy.

  PublisherDOI

• Influential but Unwanted: Chinese and US FDI in Africa

  Studies in Comparative International Development · 2026-03-23

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Comparative studies of foreign direct investment (FDI) infrequently consider how FDI projects from rival powers are evaluated by local citizens. Research also does not explicitly distinguish the influence from the affinity that accrues to investing countries. Recognizing the importance of both influence and affinity, this study examines how citizens react when firms from major foreign powers – and from their prominent rival – invest locally. Using a dataset of over 750 geolocated Chinese and US FDI projects in 23 African countries and connecting those projects to geolocated survey responses, we demonstrate that citizens assign greater influence to a major power whose firms invest locally and reduce the influence they extend to its rival. Most importantly, however, for both Chinese and US FDI, proximity decreases citizens’ affinity for the respective country’s development approach. The findings suggest that citizens often view investing powers more as heavy-handed intruders than supportive partners.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The political economy of Chinese development

  Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks · 2025-08-21

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  This chapter reviews the broad trajectory of China's post-Mao economic development: its transition from state socialism, the era of gradual capitalist growth and global integration, and the present moment of expanded state control. Key topics in China's political economy are presented that illustrate critical tensions between party-state discretion and market mechanisms, including the manufacturing sectors, the country's pursuit of technological advancement, the centrality of real estate, and the role of the financial system. Although China exhibits qualities associated with familiar models of political economy such as the developmental state and state capitalism, its size, mode of global integration, and political regime make it unique in its combination of market mechanisms and party-state control. Under Xi Jinping's rule, national security has taken a prominent role in the Chinese Communist Party's management of the economy, which has tightened control over the domestic private sector and triggered a backlash by many OECD members. Yet the Chinese economy remains highly globalized with growing influence in the developing world. China's developmental experience both challenges and builds on mainstream paradigms in comparative political economy.

  PublisherDOI

• The Ties that Bind?: Affinity and Challenges in Contemporary Brazil-China Relations

  Global Society · 2025-11-05 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Is China-Taiwan Rapprochement Possible? Experimental Evidence From Taiwan

  Journal of Conflict Resolution · 2024-11-20 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author

  Any peaceful resolution to the Cross-Strait conflict between China and Taiwan is likely to be composed of give-and-take between the two sides, and any agreement will ultimately require the support of Taiwan’s citizens, by whom Taiwan’s leaders are held accountable. Yet little is known about the actual tradeoffs Taiwanese citizens are willing to make in pursuit of an agreement in a time of peace. In conjoint experiments fielded in Taiwan in April 2022, we present Taiwanese respondents with hypothetical Cross-Strait agreements that randomly assign economic, security, and sovereignty-related concessions by the two sides. We find that support for agreements is conditioned by the concessions included, with sovereignty-related or security-related concessions by Taiwan lowering support, and sovereignty or security-related concessions by China increasing support. Additionally, respondents indicate that neither US support nor PRC threats significantly influence support for agreements, and that Taiwan's acceptance of an agreement substantially reduces the perceived likelihood of conflict.

  PublisherDOI

• The Private Economy Under Party-State Capitalism

  2024-03-07 · 1 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  This chapter addresses the evolution of China’s approach to the private sector from the early reform era until the beginning of Xi Jinping’s third term. It argues that China has evolved from a familiar form of state capitalism, in which economic growth is the primary goal, into a more politicized variant that we call “party-state capitalism.” The main manifestations of party-state capitalism are the elevation of economic affairs into the realm of national security; the rise of mixed-ownership enterprises; and enhanced party-state influence in firms through purchases of equity stakes. In combination, these practices have affected large and strategically positioned private firms by blurring the boundaries between these firms and the state, placing them on the defensive against a more predatory party-state, and triggered backlash from Western countries against Chinese firms operating abroad. For micro, small, and medium private sector firms, both China’s shifting model and its management of the pandemic have presented challenges and opportunities for their growth.

  PublisherDOI

• The State and Capitalism in China

  Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2023-05-20 · 51 citations

  bookOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  China's contemporary political economy features an emboldened role for the state as owner and regulator, and with markets expected to act in the service of party-state goals. How has the relationship between the state and different types of firms evolved? This Element situates China's reform-era political economy in comparative analytic perspective with attention to adaptations of its model over time. Just as other types of economies have generated internal dynamics and external reactions that undermine initial arrangements, so too has China's political economy. While China's state has always played a core role in development, over time prioritization of growth has shifted to a variant of state capitalism best described as, “party-state capitalism,” which emphasizes risk management and leadership by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Rather than reflecting long-held intentions of the CCP, the transition to party-state capitalism emerged from reactions to perceived threats and problems, some domestic and some external. These adaptations are refracted in the contemporary crises of global capitalism.This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• China's New Business Elite

  2023-09-01

  book1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Do China’s Foreign Economic Ties Lead to Influence Abroad? New Evidence from Recent Events

  Foreign Policy Analysis · 2023-07-24 · 12 citations

  article

  Abstract Do China’s growing foreign economic ties translate into political influence abroad? We identify issues about which China cares deeply, and assess whether increased economic ties correlate with greater expressed support for Chinese activities on these issues. We collect new data to measure how countries have responded to China’s implementation of a National Security Law for Hong Kong, and recent policies in Xinjiang. We find that countries with closer economic linkages to China were less likely to criticize—and in some cases more likely to support—China’s actions in Hong Kong and Xinjiang, but the strength and significance of this effect vary considerably depending on the context and type of economic ties. Interestingly, the effects of China’s foreign economic ties are substantively smaller than levels of democracy and development. The findings call into question simple assumptions about the translation of economic ties into political influence, and suggest directions for future study.

  PublisherDOI

• Static Electricity: Institutional and Ideational Barriers to China’s Market Reforms

  Studies in Comparative International Development · 2022-05-10 · 5 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract China’s “economic juggernaut” is often noted to have arisen from successful market reforms carried out in the context of high state capacity. In contrast, we demonstrate that crucial reforms to replace central planning with markets have stalled as a result of major barriers of two types: institutional and ideational. Focusing on the electricity sector, we find that market reforms pushed by China’s central government are hindered by deep inefficiencies that arise from the legacy plan and “plan-derived” institutions of subnational governments and grid companies, against which the central state has been largely ineffective. We also uncover fascinating ideational differences of the nature and purpose of “markets” that show how they often are envisioned more as a way to extend the planner’s “toolbox,” or to offer “salvation” for ailing incumbent firms, rather than to induce efficiency. Our empirical focus on three prominent types of “market-oriented” experiments in the electric power sector demonstrate clear limits to state capacity, limits that emanate from state actors rather than merely industry, despite high-priority central government goals of increasing efficiency, integrating renewable energy, and reducing emissions from the electricity sector.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Kellee S. Tsai

  43 shared

• Meg Rithmire

  41 shared

• Chad Rector

  University of California, San Diego

  23 shared

• Scott L. Kastner

  University of Maryland, College Park

  18 shared

• Barry Naughton

  12 shared

• Phil Roeder

  University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

  9 shared

• Michael A. Glosny

  Stanford University

  9 shared

• Yu- Shan Wu

  University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

  9 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Political Science

  Yale University