2018 CAPI Student Fellowship recipient Can Zhao

2018 CAPI student fellowship recipient Can Zhao
Can Zhao, PhD student, Department of Political Science, University of Victoria (2018)

Project title: Uber Revolution: state governance of capital and labor in China, France, and the United States of America

Supervisor: Dr. Guoguang Wu, Professor (Political Science and History) and CAPI China Chair, University of Victoria

Project summary

My project involves a comparative and institutionalist investigation of how China, France, and the USA - three states with very different state capacity, capital market, and labor regime - govern Uber, a technological and ridesharing start-up heralding a new mode of capital operation and employment relationship called “gig economy.”

Background

Empirically, China represents a fascinating case to explore Uber’s interaction with state regulation for four reasons. Firstly, China remains the most restrictive foreign direct investment (FDI) regulatory regime out of 68 major national economies in the world [1]. Second, because of its huge population, sweeping urbanization process, and rapidly growing smartphone ownership, the Chinese market, as Uber’s former CEO Travis Kalanick once said, “is the number one priority for Uber’s global team” as it is “one of the largest untapped opportunities for Uber, potentially larger than the U.S” [2]. Thirdly, Uber’s operational strategy to enter the Chinese market was different from anything it had tried elsewhere - A separate Chinese entity, "Uber China," was set up with plans for an independent initial public offering (IPO) and a data center located within the Chinese territory. Finally, Uber exited the Chinese market in 2016 by selling its assets to its Chinese domestic arch rival Didi Kuaidi [3].

Proposed Activities

My 2018 CAPI fellowship will help fund the Asian leg of my research, a two-month fieldwork stint in Beijing and Shanghai this autumn to conduct qualitative interviews with a range of stakeholders, including FDI regulators in central and municipal governments, legislators, trade unions, taxi companies, Uber China, law firms having handled Uber-related labor disputes, grassroots labor NGOs, the American Chamber of Commerce in China, and political-economists and journalists with an interest and/or a focus on the ridesharing industry.

[1] OECD, FDI Regulatory Restrictiveness Index
 [2] Pavithra Mohan, How Uber CEO Travis Kalanick is taking on China, Fast Company
 [3] BBC, Uber sells Chinese business to Didi Chuxing