Global economic influence and domestic regime support: evidence from China

Rising powers typically seek to play a larger role in international economic, but we know little about the impact of this overseas expansion on domestic publics. paper examines the domestic political consequences of rising states’ efforts to increase foreign economic influence. We argue that public approval for these governments on whether they succeed or fail to expand their country’s global economic. To test this argument, we fielded three survey experiments in China, each on a different component of China’s foreign economic strategy. In all three, informing individuals that China has failed in increasing its role in the global reduced average levels of government satisfaction. Our evidence suggests that drop in government approval operates through a weakened sense of national pride, than other channels based on economic prospects.