Firm’s Source Country or Project Characteristics? Survey Experiments on Preferences for Chinese Investment in the Global South

Abstract Do individuals favor a particular foreign investment project based mainly on the investing company’s source country or the characteristics of the investment project? We know surprisingly little about this question, particularly in the Global South, an increasingly important destination for foreign investment. Employing conjoint analysis and informational text treatments, our pre-registered study investigates how the public assesses Chinese investment, the extent to which source country and project characteristics shape preferences, and the implications of Chinese investor behavior for preferences for cooperation with China. We find that, against conventional wisdom, Global South publics do not discriminate against Chinese investment projects. We reveal the determinants of preferences toward Chinese investment in 10 middle-income democracies in Sub-Saharan Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia (N = 20 001). This research contributes to the literatures on foreign investment preference formation and global Chinese investment, a phenomenon with profound geopolitical implications.