Global Capital and Media Control: A Case of Joint Venture in China’ s Media Market before WTO Yiu Ming To & Ray Yep Received: 1 October 2007 / Accepted: 13 December 2007 / Published online: 1 July 2008 # Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2008 Abstract This story covered here is an unprecedented case of foreign “takeover” of a Chinese press in the pre-WTO era. Despite the open prohibition of foreign involvement in the media sector, the grip of the central state seems futile in the face of the lure of capital. This detailed study of foreign investment in The Modern Man (TMM), a newspaper in Guangzhou, helps uncover the tension and dynamics of the process of globalization. As reflected in the case of TMM, while the lure of foreign capital does account for the reticence of local state on the ideological concerns of the centre, the party-state however, still maintains an array of leverages in containing the unwelcome foreign presence when necessary. Neither the radical view of a “powerless state”, nor the moderate views of “enabling state” alone seem adequate in explaining the reality. Keywords China . Decentralization . Globalization . Marketization . Media Introduction The impact of foreign capital on state capacity is the definitive question concerning the process of globalization. The standard view of globalization contends the process as a constraining force that weakens what the state can do, and the growing global interconnectedness only implies a leaner and meaner version of its former self [3, 16]. “The race to the bottom” argument implicates the helplessness of the state in face of the unprecedented traffic of cross-border capital and vulnerability of its economy to the growing volatility [8]. The argument of inevitability of state decline is however, not without its critics. For example, while recognizing the impact of East Asia (2008) 25:167–185 DOI 10.1007/s12140-008-9047-y Y. M. To Baptist University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR R. Yep (*) City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR e-mail: SARKMYEP@cityu.edu.hk