The Belt and Road Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Comparing the Railway Bureaucracies in China and India with Kyle Chan Dec 12, 2022

Show notes

Kyle Chan visits the Belt and Road Podcast to talk about state capacity in railway bureaucracies in China and India, his research collected while riding trains through the two countries, the incredibly mundane naming of Chinese companies, and much more. This episode discusses Kyle's research published in two articles: Inside China's state-owned enterprises: Managed competition through a multi-level structure (2022) and The organizational roots of state capacity: Comparing railway bureaucracies in China and India (2022).
Kyle Chan is a PhD student in sociology at Princeton University, where his research focuses on bureaucracy and infrastructure development in China and India. He spent two years doing fieldwork in both countries looking at railway development, including that of China's high-speed rail system.
Recommendations:
Kyle:

The Chinese Mayor (2015 documentary)
Powerless (2014 documentary)

Erik:

Rühlig, Tim. Chinese Influence through technical standardization power (2022).
Tár (2022 film)

Juliet:

High Stakes: China's Leadership in Global Biodiversity Governance by Jesse Rodenbiker in the New Security Beat.
Coverage of the Convention on Biological Diversity in China Dialogue

Thanks for listening!

Exploring Chinese Soft Power with Maria Repnikova Oct 24, 2022

Show notes

Juliet and Erik are joined by Maria Repnikova to talk about her book, "Chinese soft power," Confucius Institutes, China's love for spectacle, and of course, how all this and more applies to the Belt and Road. What is soft power? How is China doing when it comes to soft power projection around the world? Listen to find out!
Maria Repnikova is the Director of the Center for Global Information Studies and an Assistant Professor in Global Communication at Georgia State University. She is a scholar of global communication, with a comparative focus on China and Russia. Her research examines the processes of political resistance and persuasion in illiberal political contexts, drawing on ethnographic research in the field. Dr. Repnikova holds a doctorate from the University of Oxford, where she was a Rhodes Scholar. She speaks fluent Mandarin, Russian and Spanish. Her book, Media Politics in China: Improvising Power under Authoritarianism examines participatory communications channels under an authoritarian regime through the relationship between China's critical journalists and the one-party state in the past decade.
Recommendations:
Maria:

Baykurt, Burcu and Victoria de Grazia (ed.) Soft-Power Internationalism: Competing for Cultural Influence in the 21st-Century Global Order (2021).

Erik:

Pekingology Podcast from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) with Jude Blanchette, specifically these two episodes:
- Terror Capitalism with Darren Byler
- Localized Bargaining with Xiao Ma
The Rehearsal, Nathan Fielder's new docu-comedy series on HBO

Juliet:

Qi, Jeffrey and Peter Dauvergne. China and the global politics of nature-based solutions. Environmental Science and Policy (2022).

*Bonus: The Belt and Road Sing Along Music Video*

Thanks for listening!

Evaluating Mega Projects: The Standard Gauge Railway in Kenya with Keren Zhu Sep 16, 2022

Show notes

Keren Zhu talked with us about her research on the socioeconomic impacts of the Belt and Road, specifically with regard to Kenya's Standard Gauge Railway (SGR). She provides background and analysis on the SGR, she and Eric discuss their personal experiences riding the railway, and more! Much of the conversation centers around Keren's recent work with co-authors Ben Mwangi and Lynn Hu, published in the article Socioeconomic impact of China's infrastructure-led growth model in Africa: A case study of the Kenyan Standard Gauge Railway (2022). We also draw on her piece, "Addressing the Impact Evaluation Gaps in Belt and Road Initiative Projects in Africa."
Keren Zhu is a Global China Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Boston University Global Development Policy Center. She holds a Ph.D. in Policy Analysis from the Pardee RAND Graduate School, and an M.Sc. in Social Anthropology from the University of Oxford. Her research focuses on the BRI, global infrastructure, international development, and program evaluation.
Recommendations:
Erik:

Chess.com
Heathcliff comics by George Gately

Keren:

Modernizing America's Electricity Infrastructure by Mason Willrich (2017)
Pairing Shakespeare with contemporary issues and authors (Keren's current pairing: Shakespeare's Othello with Born in Blackness by Howard French)

Juliet:

Try to drive your car less and learn to embrace the pace change that brings you!

Thanks for listening!

China's Global Climate Governance with Jeffrey Qi Aug 09, 2022

Show notes

Jeffrey Qi discusses China's growing role in high-level, high-stakes global climate governance. We discuss research Jeffrey conducted as a master's student in political science at the University of British Columbia and the resulting article he wrote with his advisor Peter Dauvergne, China's rising influence on climate governance: Forging a path for the global South (2021), which can be found here.

Jeffrey Qi is a policy analyst at the International Institute for Sustainable Development's Resilience Program (IISD). Based in Vancouver, he provides research, project management, and communication support with a focus on national adaptation planning (NAP) processes, ecosystem-based adaptation, and multilateral agreements. He works on supporting developing countries’ national adaptation planning processes and the implementation of the Paris Agreement and the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.

Recommendations:
Jeffrey:

China's Environmental Foreign Relations by Heidi Wang-Kaeding (2021)
Analysis: Nine key moments that changed China's mind about climate change by Jianqiang Liu from Carbon Brief (2021)
Competing narratives of nature-based solutions: Leveraging the power of nature or dangerous distraction? by Marina Stavroula Melanidis and Shannon Hagerman (2022)

Erik:

If you get the chance to go on a safari, take it!
Same goes for the Chinese-built SGR railway in Kenya

Juliet:

Travelling with Big Brother: A Reporter's Junket in China by Solomon Elusoji (2019)

Thanks for listening!

US Strategy Regarding China's Presence in the African Continent with Winslow Robertson and Owakhela Kankhwende Jun 23, 2022

Show notes

Erik is joined by Winslow Robertson and Owakhela Kankhwende to discuss their chapter of the book From Trump to Biden and Beyond: Reimagining U.S.-China Relations, entitled "U.S. Strategy Vis-À-Vis China's Presence in the African Continent: Description and Prescription".
Winslow Robertson is a PhD student at IESE Business School at the University of Navarra, where he focuses on Chinese provincial SOEs and the Belt and Road. He is also the founder of Cowries and Rice, a Sino-Africa management consultancy.
Owakhela Kankhwende is a recent graduate with a MAS in business analytics from Fordham University's Gabelli School of Business. He has been a research analyst at Pivotal Advisors, and is currently a data analyst at Insider.
Recommendations:
Owakhela:

The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon (1961)
UnLearn: 101 Simple Truths for a Better Life by Humble the Poet (2019)

Winslow:

From Politics to Business: How a state-led fund is investing in Africa? The case of the China-Africa Development Fund by Hangwei Li (2020)
The Long Game: China's Grand Strategy to Displace American Order by Rush Doshi (2021)
The Dragon Prince series on Netflix (2018-19)

Erik:

I Want You Back film (2022)
Promises album by Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders, and the London Symphony Orchestra (2021)

Thanks for listening!

The Politics of Infrastructure Maintenance and Decay w/ The Roadwork Asia Project's Agnieszka Joniak-Lüthi and Zarina Urmanbetova Jun 09, 2022

Show notes

Juliet and Erik are joined by Agnieszka Joniak-Lüthi and Zarina Urmanbetova of Roadwork Asia to discuss China's road infrastructure projects in Central Asia and their research at Roadwork Asia, including their article on infrastructural connections across the Toghuz-Toro district of central Kyrgystan Welcome and Unwelcome Connections: Travelling Post-Soviet Roads in Kyrgyzstan.
Agnieszka Joniak-Lüthi is a professor of social anthropology at the University of Fribourg and head of the ROADWORK project. She focuses on China and the Sino-Central Asian borderlands. Her recent research explores the nexus of transport infrastructure, settler colonialism, and processes of state territorialization in northwest China. She has also expanded her research into infrastructure maintenance and how temporalities of materials, investment, discourses, government agendas, ecosystems, and humans affect the social life of infrastructure in the Sino-Central Asian borderlands.
Zarina Urmanbetova is a social anthropologist from Kyrgyzstan. She has worked on projects for UN Women Kyrgyzstan, Urban Initiatives, the Research Institute of Islamic Studies in Bishkek, and the Analytical Center Polis Asia. She holds a BA from the Kyrgyz-Turkish Manas University and a MA in social anthropology from Hacettepe University in Turkey. At ROADWORK, she focuses on the social and cultural life of roads in central Kyrgyzstan.
Recommendations:
Agnieszka

Roadsides, an open-access journal designated to be a forum devoted to exploring the social, cultural, and political life of infrastructure
Belt & Road in Global Perspective, a project of the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto

Zarina

14 Peaks: Nothing is Impossible documentary on Netflix

Erik

Bish Bosch album by Scott Walker

Juliet

How Sand Mining Threatens a Way of Life in Southeast Asia. National Geographic. Photos & reporting by Sim Chi Yin, writing by Vince Beiser. March 2018.
Satellites Spy on Sand Mining in the Mekong by Alka Tripathy-Lang, Dec 2021.
The Messy Business of Sand Mining Explained. Marco Hernandez, Simon Scarr, Katie Daigle. Feb 2021.

Thanks for listening!

The Chinese Insurance Sector and the BRI with Margaret Myers May 10, 2022

Show notes

Margaret Myers returns to The Belt and Road Podcast to speak with Erik about the role and development of China's international insurance sector in Latin America and the Caribbean. The conversation is based on her January 2022 report from The Dialogue entitled Going Out, Guaranteed: Chinese Insurers in Latin America.
Margaret Myers is the director of the Asia & Latin America Program at the Inter-American Dialogue. She created the Dialogue's China and Latin America Working Group in 2011, as well as the China-Latin America Finance Database in cooperation with the Global China Initiative at Boston University's Global Development Policy Center. She has previously worked as a Latin America analyst and China analyst for the U.S. Department of Defense.
Recommendations:
Margaret

Albright, Zara C., Rebecca Ray, Yudong (Nathan) Liu (2022), China-Latin America and the Caribbean Economic Bulletin, 2022 Edition

Erik

Richard Simmons 'Sweatin' to the Oldies' Workout Video

A special thanks to Taili Ni for editing this episode!

Thanks for listening!

Ammar Malik, China AidData, and the Data and Debate over Chinese Lending Apr 08, 2022

Show notes

On this episode, Juliet and Erik speak to Dr. Ammar Malik about AidData’s Global Chinese Development Finance Dataset, Version 2.0. This dataset provides the most comprehensive data on China’s overseas development finance activities, covering projects over 18 commitment years (2000-2017). They discuss the trends and findings from the dataset, break down China’s overseas loans and the concept of ‘hidden debt’, explore potential future applications of the data, and more.
Dr. Ammar Malik is a senior research scientist at AidData, a research lab at William & Mary where he leads the Chinese Development Finance Program. He holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy from George Mason University, an M.A. in Public Affairs from Sciences Po Paris, an M.A. in Public Policy from the National University of Singapore, and a B.Sc. in Economics and Mathematics from the Lahore University of Management Sciences.
Read more of Dr. Malik’s work:

Malik, et al. (2021), Banking on the Belt and Road: Insights from a new global dataset of 13,427 Chinese development projects
- Find Mandarin Chinese versions of the report’s executive summary here and the main report here
Malik, Ammar and Bradley Parks (2021), Hidden debt exposure to China: What is it, where is it, and should we be concerned?

Recommendations
Ammar

Bluhm, et al (2020), Connective Financing: Chinese Infrastructure Projects and the Diffusion of Economic Activity in Developing Countries

Erik

Margaret Myers, Going Out Guaranteed: Chinese Insurers and Latin America
How To with John Wilson on HBO

Juliet (via Jack Zinda’s recommendation)

R, Gabriel and Jeremy Wallace (2022). Political Science, Authoritarianism, and Climate Change: Can the Climate Crisis Undermine Democratic Legitimacy?
- In response to: Mittiga, Ross (2021). Political Legitimacy, Authoritarianism, and Climate Change. Cambridge University Press.

~Thanks to Taili Ni, the newest member of the Belt and Road Podcast team as of March 2022, who edited this episode and wrote the show notes!~

Thanks for listening!

Cotton Diplomacy in Central Asia: Dr. Irna Hofman on China in Tajikistan and Beyond Mar 10, 2022

Show notes

Just across the Xinjiang border, China is investing in a range of sectors. Infrastructure and road construction are booming as in many other places, but cotton investments dominate and are seen as a distinct type. Cotton is considered a strategic crop both to China and Tajikistan and is embedded in a range of elite networks and state power. Cotton Diplomacy is one of many things we cover in this episode, listen in!
Read more of Dr. Hofman's work:

Chinese Cotton Diplomacy in Tajikistan: Greasing the Ties by Reviving the Cotton Economy
In the Interstices of Patriarchal Order: Spaces of Female Agency in Chinese-Tajik Labour Encounters
Towards a geography of window dressing and benign neglect: The state, donors and elites in Tajikistan's trajectories of post-Soviet agrarian change

Recommendations
Irna

The People's Map
Host an event bringing together all the podcast interviewees!

Erik

Embrace home design DIY!
Listen to MeatLoaf Bat Outta Hell 2 album especially

Juliet

The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip-Hop (2010)
The Power and Business of Hip-Hop: A Reading List on an American Art Form. Stories of hi-hop’s genius, influence, struggle, and endurance
Overcoming Challenges to the Research Environment in China, Harvard Fairbank Center with YuenYuen Ang, Liz Perry, Denise Ho and Rob Weller (Summary)
This Tik Tok that Erik sent me making fun of podcast hosts that do recommendations at the end lol

Thanks for listening!

A Systematic Analysis of International Chinese Contractors - w/ Hong Zhang Feb 02, 2022

Show notes

On episode 51, Juliet and Erik welcome back Dr. Hong Zhang to discuss the history, interests, corporate structures and agency of International Chinese infrastructure contractors.
Discussion is based on Hong Zhang's May 2021 working paper for SAIS-China Africa Research Initiative entitled: Chinese International Contractors in Africa: Structure and Agency.
Hong Zhang is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Johns Hopkins University's SIAS-CARI and a 2021-22 China and the World Program Fellow at Columbia University. She received her PhD in Public Policy from the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University in 2021.
She is one of the best thinkers and writers on all things Belt and Road and we were lucky to have her back on the show!
Here are this episode's recommendations!
Erik:
1. Benedetta, dir. Paul Verhoeven
2. Encanto, dir. Jared Bush, Byron Howard, and Charise Castro Smith (+ the Pixar short that plays at the beginning!)
Hong Zhang:
1. "Archaeologies of the Belt and Road Initiative," Made in China Journal
2. James Reilly, Orchestration: China's Economic Statecraft Across Asia and Europe, Oxford University Press
3. Lina Benabdallah, Shaping the Future of Power: Knowledge Production and Network-Building in China-Africa Relations, University of Michigan Press
Juliet:
1. 狗熊有话说 Bear Talk podcast
2. Sustainable Asiapodcast

Thanks for listening!

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