The Belt and Road Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Who Decides and How Along the Belt and Road? with Thomas Hale & Johannes Urpelainen Dec 18, 2020

Show notes

Who makes decisions about project approval, design, and the pursuit of sustainability - in China, in recipient countries, and beyond? A recent report entitled, 'Belt and Road Decision-making in China and Recipient Countries: How and To What Extent Does Sustainability Matter?' breaks this question down artfully to trace the interests and institutional structures shaping BRI projects.
Listen to our interview with two of the three the authors, Thomas Hale (Associate Professor of Global Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford) and Johannes Urpelainen (Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Professor of Energy, Resources and Environment at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and founding director of ISEP) and check out our recommendations!
Erik
1) Ys, Joanna Newsom
Johannes
1) De-carbonizing the Belt and Road, Climateworks Foundation, September 2019
2) The Emperor's New Road: China and the Project of the Century, Jonathan Hillman
3) The Initiative for Sustainable Energy Policy at Johns Hopkins SAIS
Tom
1) Ministry for the Future, Kim Stanley Robinson
Juliet
1) On China's New Silk Road, Mary Kay Magistad
~Special thanks to Maggie Gaus, who has joined the Belt and Road Pod team and edited this episode~

Thanks for listening!

Lucille Greer on China's Various Engagements in the Middle East Nov 29, 2020

Show notes

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region is vitally important to China, particularly as a source of oil but also increasingly as a staging ground for China's forays into global politics. Lucille Greer (@Lucille_Greer_), an expert on China-MENA relations, sheds light on a range of topics from the role of Xinjiang in China's Islamic world relations to the 'strategic alliance' between China and Iran.
Lucille has written extensively on the topic, see for example,
- "Last Among Equals: The China-Iran Partnership in a Regional Context,"
- "Solidarity and Strain: China and the Middle East During COVID-19,"
- "The Chinese Islamic Association in the Arab World: the Use of Islamic Soft Power in Promoting Silence on Xinjiang,"
- "The Chinese Piece in Iran's War Games," and
- "China's Bet on Assad: The Lucrative and Risky Business of Postwar Reconstruction."
And check out our recommendations!
Erik
1) China Africa Project Podcast, Mark Bohlund "China, Bondholders, and the Worsening African Debt Crisis"
2) The Joys of Cordless Vaccuums
Lucille
1) Experts in related fields: Mohammed Turki Al-Sudairi (@MohammedSudairi), Wu BingBing (Peking U. Institute of Arab-Islamic Culture), Wang Suolao (Peking U. Center for Middle East Studies), Ariane Tabatabai (@ArianeTabatabai), Jonathan Fulton (@jonathanfulton), John Calabrese (American U. Middle East-Asia Project)
2) All About China - Middle East Institute
3) Bourse & Bazaar - an online hub for news, insights, research, and events on Iran
4) CGTN Arabic music video on COVID-19 referenced during our interview
Juliet
1) Bear Talk: Mandarin language podcast on a weird mix of technology insights, book reviews, and personal improvement tips - a good way for intermediate and advanced Mandarin speakers to get some listening practice in (and tune out of current events and politics)
2) Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America, a new podcast by KQED on California's housing crisis.

Thanks for listening!

China's Global Power Database: China's Global Power Plant Investments Data at Your Fingertips! Oct 28, 2020

Show notes

China is a leader in global power generation - both through fossil fuel and clean energy technologies. Chinese capital has been involved in establishing at least 777 power plants across the world, providing 186.5 GW of power generation capacity. To track China's impact on global power generation, Boston University's Global China Initiative is launching "China's Global Power Database" which Erik & Juliet discuss with BU's Cecilia Han Springer and Ma Xinyue. This database tracks all the world's power plants financed by Chinese foreign direct investment and/or China's two global policy banks, the China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China. The database is extensive, gets all the way down to plant level details, and is completely open source and publicly available.
Check out the China's Global Power Database for yourself: http://www.bu.edu/cgp/
And check out our recommendations:
Erik
1) Follow @ChinaCamMonitor for good updates on China in Cambodia
2) Fiona Apple's new album Fetch the Bolt Cutters
3) Americans: VOTE!
Ma Xinyue
1) Listen to the Korean band: BTS
Cecilia Han Springer:
1) The Political Economy of the Chinese Coal Industry: Black Gold and Blood-Stained Coal by Tim Wright AND
2) FAIR BRI Dataset is forthcoming by the Global China Initiative, will cover the intersections between (see updates at bu.edu/gdp, subscribe to their newsletter, or follow on twitter @GDPC_BU)
Juliet:
1) Listen to BU Global China Initiative's weekly seminars on Wednesdays
2) Black China Caucus (@BLKChinaCaucus): a collaborative effort that strives to enhance the presences and participation of Black experts specializing in any aspect aiding in the comprehensive understanding of China. The mission of the BCC is accomplished by the active promotion of Black China specialists as well as the creation of targeted resources aimed at enhancing the professional development and advancement of Black practitioners in the China space.

Thanks for listening!

Without Dreams in Sihanoukville: Chinese and Cambodian Construction Labor Struggles Oct 12, 2020

Show notes

Labor is a lightning rod for judgments of the benefits of the Belt and Road: Will Chinese projects generate work opportunities for the host country? Do Chinese employers follow different labor standards than others? When and how do workers speak out against poor labor conditions?
Ivan Franceschini brings a few new angles to the labor question. He knows the domestic labor situation in China well, and draws connections between the domestic context and what is happening in Cambodia today. In his Cambodia research, he looks not only at Cambodian workers but also Chinese workers in the country, and finds more similarities between their precarity than often understood.
Read a few of his new articles, "As far apart as earth and sky," "Outsourcing Exploitation," and "At the Roots of Labour Activism."
And check out our recommendations:
Ivan:
1) Briefing Paper: Reassessing China's Investment Footprint in Cambodia by Mark Grimsditch, Inclusive Development International
Juliet:
1) Afterlives of Chinese Communism (ed. Ivan Franceschini, Nicholas Loubere, Christian Sorace)
2) Dreamwork China (Documentary)
3) Boramey: Ghosts in the Factory (Documentary - coming soon!)
Erik:
1) Belt and Road Decision-Making in China and Recipient Countries: How and To What Extent Does Sustainability Matter? by Thomas hale, Chuyu Liu, Johannes Urpelainen
2) Michael Clayton (film) :)

Thanks for listening!

People-centered Power: Chinese Knowledge Production, Networks, and Training Programs in Africa - Lina Benabdallah Sep 20, 2020

Show notes

Prof. Dr. Lina Benabdallah discusses her latest book, "Shaping the Future of Power: Knowledge production and network-building in China-Africa Relations." Lina looks at China's rise and the Belt and Road beyond the hardware investments - the major infrastructure projects which have been most emphasized. She compares three major types of professionalization interventions: military and security cooperation, media and journalist training, and educational exchanges such as those done through Confucius Institutes. She suggests that these person-to-person engagements in Africa have far reaching impacts and constitute an important angle on Chinese global engagements often less understood and studied.
Recommendations
Lina: The Continent - a weekly newspaper compiling the best reporting across Africa, produced by the Mail & the Guardian.
Erik: Africa is a Country - covering opinion, analysis, and new writing on Africa
Juliet: On the topic of soft power, I recommend two very nationalistic Chinese blockbusters that portray Chinese development cooperation and aid missions - one in Africa called "Wolf Warrior II" (kickass trailer, random analysis) and one in the Mekong Region (less about aid more just cops, fighting, and explosions but based on real events) called "Operation Mekong" (trailer). Lina affirms that she shows Wolf Warrior in her classes :)

Thanks for listening!

Green Development or Greenwashing? Tyler Harlan on China's Green Finance, Green Energy, and Green Cooperation Aug 27, 2020

Show notes

In this episode, Dr. Tyler Harlan breaks down the discourses vs. reality of the green turn in the Belt and Road Initiative since Xi Jinping announced it in 2017. He describes the state of knowledge and realities of implementation of the three main aspects of the 'Green Belt and Road': green finance, green energy, and green development cooperation. He also reflects on his research on rural development within China and on China's renewable energy investments across the Mekong Region to shed light on specific cases explored.
Check out his article, entitled "Green development or greenwashing? A political ecology perspective on China’s green Belt and Road" here or get in touch via twitter (@beltandroadpod) for help accessing a copy!
Recommendations:
Tyler
1) The puzzle of China’s missing solar and wind finance along the Belt and Road Parts 1 & 2 (Panda Paw Dragon Claw, Ma Tianjie)
2) Reports on how hydropower could be reduced/changed/replaced with investment in solar and wind: Brain Eyler on Chinese Solar Diplomacy in China Dialogue and Jeff Opperman of WWF on hydropower on free flowing rivers
Erik
1) Shaping the Future of Power: Knowledge Production and Network-Building in China-Africa Relations (latest book by Lina Benabdallah)
2) Killing Eve - Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Juliet
1) Forgotten Kingdom: Nine Years in Yunnan 1939-48 (by Peter Goulyar)

Thanks for listening!

How Chinese Capital Alters Center-Periphery Relations in Kenya - Elisa Gambino Jul 31, 2020

Show notes

How does Chinese capital alter center-periphery relations in Kenya?
Can peripheral groups have meaningful agency with Chinese state entities?
Who determines, and what is considered "local" in local content agreements built into Chinese-financed infrastructure projects?
On this Episode, Erik sits down Elisa Gambino to speak about her forthcoming paper entitled: "Chinese participation in Kenyan Transport Infrastructure: Reshaping Power-Geometries" that looks to answer these questions and more by using Kenya's Lamu Port as a case study.
Elisa Gambino is a doctoral researcher on the African Governance and Space project at the University of Edinburgh’s Centre of African Studies. You can read her prior writing on labor relations at the Lamu port here https://theasiadialogue.com/2020/02/26/job-insecurity-labour-contestation-and-everyday-resistance-at-the-chinese-built-lamu-port-site-in-kenya/
Recommendations:
Elisa: 1) Tales of Hope, Tastes of Bitterness by Miriam Driessen
2) Invisible China: A Journey Through Ethnic Borderlands by Colin Legerton and Jacob Rawson
Erik: 1) Putting a Dollar Amount on China's Loans in the Developing World by Huang Yufang and Deborah Brautigam
2) For the American audience: Moving to a mid-tier American city. They are more dynamic than coastal cities give them credit for and one can actually afford to live in them! Added bonus if you move to a swing state!

Thanks for listening!

The History of Ethnic Chinese Garment Manufacturing in South Africa - Dr. Xu Liang Jul 02, 2020

Show notes

In this episode, Juliet and Erik sit down with Dr. Xu Liang from Peking University's School of International Studies to talk about his latest research that chronicles historical and modern-day ethnic Chinese garment production in Newcastle, South Africa.
Dr. Xu Liang's latest article "Factory, family and industrial frontier: A Socioeconomic study of Chinese clothing firms in Newcastle, South Africa" can be found here. (link)

Thanks for listening!

Turning Off the Tap: Tensions between China and Downstream Neighbors over Dams and Drought May 28, 2020

Show notes

After a year of record breaking drought, the Mekong River water has level reached a historical low. Continued water stress, which is likely due to climate change, will permanently change the ecology of the region and water stress is already impacting the lives and livelihoods of millions of people across the region dependent upon the river. Proponents of hydrological dam development along the Mekong, which is primarily done by Chinese developers both in China and in downstream countries (Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam), have emphasized the potential for dams to regulate water flow. But recent conditions have raised questions as to whether dams have exacerbated current water stress and how dams could be differently managed to relieve drought conditions. They also have galvanized calls for stronger mechanisms for transnational information sharing and governance - China currently considers water management data a state secret and does not consult downstream countries about the management of its domestic dams. Brian Eyler of the Stimson Center and Alan Basist of Eyes on Earth discuss with Erik Myxter-Iino the growing upstream/downstream river governance issues that have arisen as a result and the future environmental, socioeconomic, and political challenges raised.
Read related articles:
1. How China Turned off the Tap on the Mekong River (Brian Eyler, Stimson Center)
2. Science Shows Chinese Dams are Devastating the Mekong (Brian Eyler, Foreign Policy)
3. Understanding the Mekong's Hydrological Conditions (Alan Basist & Claude Williams, Mekong River Commission)
Recommendations
Brian
In the Dragon's Shadow: Southeast Asia in the Chinese Century by Sebastian Strangio
Erik
Capital & Ideology by Thomas Piketty

Thanks for listening!

The Complexities of a Chinese Dam Project in Ghana - Dr. Xiao Han May 13, 2020

Show notes

On this episode, Erik speaks with Dr. Xiao Han on her latest work co-authored by Michael Webber - “From Chinese dam building in Africa to the Belt and Road Initiative: Assembling infrastructure projects and their linkages" that was published in the 77th volume of the journal of Political Geography.
Dr. Xiao Han is a postdoctoral research fellow at University of Melboure’s Centre for Contemporary Chinese Studies.
Recommendations:
Dr. Xiao Han:
1. Cooking - COVID has all of us anxious, finding time to cook and bake goods is relaxing
Erik:
1. The Code of Capital How the law creates wealth and inequality by Katharina Pistor
2. A paper subscription to the NYTimes

Thanks for listening!

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