Putting China’s belt and road initiative into perspective

Abstract der Sitzung

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) needs little introduction. Much has been written and speculated, mainly from a geopolitical perspective, about China’s ‘grand strategy’ of building a global network of infrastructural connectivity and economic integration through strategic investments in Eurasia, Africa, and Latin America. Ten years after the BRI’s official announcement, (geographical) research has rightfully taken an empirical turn, increasingly focusing on case studies of Chinese overseas investments (loosely) related to the BRI, and scrutinizing how these projects shape and are shaped by local structures, actors, and the wider social-ecological environment. Taking a critical perspective, they investigate China-funded investments and development projects in infrastructure (roads, energy) and natural resource exploitation (mining, agriculture), among other sectors, and how these projects unfold in particular social-ecological settings.

However, one emerging critique directed at this field of research is that it appears to be often dominated by a ‘Western’ gaze that uncritically assumes what can be termed ’Chinese exceptionalism’: Chinese overseas investments are framed as somehow inherently different from, for instance, World Bank-funded energy projects in West Africa or Europe-based transnational corporations investing in South Asian agriculture. However, while underlying drivers may indeed be different, the local consequences of BRI-related interventions may not be as unique as sometimes assumed: commonly identified problems such as local elite capture of projects, marginalization of certain groups, detrimental effects on ecosystems, or the creation of new dependencies on international actors have also been common features of ‘Western’ development interventions in the Global South for many decades. In this regard, it remains to be seen what the recently announced ‘Global Gateway’ Initiative of the European Union will bring, which has been explicitly framed as an alternative to China’s BRI.

Therefore, this session takes a comparative perspective of Chinese and other foreign investments and development interventions in the Global South, with a particular focus on, but not limited to, infrastructure development and natural resource exploitation. We welcome empirical contributions on BRI-related and other transnational (esp. from the Global North) interventions in the Global South that critically explore their social, political-economic, and ecological implications in the ‘receiving’ countries and localities. Comparative case studies are particularly welcome, but contributions focusing on a single case study of either Chinese or other transnational interventions should reflect on BRI and the question of ‘Chinese exceptionalism’ in one way or another.