View of a section of the 1300 km long Karakoram highway, jointly built by China and Pakistan
Media
It’s Time We Talk About All That Chinese Debt in Africa
There are growing calls for international lenders to cancel or at least reschedule significant portions of Africa’s debt as economies one after across the continent another sink into recession as a result of the worsening COVID-19 outbreak. Earlier this month, Ethiopian Prime Minister sounded the alarm when he called on international lenders to forgive African debt.
Connectivity in the time of COVID-19 - Johan van de Ven on BRI Country Responses
In the rapidly evolving context of a world impacted by the novel corona virus, Johan van de Ven discusses travel bans, material aid and donations, and border restrictions between China and Belt and Road Initiative partner countries. He focuses particularly on incidents of anti-Chinese discrimination in Moscow, material assistance to China given by countries from Thailand to Turkey, and stalls in Chinese infrastructural projects abroad.
Looking at the Belt and Road through the lens of Marxist geography
In November last year researchers from the Transnational Institute (TNI) wrote a framing paper on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) on behalf of the Asia Europe People’s Forum. The paper provided a quite different and refreshing perspective on the BRI, seeing it through the lens of political economy and, in particular, Marxist geographer David Harvey’s theory of the “spatial fix” for economies facing crises of overaccumulation.
Cross-Continental Connections: Disconnects and Mismatches along the China-Europe Freight Train Initiative
Prof. Dr. Linda Tjia explains the costs and benefits, the links and disconnects, and the domestic and global implications of the China-Europe Freight Train Initiative which connects multiple areas of Western China through Central Asia all the way to Europe. Having worked in the railway sector before her academic career, Linda walks Erik and Juliet through Chongqing business dealings with HP, trade imbalances and "empty return trains" between China and Europe, and the logistical and political challenges of navigating new rail paths through Central Asia.