This episode features a discussion on current research into China's Belt and Road initiative, particularly as it relates to the Global South. Jewellord T. Nem Singh is a Principal Research Fellow in Global Political Economy at the School of Global Studies, University of Sussex. He is the author of Business of the State: Why State Ownership Matters for Resource Governance (Oxford University Press, 2024). Linda Tjia Yin-nor is an Associate Professor in the Department of Public and International Affairs at City University of Hong Kong. Her research interests focus on China's domestic railway and logistics development, as well as the political economy of China's overseas foreign aid and industrial projects in Central and Southeast Asia. She is the author of the book Explaining China’s Railway Reform: A Train of Property Rights Re-arrangements, published by Routledge in 2015. Angela Tritto is an Honorary Fellow at the University College of London, European & International Social & Political Studies Centre. She was formerly with the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, where her research focused on examining China’s Belt and Road Initiative in Southeast Asia and beyond. Her publications analyze the role of public, private, and third-sector organizations in affecting development outcomes and sustainability. Finally, Guanie Lim is Assistant Professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS), Japan. His main research interests are comparative political economy, value chain analysis, and the Belt and Road Initiative in Southeast Asia. Guanie is also interested in broader development issues within Asia, especially those of China, Vietnam, and Malaysia.
Along with several other colleagues, these four guests recently produced a special issue of the journal Competition & Change, entitled “China’s Quest for Soft Power and the Rebirth of National Strategies in the Belt and Road Initiative.” The issue explores the current state of the BRI, resisting master narratives of the policy to show the diverse, complicated, contextual ways host states strategically engage with China's global influence.
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