Re-orienting Global Development: The multiscalar dynamics of de-risking Chinese infrastructure investment in Europe
| Dates: | 14 March 2024 |
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| Times: | 16:30 - 18:00 |
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| What is it: | Lecture |
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| Organiser: | Global Development Institute |
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| Who is it for: | University staff, External researchers, Adults, Alumni, Current University students, General public |
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| Speaker: | Professor Giles Mohan |
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China’s Belt and Road Initiative is the most visible manifestation of the country’s wider internationalisation efforts in which infrastructure connectivity projects are central. Existing spatialised narratives of these projects have usefully focused on long-standing geopolitical binaries and bilateral state relations, as well as newer spatial ontologies of corridors, zones and networks. Yet they tend to underplay intra-state relations in the countries receiving Chinese infrastructure investment and so this lecture examines these dynamics through three case studies of Chinese-backed transport projects in Germany, Italy and Hungary. I argue that the promise of these infrastructure projects was virtuous insertion into global production networks, but in practice we see the central state over-riding local political actors. In Germany and Italy this is in the name of ‘de-risking’ Chinese investments whereby the re-territorialisation of state power is a response to a perceived ‘China threat’ but also a form of protectionism in the face of Chinese competition. In Hungary, the centralised regime uses major infrastructure for legitimatory purposes and deploys the growing connectivity to China as an Eastwards balance to its strained relations with Western Europe. I use this analysis to reflect on whether calls for Global Development are helpful for analysing new interdependencies beyond the global South.
Speaker
Professor Giles Mohan
Role: Professor of International Development
Organisation: The Open University
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G33
Humanities Bridgeford Street
Manchester
