Banking on Beijing — Axel Dreher

China plays a crucial role in the development policies of many countries around the world. It offers grants and loans, and builds major infrastructure projects such as roads, bridges, power plants, parliament buildings, hotels, and football stadiums. A new book claims that that much of the conventional wisdom about Chinese development finance rests on untested assumptions, individual case studies, and incomplete data sources. The authors argue that Beijing’s use of debt rather than aid to bankroll big-ticket infrastructure projects certainly creates new opportunities for developing countries to achieve rapid socioeconomic gains. However, such actions also introduce major risks, such as corruption, political capture, and conflict. Axel Dreher is a Professor of International and Development Politics at Heidelberg University, Germany. Together with Andreas Fuchs, Bradley Parks, Austin Strange and Michael Tierney, Axel co-authored Banking on Beijing: The Aims and Impacts of China's Overseas Development Program (Cambridge University Press, 2022). Twitter: @DreherAxelKey highlights:Introduction - 00:50On why is it hard to find data on Chinese aid and investments - 04:04Chinese aid, motives, and soft power- 09:40The methods for unpacking Chinese aid data - 24:30Understanding the transition from "benefactor" to "banker" - 32:00The need and long-term viability of big infrastructure projects - 43:44Host:Professor Dan Banik, University of Oslo, Twitter: @danbanik  @GlobalDevPodApple Google Spotify YouTubehttps://in-pursuit-of-development.simplecast.com/ Host:Professor Dan Banik, Centre for Global Sustainability, University of OsloSubscribe:Apple Spotify YouTubehttps://globaldevpod.substack.com/