Suchergebnisse

Chapter 1: Introduction -- Chapter 2: Chinese capital and its spatio-temporal fix -- Chapter 3: Theorising African state agency -- Chapter 4: The destiny of the Freedom Railway: From anti-imperialism to accumulation by dispossession? -- Chapter 5: Divergent state agency: Zambia's debt impasse and Magufuli's nationalist infrastructure state -- Chapter 6: The price of the Sino-Zambian 'road bonanza' -- Chapter 7: The political economy of 'not so public' procurement -- Chapter 8: Towards a 'new era' of Sino-African infrastructure cooperation.

Waning debt sustainability has challenged the debt-financed, infrastructure-led global expansion of Chinese capital. This article traces the gradual shift in the financial governance of the Belt and Road Initiative towards public–private partnerships (PPPs). We first document China's domestic PPP experience and its failure to check the unsustainable indebtedness of sub-national governments. We then conceptualise China's "turn" towards PPPs in Africa as an attempt at "metagoverning" its current growth model. Analysing official Chinese sources, we discern dominant Chinese narratives that present PPPs as panaceas for African debt problems. However, Chinese risk perceptions and empirical examples, such as the Nairobi Expressway, the Tanzania–Zambia Railway, and the Congolese Kolwezi–Kasumbalesa toll road, reveal that China's experimentation with PPPs in Africa engenders new challenges, including popular contestation, controversies over financial terms and corruption. Furthermore, contrary to the official Chinese narrative, profit imperatives behind PPP investments and potential financial complications that were widespread in China's domestic PPP experience risk adding to the financial burdens of African governments and populations. (JCCA/GIGA)

Since the mid-1990s the Chinese state and the country's businesses have significantly increased their activity throughout the Global South. In International Development, China's impacts on this varied meta-region have generated substantial interest in recent years due to their scale, scope and distinctive nature. Understandably, given the complexity of the subject, most analyses have focused on discrete aspects of Chinese engagement rather than attempting to undertake more comprehensive assessments around its nature and evolution. This article engages this lacuna by identifying the main vectors of China's engagement in the Global South, and examining their adaptive nature. In particular it identifies the main channels of impact and intersection before focusing on China's signature foreign economic policy, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), to ground the analysis. The article then examines the ways in which China is reconfiguring its foreign economic diplomacy in response to the issue of infrastructure-linked debt – perhaps the most controversial aspect of China's growing global presence. We demonstrate that the Chinese 'development' policy is currently undergoing a substantial reorganisation towards soft power initiatives in response to (geo)political backlashes arising from the previous implementation of the BRI and the risks such loans present to the Chinese economy. We characterise this as an attempt at 'normalisation' of China as a 'donor', suggesting the power of global public opinion despite the 'omni-channel politics' and other power resources the country can bring to bear.

AbstractInfrastructure development has experienced a political renaissance in Africa and is again at the centre of national, regional, and continental development agendas. At the same time, China has been identified by African policy-makers as a particularly suitable strategic partner. As infrastructure has become a main pillar of Sino-African cooperation, there has been growing analytical interest in the role of African actors in shaping the terms and conditions and, by extension, the implementation of infrastructure projects with Chinese participation. This follows a more general African "agency turn" in China–Africa studies, which has shifted the research focus onto the myriad ways in which African state and non-state actors shape the continent's engagements with China. This article is situated within this growing body of literature and explores different forms of African state agency in the context of Tanzania's planned Bagamoyo port, Ethiopia's Adama wind farms, and Kenya's Lamu port. We posit a non-reductionist and social-relational ontology of the (African) state which sees the state as a multifaceted and multi-scalar institutional ensemble. We show that the extent and forms of state agency exerted are inherently interrelated with and, thus, highly contingent upon concrete institutional, economic, political, and bureaucratic contexts in which African state actors are firmly embedded. In doing so, we make the case for a context-sensitive analysis of various spheres of state agency in particular conjunctures of Sino-African engagement.

Infrastructure development has experienced a political renaissance in Africa and is again at the centre of national, regional, and continental development agendas. At the same time, China has been identified by African policy-makers as a particularly suitable strategic partner. As infrastructure has become a main pillar of Sino-African cooperation, there has been growing analytical interest on the role of African actors in shaping the terms and conditions and, by extension, the implementation of infrastructure projects with Chinese participation. This follows a more general African "agency turn" in China–Africa studies, which has shifted the research focus on the myriad ways in which African state and non-state actors shape the continent's engagements with China. This article is situated within this growing body of literature and explores different forms of an African state agency in the context of Tanzania's planned Bagamoyo port, Ethiopia's Adama wind farms, and Kenya's Lamu port. We posit a non-reductionist and social-relational ontology of the (African) state which sees the state as a multifaceted and multi-scalar institutional ensemble. We show that the extent and forms of state agencies exerted are inherently interrelated with and, thus, highly contingent upon concrete institutional, economic, political, and bureaucratic contexts in which African state actors are firmly embedded. In doing so, we make the case for a context-sensitive analysis of various spheres of a state agency in particular conjunctures of Sino-African engagement.

Tim Zajontz's research for this article was conducted under a European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant for the project African Governance and Space: Transport Corridors, Border Towns and Port Cities in Transition (AFRIGOS) [ADG-2014-67085 ; Mounting overaccumulation of capital and material has compelled the Chinese government to seek solutions overseas. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), with its transregional infrastructure projects connecting Eurasia and Africa, is the hallmark venture in this effort. Chinese road, railway, port and energy projects, implemented under the BRI banner, have become widespread in Africa. This article traces drivers of the BRI in the post-reform evolution of the Chinese economy and conceptualises the BRI as a multi-vector "spatial fix" aimed at addressing chronic overaccumulation. Focusing on Kenya, Djibouti and Ethiopia, the paper documents how loan financing related to BRI projects reveals contradictions that arise from China's spatial fix in Africa. Concerns about a looming debt crisis on the continent and the questionable economic sustainability of some BRI projects have become more pressing amidst the COVID-19-induced economic contraction. Hopes for Africa's economic transformation based on increasing connectivity under the BRI are unlikely to materialise. ; Publisher PDF ; Peer reviewed

Introduction : China's role in Africa's railway renaissance / Tim Zajontz, Pádraig Carmody, Mandira Bagwandeen and Anthony Leysens -- The political economy of China's globalising railways -- and their arrival in Africa / Tim Zajontz -- Powering African transport or transporting Chinese power? : the spatial political economy of Chinese railways in Africa / Kefa M. Otiso and Pádraig Carmody -- The freedom railway now and then : the enduring relevance of the 'TAZARA Spirit' for South-South cooperation / Liu Haifang -- Chinese railways and African development : developing railways or railing development? / Mandira Bagwandeen -- Chinese globalism, African regionalisms and state spatial strategies : The intricacies of regionalising Africa's railway renaissance / Tim Zajontz -- West Africa's 'railway patchwork' and the challenges of its integration / Mouhamed Bayane Bouraima and Qiu Yanjun -- China's infrastructure projects in Africa : Nigeria's unfinished Lagos-Kano railway / Gladys Lechini, María Noel Dussort and Agustina Marchetti -- Kenya's new lunatic express : the standard gauge railway / Ian Taylor -- The Addis Ababa-Djibouti railway and the national question in Ethiopia : a bottom-up view / Sharon Bar-David and Lynn Schle -- The rehabilitation of the Benguela railway and the reactivation of the Lobito corridor / Ana Duarte and Regina Santos -- Inside Kenya's standard gauge railway : passenger narratives on large-scale transport infrastructure, connectivity, and political controversy / Hugh Lamarque.