Infrastructure is at the heart of China’s growing, controversial presence in global development. In addition to economic considerations, observers see infrastructure projects as important cogs in China’s pursuit of international influence. However, debates on Chinese global infrastructure are remarkably devoid of historical and comparative context, and China’s infrastructure-influence nexus remains conceptually and empirically unclear. Dr. Austin Strange provides a comprehensive account of Chinese global infrastructure since 1949, showing that high-profile infrastructure has been a tenacious feature of China’s development cooperation. It then discusses how high-profile infrastructure creates both intended and incidental sources of influence by serving as a unique form of political capital as well as a distinct source of political risk for China’s government and host country governments. Contemporary Chinese global infrastructure, both traditional and digital, has important historical and comparative contexts that help illuminate how China’s global infrastructure drive has injected major risk into its pursuit of international influence.

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About the speaker

Austin Strange is an Assistant Professor of International Relations in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Hong Kong. His research examines China’s contemporary and historical roles in the world economy and global development. He is co-author of Banking on Beijing: The Aims and Impacts of China’s Overseas Development Program (Cambridge University Press, 2022). Austin earned a Ph.D. from Harvard University, M.A. from Zhejiang University, and a B.A. from William & Mary.

Presented by the Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies. Co-sponsored by the East Asia Program and the Gender and Security Sector Lab.