Join us for the second ANU China Seminar Series for 2021.
We will be joined by PhD candidate Hong Zhang, who will be delivering a seminar on ‘The Belt and Road Initiative and the Internationalisation of China’s Developmental State‘.
When: 11 March 2021, 4:00 – 5:30pm AEDT
Where: Online event, please register at: https://bri-and-chinas-developmental-state.eventbrite.com.au
More event details below
Two perspectives currently dominate the public debate about the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). While some see it as a well-thought-out plan by the Chinese leadership to gain geopolitical influence by economic means, others argue that China’s state is too ‘fragmented’ to be able to enforce a coherent agenda for the BRI, which is ultimately shaped by contingent factors out of Beijing’s control. In this seminar, Hong Zhang will contend that neither perspective accurately reflects the dynamics of the BRI policy-making process.
Tracing how the BRI agenda has evolved since its unveiling in 2013, the speaker will show how the National Development and Reform Commission, the ‘pilot agency’ in China’s developmental state, fills the vague, politically driven initiative with concrete industrial policy content, while also coordinating the BRI’s implementation among subnational units and industries, as well as with foreign governments. Therefore, even though Beijing does not control everything happening in the name of the BRI on the ground, it is possible to affirm that a relatively coherent agenda of reshaping globalisation with the aim of enhancing China’s resource-mobilisation capabilities is in the making—an agenda that defines the broad contours of the BRI.
In light of this, the speaker argues that the BRI marks the internationalisation of China’s developmental state, building on decades of institutional evolution toward strengthening the state’s capacity to steer economic development and social transformation. Such international maneuvers to create a favourable condition for the development of China’s national economy is predetermined by the nature of the developmental state, even though its timing can be explained by the ambitions of the Xi Jinping leadership.
About the Speaker:
Hong Zhang is a PhD candidate in public policy at the Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University. Her research interests include Chinese political economy, China’s international development engagement and foreign aid, and the global expansion of China’s “national champion” state-owned enterprises. She is a member of the editorial team of the Made in China Journal. Previously, she worked as a reporter with China’s Caixin Media where she covered Chinese economy and international affairs.