Webinar: Understanding China’s Interaction with Stakeholders in Recipient Countries under the Belt and Road Initiative

Speakers: Chuyu Liu, Thomas Hale, Johannes Urpelainen

Discussant: Muyang Chen

The recent rapid expansion of Chinese overseas electricity investment has profound impacts on both local development of recipient countries and global climate change. What factors push Chinese overseas electricity investment toward a cleaner or dirtier energy mix? The report focuses on Indonesia and Pakistan, presenting an analytic framework that looks at both supply and demand factors, and, critically, the interaction between the two.  Drawing on extensive practitioner interviews and project-level data, we highlight the importance of three factors: the presence or absence of incumbent industries in recipient countries, the degree of institutionalization of BRI processes in a given country, and the potential for recipient countries to link renewable energy goals to China’s broader foreign policy goals.

To attend the Webinar, register here.

Speakers:

Dr. Chuyu Liu is an Assistant Professor in Political Science at the University of Amsterdam. His research focuses on ethnic conflict, the political economy of development, and East Asian security. Dr. Liu’s current project examines the political economy of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. His work has appeared in Energy Policy, International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Comparative Economics, Journal of East Asian Studies, Security Studies, and The China Review.

Dr. Thomas Hale’s research explores how we can manage transnational problems effectively and fairly. He seeks to explain how political institutions evolve–or not–to face the challenges raised by globalization and interdependence, with a particular emphasis on environmental, economic, and health issues. He holds a PhD in Politics from Princeton University, a masters degree in Global Politics from the London School of Economics, and an AB in public policy from Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs. A US national, Dr. Hale has studied and worked in Argentina, China, and Europe. His books include Beyond Gridlock (Polity 2017), Between Interests and Law: The Politics of Transnational Commercial Disputes (Cambridge 2015), Transnational Climate Change Governance (Cambridge 2014), and Gridlock: Why Global Cooperation Is Failing when We Need It Most (Polity 2013). Dr. Hale leads the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker.

Johannes Urpelainen is the Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Professor of Energy, Resources and Environment (ERE) at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He is also the Founding Director of the Initiative for Sustainable Energy Policy (ISEP). He is the Director of the Master of Arts in Sustainable Energy (MASE), a 21-month hybrid (online and residential) degree to train a new generation of experts for clean energy and climate policy. Professor Urpelainen develops and tests sustainable solutions to the problem of lacking energy access in emerging economies. His research with ISEP, a groundbreaking research initiative on sustainable energy policy, offers pragmatic but effective approaches to providing the world’s population with affordable and abundant energy at minimal environmental impact.

Discussant:

Muyang Chen an Assistant Professor of International Development at Peking University’s School of International Studies. She worked at the GDP Center as a Pre-Doctoral Fellow in 2018.  Her research and teaching interests lie at the intersection of development, political economy, and international relations. Her research focuses on understanding the role of the state in development, and addresses the question of how China’s development finance affects global order. She also studies the role of public financial agencies in facilitating development assistance, export finance, and industrialization. She holds a Ph.D. in International Studies from University of Washington, an M.A. in Asian Studies from University of California, Berkeley, and dual bachelor’s degrees from Peking University and Waseda University.