Research project
Roads to Power? The political effects of infrastructure projects in Asia
Events
China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is said to be aimed at generating both economic gains, but also political ones – tying recipients of Chinese investments closer to Beijing. But does investing in infrastructure projects generate increased political influence?
ROADS seeks to answer this question by combining systematic analyses of China's investments in infrastructure projects in different regions with in-depth analyses of the political dynamics of infrastructure investments in specific countries.
We assess the political effects of infrastructure investments (roads, trains, digital) by analysing the pre-existing relationship between China and the countries where they invest, as well as attributes of the infrastructure investments themselves.
Ongoing research considers China's role in infrastructure development in Southeast Asia (i.e. Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia and Indonesia) and other regions (i.e. MENA region, Europe), as well as responses and parallel initiatives of other major powers (i.e. US, Japan, G7, EU) to the BRI.
The ambition is to arrive at a more nuanced understanding of the BRI and China's efforts to wield power globally, and to identify the factors that strengthen or undermine BRI and China.
Project Manager
Participants
Articles
Understanding Xi Jinping’s China
New publications
Reinforcing Trust, Evoking Nostalgia and Contrasting China: Japan's Foreign Policy Repertoire and Identity Construction in Myanmar
In the immediate aftermath of the military coup in Myanmar in February 2021, Western countries and the EU condemned the coup, imposed targeted sanctions against military leaders and military-owned companies, and redirected essential humanitarian aid to NGOs. Japan, however, chose to neither align with its democratic allies nor completely suspend its aid. Despite a long and complicated pre-war history and limited engagement after 1988, Japan-Myanmar relations experienced a resurgence between 2012 and 2021. This article contends that one key driving force in contemporary relations is identity construction. Drawing on the literature on relational identity and foreign policy repertoires, the article demonstrates how the discursive statements and embodied practices of a network of Japanese identity entrepreneurs activate, negotiate, and renegotiate the identities of the Japanese Self and its Others. Through an analysis of interviews conducted with elite stakeholders in Myanmar and Japan, the article studies Japan’s constructed identity as an economic great power and post-war development pioneer, peace promoter, and diplomatic mediator. It finds that Japan constructs its identity temporally in terms of nostalgia (natsukashisa) and a longing for a time when Japan was a post-war industrial powerhouse, but also spatially in terms of Japan’s legal, moral, and industrial superiority over other countries involved in Myanmar’s development, in particular vis-à-vis China.
The China-Europe Freight Train and the War in Ukraine:Triumph and Tribulations in Transcontinental Shipping
In this policy brief, Professor Xiangming Chen analyzes the China-Europe Freight Train (CEFT), the flagship Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) project, and evaluates its extensiveness, efficiency and adaptability based on recent geopolitical developments, in particular the War in Ukraine.
Navigating ASEAN-Myanmar Relations: The Phnom Penh Summit as a Critical Juncture for (Dis)Engagement
This article considers recent internal developments in Myanmar and how they strain external relations with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). It identifies ASEAN’s Phnom Penh Summit as a critical juncture for disengaging the military government, engaging non-political entities and upgrading the 2021 Five-Point Consensus.