Banking on Beijing: The Aims and Impacts of China’s Overseas Development Program
 
September 29th, 2022, 20:30 — 21:30  
Zoom to be conducted in English

Introduction: 
This book talk provides a treasure trove of new findings about the aims and impacts of China’s overseas development program, synthesizing the results of a ten-year, interdisciplinary research collaboration between scholars in multiple jurisdictions. These findings help debunk popular myths about Beijing’s transnational investments and infrastructure projects, which indeed generate major economic benefits but not without significant risks. More information about this book is available here. 

Speaker:
Dr. Austin Strange is Assistant Professor of International Relations in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at University of Hong Kong. He researches and teaches Chinese foreign policy, international political economy, and international development. Austin’s current research focuses on China’s past and present roles in the world economy, with an emphasis on China’s relations with developing countries. During 2021-2022 Austin is a Wilson China Fellow at the Wilson Center, and was previously a fellow with the Columbia-Harvard China and the World Program. He received a Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University, M.A. from Zhejiang University, and B.A. from the College of William & Mary. 

Discussant:
Dr. Meg Rithmire is F. Warren MacFarlan associate professor in the Business, Government, and International Economy Unit at Harvard Business School. Professor Rithmire holds a PhD in Government from Harvard University, and her primary expertise is in the comparative political economy of development with a focus on China and Asia. Her first book, Land Bargains and Chinese Capitalism (Cambridge University Press, 2015), examines the role of land politics, urban governments, and local property rights regimes in the Chinese economic reforms. A new book project investigates the relationship between capital and the state and globalization in Asia, comparing China, Malaysia, and Indonesia from the early 1980s to the present. The book examines how governments attempt to discipline business and, second, how business adapts to different methods of state control. Her work also focuses on China’s role in the world, including Chinese outward investment and lending practices and economic relations between China and other countries, especially the United States. 

Chair:
Dr. Angela Zhang, Director of Philip K.H. Wong Centre for Chinese Law at the University of Hong Kong