Global China’s effect on Hong Kongers’ identity
A view of Kowloon’s skyline. Hong Kong has long held a unique place on the global stage, operating as a liminal space between the East and the West. As a holding of the British Empire all the way up to 1997, Hong Kong has had the experimental status of a purely capitalist actor in a…
The battle between truth and media: Chinese public opinion on Xinjiang
China’s track record concerning their interactions with ethnic minorities is–to say the least–not great. Human rights organizations have long decried the systematic abuses and violence that take place such as Xinjiang and along Tibetan borderlands. Military power is demonstrated to Taiwan on a regular basis. In this post, I will focus less on the physical…
Is China’s push for soft power effective?
China’s lack of soft power is not a secret to most. Where China likes to think of itself in the context of its socialist roots, regionally, the rhetoric is not often mutual. South-South cooperation has little meaning to the democratic West in the context of China’s authoritarianism. Attempts to spread cultural exchange have primarily ended…
A relations perspective on economic Global China
A very common thread has run through the course of this class– that China is still bound to the politics and persuasions of other countries and cannot act of its own accord without repercussion. While this class has mainly focused on the global economic side of things, “Rivers of Iron: Railroads and Chinese Power in Southeast Asia”…
Dr. Miriam Dreissen’s Perspective
This week, we were given the opportunity to speak with Dr. Miriam Dreissen, author of Tales of Hope, Tastes of Bitterness: Chinese Road Builders in Ethiopia. She was an incredibly well-spoken person with perspectives that I found particularly interesting because Dr. Dreissen is trained as an anthropologist. Reading her book gave a great background for…
Is China’s debt accumulation amongst other countries intentional?
China has been accused of employing a debt-based political agenda to entrap politically- or resource-strategic countries in unsustainable loans or credit programs. The idea of “debt-trap diplomacy,” as it has come to be known, was popularized by the Trump administration in Vice President Pence’s speech at the 2018 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit. This speech…
Why has China been so involved in Africa?
China has begun to delve into the international market. Why does its interest seem to primarily lie in Africa? China has a longstanding reputation as being a country that will lend a hand to develop the underdogs. Under Mao, South-South cooperation flourished by means of loans and infrastructure projects at China’s expense. Until very recently,…
State capital actors in the context of African mining and construction
Mining is a volatile, dangerous practice. How does China approach it? As Africa has developed, two trades have taken prominent seats at the table–mining and construction. Mining has a reputation as dangerously exploitative yet exceedingly profitable for African countries, while construction tends to be seen as a financially short-sighted, yet infrastructurally advantageous means of political…
The Belt-Road Initiative and the powers that drive expansion
China has been accused of practicing neocolonialism through its international infrastructure projects. At first go, comparing Western and Chinese modes of expansion feels to be antipatriotic. The United States has historically prided itself on the righteous campaign of democracy being the leading force of its international reach. On the other hand, Chinese expansion is laden…
What has been particularly eye-opening?
Should governments and companies have the right to know everything about us? The idea of social credit in China has had no shortage of alarming headlines behind it. A cursory Google search brings up articles detailing a central socialist boogeyman who watches his citizens’ every move in order to keep an accurate minute-by-minute detail of…
