Sustainability governance of China's global infrastructure investments

The rise of China as a global power is a defining feature of world politics in the 21st century, but research on the impacts of a rising China on global development remains at a very embryonic stage. As a flagship foreign policy initiative of Beijing, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) launched in 2013 has brought fundamental changes to international development through large-scale infrastructure investments in the Global South. While some see the BRI as a new and inclusive model of international development cooperation, others point to significant environmental risks associated with many BRI projects. However, due to the lack of primary data and local expertise, very little research has carefully explored the sustainability impact of Chinese investments on the ground and compare them across national and local contexts. In this UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship, I will fill this knowledge gap by investigating sustainability governance of China's global infrastructure investments through in-depth field research across different developing countries. The project will address three sets of research questions, which focus, respectively, on: 1) the design and implementation of sustainability safeguards used by Chinese investors; 2) the sustainability impact of China-funded projects perceived by local stakeholders; and 3) future policies able to align Chinese investments with global and local sustainability goals. By answering these questions, my research will identify the ways in which Chinese investments reshape local politics and societies in different host country contexts. The project takes an interdisciplinary approach by drawing upon theories and methods from different social science disciplines including international relations, political economy, development studies, economics, sociology and geography). I will collect large amounts of primary data from various sources, including semi-structured interviews with practitioners representing different stakeholders, nationally representative surveys in recipient countries, and key informant interviews and focus groups with communities in the areas affected by Chinese investments. As an important innovation, the project will organise deliberative workshops and conduct survey experiments with relevant policymakers, business elites, and civil society leaders in recipient countries to identify feasible policy instruments to leverage Chinese investments for improving sustainable development and climate resilience. My analysis will employ qualitative and quantitative methods to generate comprehensive insights into opportunities and challenges brought by Chinese investments to the Global South. The empirical scope of the project will focus on Chinese investments in the energy and transportation sectors in three large developing countries in Asia - Pakistan, Indonesia and Bangladesh. This scope will be expended during the extension stage. The three countries were chosen given the scale of Chinese investments they have received and the important variation in their domestic political economy. I will collaborate with experts based in leading research institutions in the three countries to collect data from relevant stakeholders and organise activities to disseminate findings to policymakers and the public. The project will build a global network of researchers and policy practitioners to advance understanding on China's growing influence on global development and promote sustainable infrastructure development. My research will contribute to the debate on the 'China model' of international development and help policymakers across the world to develop more effective strategies to engage China for supporting global sustainable development.