On episode 16 we introduce our new co-host Juliet Lu! Juliet and Erik speak with China Research and Project Leader at the Global Development Policy Center at Boston University - Ma Xinyue about her latest work on the PandaPaw DragonClaw blog “Assessing China’s Most Comprehensive Response to the “debt trap”: the Belt and Road ‘Debt Sustainability Framework’ https://pandapawdragonclaw.blog/2019/07/17/debt-trap-for-whom/ Recommendations: Ma Xinyue Two Articles from Chen Muyang State Actors, Market ...
Sep 03, 2019•27 min•Ep. 16
On episode 15, Erik Myxter-iino talks with Postdoctoral Fellow at the Global Development and Policy Center at Boston University - Dr. Rebecca Ray Rebecca was one of the co-authors of a new report published in part by BU’s GDP center - China and the Amazon: Toward a Framework for Maximizing Benefits and Mitigating Risks of Infrastructure Development. link We talk about how Chinese developmental finance creates a different type of infrastructure project cycle in Latin America and what that means f...
Aug 06, 2019•39 min•Ep. 15
On this episode, Erik speaks with Michael Boulle - Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Cape Town and Senior Researcher at the Cape Town-based consultancy - Change pathways. We discuss his latest paper - The Hazy Rise of Coal in Kenya: The actors, interests, and discursive contradictions shaping Kenya’s electricity future that is featured in Volume 56 of the Energy Research and Social Science Journal. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214629618307072 Recommendations: Michael : ...
Jul 19, 2019•31 min•Ep. 14
On this episode, Erik Myxter-iino has a conversation with Sociology Ph.D. Candidate at Johns Hopkins University Alvin Camba about his soon-to-be-published work - Reexamining China and South-South Relations: Chinese State-backed and Flexible Private Capitals in the Philippines. In it, Alvin analyzes the different types of Chinese capitals and how they interact with different political eras in the Philippines. Recommendations: Alvin - The China Boom : Why China will not rule the World by Ho-fung H...
May 03, 2019•29 min•Ep. 12
This week's #beltandroadpod is all about #Kazakhstan - @emyxter spoke with PhD Candidate at Hokkaido University - Assel Bitabarova @BitabarAssel on how Kazakhstan is interacting with the Belt and Road, Chinese financing and construction of Kazakhstani infrastructure, and more. The podcast is based on Assel's latest writing in the Journal of Contemporary East Asian Studies, entitled: Unpacking Sino-Central Asian engagement along the New Silk Road: a case study of Kazakhstan ( link ) Recommendatio...
Apr 23, 2019•31 min•Ep. 11
On the 10th episode of the Belt and Road Podcast, Erik sits down with Dr. Lee Jones to discuss his latest co-authored work with Zeng Jinghan in Third World Quarterly entitled: "Understanding China's Belt and Road Initiative: Beyond 'grand strategy' to a state transformation analysis". Dr. Lee Jones is a Reader in international politics in the School of Politics and International Relations at Queen Mary, University of London , and a Research Associate at the Asia Research Centre of Murdoch Univer...
Apr 03, 2019•35 min•Ep. 10
On this episode Courtney Weatherby - a research analyst with the Stimson Center’s Southeast Asia and Energy, Water, & Sustainability programs - discusses the different push and pull factors that have made China become involved with nearly a quarter of all energy projects in SE Asia, including an estimated 43% of all coal projects. Furthermore we look at what China and ASEAN countries can do to successfully transition to cheaper and more sustainable wind and solar projects. Podcast based on h...
Mar 25, 2019•27 min•Ep. 9
2018 saw the creation of two new high-profile development finance agencies. In China there was the creation of the China International Development Cooperation Agency, and in America the International Finance Development Corporation. On this episode, I speak with UPenn Ph.D. student Scott Wingo about his latest article “ Too Much Risk or Not Enough ? New Development Finance Agencies in China and the United States” that was featured in the Center for Advanced China Research’s blog. In our discussi...
Mar 04, 2019•34 min•Ep. 8
On this episode Juliet Lu - Ph.D Candidate in the department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at UC Berkeley - is on the show to talk about her recent research on Chinese SOE and private firm land investment in Northern Laos. Our discussion stems from her years of extensive fieldwork in Northern Laos talking with Chinese investors, Laotian officials and locals on their experience with land investments. Juliet has published multiple articles on the subject but this episode focuses ...
Feb 18, 2019•41 min•Ep. 7
On this episode I interview Charles Stevens, who as part of the New Silk Road Project (www.newsilkroadproject.com) traveled over 10,000 miles on the "Silk Road Economic Belt" in a Jeep. Along the way he interviewed different local and Chinese stakeholders who are building, analyzing and using the new Chinese financed and built infrastructure. If you are looking for more on-the-ground stories of what is happening along the Belt, this episode is for you. Charles' recommendations: 1) China Steps Ou...
Jan 29, 2019•28 min•Ep. 6
On this episode, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies master student Nicholas Lo talks about his field work that looked at Chinese infrastructure and natural resource investments in Myanmar, and how Chinese capital can bring specific challenges and some potential gains, to creating sustainable development outcomes in the country. This episode is based on Nicholas' article for the Beijing-based NGO Global Environmental Institute http://www.geichina.org/en/challenges-of-greening-the-b...
Jan 09, 2019•44 min•Ep. 5
This episode features the dynamic researcher from the Centre for Development and the Environment at the University of Oslo - Ulrikke Wethal The topic of discussion comes from her latest article: Beyond the China Factor: Challenges to backwards linkages in the Mozambican construction sector from the June 2018 edition of the Journal of Modern African Studies Recommendations: Ulrikke: 1) Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies - China-Africa Research Initiative Data 2) Belt and Road ...
Oct 05, 2018•33 min•Ep. 4
In our third episode, I am excited to feature international development consultant Xiao'Ou Zhu. Before every newspaper was using the Hambantota Port as the fearful case of China using "debt diplomacy" Xiao'Ou was doing the on-the-ground fieldwork using China Harbour's Engineering Group's role in the creation of the port as a case showing how important Chinese State Owned Enterprises are in Belt and Road Countries and how many BRI projects are really a bottom-up phenomenon rather than the often r...
Aug 20, 2018•42 min•Ep. 3
On our second episode Tom Baxter - who works in communications and focuses on the environmental impacts of Belt and Road investments at Greenpeace East Asia in Beijing - talks about his latest article for the blog Panda Paw Dragon Claw “Zooming in, Zooming out: the Frames Through Which Western Media See Belt and Road” https://pandapawdragonclaw.blog/2018/07/27/zooming-in-zooming-out-the-frames-through-which-western-media-see-belt-and-road/ Thanks for listening! Follow us on BlueSky @beltandroadp...
Aug 09, 2018•24 min•Ep. 2
On the inaugural episode of The Belt and Road Podcast, host Erik Myxter-iino brings on Emily Weinstein, a research analyst at Pointe Bellow. Emily talks about her piece featured on the Jamestown Foundation's website "The Belt and Road Initiative: A road to China's World Cup Dreams?" which talks about the BRI and its relation to Sports Tourism and the World CupEmily's Recommendation: The China Soccer Observatory www.nottingham.ac.uk/asiaresearch/p…cso/index.aspxEmily's article: jamestown.org/prog...
Jul 29, 2018•24 min•Ep. 1
