On Wednesday, April 24, at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center, three Tsinghua-SAIS fellows shared reflections on three distinct winter research trips to Belt and Road countries.
Liu Yuanyuan, Johnson Liu, and Taylor Loeb spoke about their experiences in Thailand, Pakistan, and Kenya, respectively. The forum was moderated by Tsinghua-SAIS fellow Amanda Hua and was the final session of Carnegie-Tsinghua’s Global Governance Conference.
Liu Yuanyuan, Johnson Liu, and Taylor Loeb spoke about their experiences in Thailand, Pakistan, and Kenya, respectively. The forum was moderated by Tsinghua-SAIS fellow Amanda Hua and was the final session of Carnegie-Tsinghua’s Global Governance Conference.
After brief remarks from Tsinghua-SAIS program head Tang Xiaoyang, Yuanyuan kicked the panel off with an insightful breakdown of her team’s visits to large-scale Chinese operations in Thailand. She talked about some of the more high-profile avenues for Sino-Thai cooperation, such as “Thailand 4.0,” “Digital Thailand,” and the “Eastern Economic Corridor”—in which China’s investment has exceeded $30 billion. During their weeklong trip to Thailand, Yuanyuan’s team would complete 8 visits, including Rayong Industrial Park, the China Harbor Engineering Co. and the Thai branch of the Bank of China. She outlined challenges including legal complexities and competition with other countries—notably Japan and opportunities such as tax-free imports on certain goods and the China-US trade war.
Next, Johnson touched on the vibrant Pakistan-China economic relationship—whose BRI centerpiece is the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). He mentioned that China has invested 10s of billions of dollars in Pakistan since the birth of the BRI. Johnson and his team visited locations such as China Construction Co. LTD and Haier’s Pakistani HQ. Johnson detailed challenges and areas for improvement as increasing Pakistani employment on projects, bolstering security, and clarifying cultural miscommunications about China’s increasing role in Pakistan. He noted the historically strong political and economic relationship—the “Iron Brotherhood”—as a key bright spot to the BRI in Pakistan.
Taylor outlined some specifics of the Kenya-China economic relationship, notably the 37x trade imbalance favoring China. He discussed the different institutions his team visited in Nairobi, including the former central bank governor of Kenya Njuguna N’dung’u, Foton’s Kenya HQ, and the E-Commerce site Kilimall—founded by Chinese native Victor Ma. Finally, Taylor outlined his team’s challenge and opportunity assessment for doing business in Kenya. Challenges included cross-border capital flow issues, regime change-based political upheaval, and finding qualified labor. Opportunities ranged from a lack of entrenched, incumbent commercial institutions to Kenya’s democratic government.
During the Q&A session, fellows were asked about topics including local perceptions of the BRI, Renminbi internationalization, and whether or not the phenomenon of “debt-trap diplomacy” was readily visible in the three countries.
The fellows are grateful to have been able to contribute substantive, firsthand experience to the BRI conversation.
The fellows are grateful to have been able to contribute substantive, firsthand experience to the BRI conversation.
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