China in the Global Economy

Catalog description

This is an upper-level seminar on China in the global economy. Focus will be on China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The goal of the course is to provide an in-depth understanding of the BRI as a key initiative of China's efforts to globalize, which has engendered much attention, including suspicion. The approach examines what BRI is in theory and in practice, to understand how BRI has played out in different countries and different sectors over time. Specific questions addressed will include: What are the claims that have been made about BRI? What is the political and economic logic of BRI? Who are the key players? How much of this is controlled and coordinated by Beijing? How much by local authorities? What bureaucratic structures, if any, have been created to regulate this major initiative? Whose interests are being served with BRI? What are the challenges facing BRI? How have strategies evolved? How have international reactions affected China's globalization strategies? How has this affected US-China Relations? How does BRI affect domestic politics? Because of the complexity and likely variation in how BRI works in practice across different projects and countries, students will research a specific country or project that is part of BRI. To cover diverse aspects of the country in more depth students will form small research groups. To facilitate research, we will provide links to various databases useful for research on BRI. Student work will be graded individually and as part of a group project. NOTE: OSPBEIJ 25 is the same as -Political Science 248D/348D-. Students may not earn credit for both.