Plural Pathways: Chinese Investment, Communist & Post-Communist Developmentalism

Session Submission Type: Virtual Full Paper Panel

Session Description

This paper panel centres the development experiences & world views of selected peripheral communist and post-communist states of Southeast Asia, Latin America, Central Asia and Eastern Europe as they navigate the 21st century world economy and strategically utilize engagement with contemporary Chinese investment. These studies shed light on how states of the former Second and Third World are navigating the international economy specifically through engagement with Chinese economic partnerships.
The universe of cases in this panel yield rich insights into how diverse communist & post-communist governments have managed to trade &receive investment with capitalist states while maintaining or consolidating authoritarian rule. Collectively, the studies fill a crucial gap in the literature on Chinese economic engagement in the contemporary developing world by focusing on a sub-set of understudied cases – marginalized communist and post-communist states – which have lent material and/or political assistance to Chinese geopolitical aims. The studies probe and theorize whether there are unique patterns and processes that are distinct to communist and post-communist style contemporary ‘South-South’ engagement.
Does the contemporary phenomenon of ‘South-South’ lending between communist & post-socialist states & China constitute the last gasps of the command economy in an international setting, or its evolution into new strains of (state) capitalism? Communist and post-communist countries in different corners of the world are seeing a revival of projects, fortunes and activity through contemporary Sino-investment partnerships. Are the developmental pathways, forms of economic and political administration &political economy dynamics distinct to communist and post-communist cases factors in facilitating contemporary Chinese economic cooperation?
This panel explores the multiple trajectories of communism & post-communism to advance inquiry along several fronts. First, it seeks to delineate, compare, and contrast typologies of peripheral communist & post-communist trajectories towards Sino-engagement. Is there variation or similarity, and in what manner, between the anti-colonial and de-colonial communist nation building programs of Indochinese successor states such as Laos, Cambodia & Vietnam in Southeast Asia and third world stalwart Cuba? Do the politics, mode of engagement and reasons for hosting investment vary vis-à-vis the communist and post-communist successor states of the former USSR and former Yugoslavia such as Kazakhstan and Montenegro?
A second dimension examines the nexus of domestic and international political economy dynamics. The collection traces the historical divergence between third world states which pursued autarky as a means of de-linking from the international financial system and their gradual engagement with the contemporary international political economy via China and those for whom incorporation and ‘shock therapy’ liberalization accompanied much faster global integration. In what ways are autarkic and ‘shock’ integration cases navigating inclusion into the international political economy,& what form and role does Chinese investment play? Is the formation of Sino-economic partnerships in these cases allowing for the revival of abandoned national socialist ambitions? Does it facilitate the leap-frogging of arrested development cases? Or is it preventing full inclusion into the international financial system through the prolonging of alternative modes of accounting and development?
Lastly, what domestic impact on politics and social forces does engagement with contemporary Chinese investment have for peripheral communist & post-socialist states? Has the rise of bilateral government deal-making between peripheral communist and post-communist regimes & China facilitated the navigation of international economic and political terrain without necessitating domestic political reform? Does engagement with Chinese investment allow states to leverage against or bypass OECD calls for normative ‘good governance’ and liberal democratic reform? Administratively, in what ways have state owned enterprises and parastatals been re-purposed to facilitate interfacing with Chinese investment? What implications does Chinese investment have on labor markets,workers’ rights & content development in these cases? Does corporatism – the incorporation of workers and their de-mobilization vis-à-vis the political and capitalist class- accompany Chinese investment in contemporary peripheral communist and post-socialist states? Has it altered or skewed the domestic distribution of power and resources? This panel explores the plurality of historical experiences & contemporary political economy dynamics at play in this particularly understudied subset of communist & post-communist cases. It also brings together a plural mix of scholars from different countries, regions, approaches and perspectives, and stages of professional development.

Sub Unit

• Division 13: Politics of Communist and Former Communist Countries

Individual Presentations

• Post-Communism the Mekong Way: Sino-Investment in the CLMV Countries - Pon Souvannaseng, Bentley University

• China in Kazakhstan: Car Assembly, Hydropower and Food Processing - Linda Yin-nor Tjia, City University of Hong Kong

• China-Cuba Relations & Challenges for the U.S.: Constructing a Strategic Triangle? - Arturo Lopez-Levy, Holy Names University

• The Consequences of China's FDI for Kyrgyzstan’s Labor Market - Pengshan Pan, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs

Chair

• William Hurst University of Cambridge

Discussant

• William Hurst University of Cambridge