The Political Economy of Japanese and Chinese Infrastructure Financing Governance: Organizing Alliances, Institutions and Ideology (soft launch)
Amidst an increasingly militarised economy and fractured global politics, The Political Economy of Japanese and Chinese Infrastructure Financing Governance (University of Bristol Press, forthcoming) revisits a pivotal moment in Southeast Asia’s developmental trajectory – one marked by policymakers’ obsession with infrastructure-driven growth, spurred by a wave of Chinese capital through the Belt and Road Initiative which has challenged Japan’s role as a long-standing development partner in region.
Instead of drawing a simplistic contrast between Japan and China’s approach, this book instead asks a more fundamental, and often overlooked, question: why do Chinese-led and Japanese-led infrastructure financing schemes take variegated forms? Why was one project funded under Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mechanism, whilst another was financed under Official Development Assistance (ODA)? Using Indonesia as a case study, Trissia Wijaya offers an in-depth look at the politico-economic forces underpinning Chinese and Japanese infrastructure financing forms and unpacks how power relations among broader social forces – state managers, technocrats, and different segments of capital – have manifested in different forms of infrastructure financing and shaped governance of infrastructure financing.
Drawing on extensive fieldwork in Indonesia, Japan, and China, The Political Economy of Japanese and Chinese Infrastructure Financing Governance pinpoints different temporal moments, including but not limited to the conjuncture of shifting global political economy dynamics and state transformation in Indonesia, that define Chinese and Japanese’s understanding of risks attached to different forms of financing. In particular, the book shows how infrastructure financing – be it China- or Japan-led – is far from a purely technocratic process governed by a universal standard of risk management. Rather, it is embedded in complex institutional functions and shifting alliances that support project success and constitute what can be understood as the politics of risk management and financing governance.
Speaker & chair biographies
Dr. Trissia Wijaya is a McKenzie Research Fellow at the Asia Institute, University of Melbourne. Her research sits at the intersection of geopolitical economy and responses to it in East Asia, encompassing green infrastructure financing, industrial policy, and critical mineral development. Her work has been published in leading journals, including International Affairs, Environmental Politics, and the Journal of Contemporary Asia. Dr. Wijaya is an affiliate of Second Cold War Observatory network and serves as a member of the Environmental Politics and Policy Research executive committee of the Australian Political Studies Association.
Prof. John Sidel is Director of the Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre, and the Sir Patrick Gillam Professor of International and Comparative Politics at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
*Banner photo by Alviansyah Kuswidyatama on Unsplash
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