The roundtable presents ongoing work of the REDEFINE project based in SSGS. China’s global rise has often been treated in ‘exceptional’ terms – that China acts as one, that it is ‘other’ to Western countries and capitalisms, and that it presents a threat to the liberal international order. Our work is framed differently by rooting China’s multiple forms of engagement in an analysis of the global economy and by looking at these relationally and comparatively. Our focus has been on the infrastructures of connectivity that Chinese firms have been investing in and/or operating in Europe; ports, railways, logistic hubs, airports. As such our take on the political economy of global China moves beyond the grand geopolitical narratives to explore the often long-standing and hidden processes of connection.
Speakers: Giles Mohan, Weiwei Chen, Ran Hu, Filippo Boni
