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Photo credit: Per Arne Wilson (Creative Commons)
Policy Brief 37 — Disasters While Digging: Rates of Violence Against Mine Workers in Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa, and Zambia
In 2010, violence broke out at a mine in Zambia and many local workers were injured. This incident served as a jump-off point for criticism of Chinese mines in Africa and a broader discussion of the treatment of workers by Chinese managers and companies. But is there actually a higher rate of violence against workers in Chinese-owned mines? In this brief, Christian Freymeyer explores rates of violence against workers in mines in Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa, and Zambia, and further dissects the idea of mine ownership to help answer this question.
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Photo credit: Will Burchell, Jaiyi Ma, Dylan Parkes, Henrique Vicente
Call for Proposals - SAIS IDEV/CARI Student Practicum
SAIS-CARI is currently recruiting practicum clients for the 2019-2020 academic year. Clients work with a team of three or four graduate students from the SAIS International Development (IDEV) practicum over the course of one year, with a travel period in January 2020. Practicum students apply their knowledge from the IDEV curriculum as free consultants to evaluate, design, survey, or plan projects for their client. This is a excellent opportunity for any organization looking to receive outside support. The application deadline of July 26th, 2019.
To learn more or submit an idea for the practicum project, click here »
Photo credit: Sergio Chichava, Shubo Li, Michael G. Sambo
Working Paper 28 and Policy Brief 36 — The Blind Spot: International Mining in Angoche and Larde, Mozambique
Comparing Chinese and Irish companies in their respective dealings with local civil societies and communities, Chichava, Li, and Sambo probe the social impacts of heavy sand mining by international companies in Mozambique. They set to find out how international mining affects local social organization in terms of work, labor relations, and livelihoods, and how disputes are negotiated between the mining companies, municipal and provincial governments, and civil society groups representing the interests of local communities. Disagreements around compensation, resource depletion, and labor-relations are the primary source of controversy and tension generated by the mining projects.
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Image: Thomas Allom through Wikimedia Commons
Prof. Deborah Bräutigam in The American Interest: Misdiagnosing the Chinese Infrastructure Push
In a recent article for The American Interest, CARI’s Director Prof. Bräutigam analyzes China’s latest BRI developments and asks: is the Communist government of China scheming to use cranes and bulldozers to take over the world? Over the past five years, China’s newest packaging of its global economic expansion—the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)—has fostered alarm and eagerness in nearly equal measures. How worried should the West be about this new stage of China’s outward march?
Photo credit: Ying Xia
Working Paper 27 and Policy Brief 35 — Wealth from Waste? Chinese Investments and Technology Transfer in the Tanzanian Plastic Recycling Industry
These papers by Ying Xia explore how, since the 1990s, China has emerged as the center of the global waste trade and recycling industry, importing and reprocessing millions of tons of waste materials every year. In recent years, due to rising costs for labor and environmental compliance in China, Chinese investors have been exploring the recycling industry in Africa, currently serving both Chinese and African markets with a variety of products. This research examines the potential of knowledge transfer from Chinese investments in the Tanzanian plastic recycling industry to the local economy. It also assesses how the recent regulatory change in China, i.e., the imposition of an import ban on waste materials since 2018, has affected plastic recycling and reprocessing industries in Tanzania.
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Ethiopia is struggling to manage debt for its Chinese-built railways
Thursday, June 13, 2019
Photo credit: Yunnan CHEN
This post by SAIS PhD Candidate and CARI Research Assistant Yunnan CHEN is an excerpt of a piece originally published in Quartz Africa: read the full article here.
In the wake of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) Forum in Beijing last month, Ethiopia gained another Chinese debt-concession. China’s second-largest African borrower and prominent BRI partner in infrastructure finance also received a cancellation on all interest-free loans up to the end of 2018. This was on top of previous renegotiated extensions of major commercial railway loans agreed earlier in 2018.
