The Political Economy of China’s Infrastructure Development in Africa: Capital, State Agency, Debt (International Political Economy Series)

This book sheds light on structural drivers that led to the Chinese omnipresence in African infrastructure markets and offers a strategic-relational approach to the study of African agency in Sino-African infrastructure encounters. Case studies cover the Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA), Zambia’s road sector as well as Tanzania’s Bagamoyo port and Standard Gauge Railway. It is shown that African (state) agency in the infrastructure sector is contingent upon dynamic state-society relations and distinct political-economic contexts and constraints. The book problematises contradictions related to infrastructure debt, the emergence of Sino-African public-private partnerships and the intensifying geopolitics-cum-geoeconomics of infrastructure across Africa. Acknowledgements Contents Abbreviations and Acronyms List of Figures List of Tables 1 Introduction The Infrastructure-Debt Nexus Chinese Capital Encounters African Infrastructure States The “African Agency Turn” in Africa–China Studies Critical Realist Research Methodology and Case Selection Research Techniques and Data Collection Positionality and Limitations of the Study Structure of the Book List of Interview 2 Chinese Capital and Its Spatio-Temporal Fix Overaccumulation and China’s Spatio-Temporal Fix The Function of Debt Finance and Accumulation by Dispossession The Chinese Infrastructural Fix in Africa The Under-Theorised Politics of the “Fix” References 3 Theorising African State Agency African State Agency in Sino-African Relations On the (Un)Usefulness of the Neopatrimonial “Moniker” Neopatrimonialism as a Mode of Accumulation The Strategic-Relational Approach The State as a Strategic-Relational Domain Towards a Strategic-Relational Analysis of China’s Infrastructure Development in Africa References 4 The Destiny of the Freedom Railway: From Anti-imperialism to Accumulation by Dispossession? The Monumental Rise and Steady Decline of the “Freedom Railway” “The Uhuru Line Will Fight Imperialism”: The Chinese Rescue and Its Legacy The Devaluation of a Monument China’s Failed Attempt at a “Not so Friendly” Takeover The 2016 Tripartite Negotiations The Chinese Infrastructural Fix at an Impasse The Path-Dependency of Railway Concession “Traumata” Tanzania’s Strategic Learning from a “Case of Failed Privatization” Zambia’s Private Railway Odyssey Conclusion List of Interviews 5 Divergent State Agency: Zambia’s Debt Impasse and Magufuli’s Nationalist Infrastructure State TAZARA—“A Drain on Zambia’s Coffers” Railway Privatisation as a Potential Source of Rents? From Neopatrimonialism to Autocratic Developmentalism: State Transformation under Magufuli The Rise of Tanzania’s Nationalist Infrastructure State Scrutinising “Win–Win” Cooperation in the Freedom Railway “Fixing” TAZARA on Tanzanian Terms The Bagamoyo Controversy The Standard Gauge Railway: From Confrontation to Pragmatism Conclusion List of Interviews 6 The Price of the Sino-Zambian “Road Bonanza” Build Now, Pay Later: The Costly Ambition of a “Land-Linked Zambia” Loan Financing with Chinese Characteristics The Price of Chinese Road Investment The Renaissance of Public–Private Partnerships Accumulating by dispossessing Zambian roads The Commodification of Zambia’s Roads Conclusion List of Interviews 7 The Political Economy of “Not so Public” Procurement Zambia’s Neopatrimonial Infrastructure State “Not so Public” Procurement as a Win-Win-Lose Strategy Seeking rents from roads In Search of “Local Content”: Zambianising Chinese Circuits of Capital Subcontracting as (In)formal “Trickle-Down” Strategy The Lusaka-Ndola Dual Carriageway A Case of “Not so Public” Procurement The Fallacy of Project Finance at No Cost Conclusion List of Interviews 8 Towards a “New Era” of Sino-African Infrastructure Cooperation African State Agency Matters—Yet It Matters Differentially Debt and the Renaissance of PPPs The “Fragility” of the “Fix” and the Regional Dimension References Appendix List of Interviews Index