China, Africa, and the PRC’s Massive New Development Bank

A China in Africa Podcast

By Eric Olander, Cobus van Staden & more on April 25, 2015

Fifty-seven countries, including two from Africa, are among the founding members of China’s new development bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). While the new bank’s primary objective will be to develop infrastructure projects in Asia, as its name suggests, there is widespread anticipation (mixed with some hope) that the bank will expand its scope of work to eventually include Africa and beyond. Tsinghua University Associate Professor and Resident Scholar at the Carnegie–Tsinghua Center for Global Policy Dr.

Tang Xiaoyang

on April 25, 2015

Tang Xiaoyang is a resident scholar at the Carnegie–Tsinghua Center for Global Policy and an Associate Professor in the Department of International Relations at Tsinghua University. His research interests include political philosophy, China’s modernization process, and China’s engagement in Africa. At the Carnegie–Tsinghua Center, Tang’s research focuses on China-Africa relations, with a particular emphasis on the differing aid models and dynamics in Africa between countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and China.

Before he came to Tsinghua, Tang worked at the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington, D.C. He also worked as a consultant for the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and various research institutes and consulting companies.

Christopher Tang

on April 24, 2015

Christopher Tang is a Ph.D. candidate in the History Department of Cornell University, specializing in China under Mao. His forthcoming dissertation examines propaganda, political mobilization, and the making of the Cultural Revolution in China’s 1960. He has previously written about the emergence and utility of Sino-Pakistani relations during the Cold War period, as well as the evolution of their bilateral border relations since the formation of the People’s Republic of China. He received his M.A. and B.A. from McGill University.

Daniel S. Markey

on April 24, 2015

Daniel S. Markey is a senior research professor at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He also serves as the academic director of the SAIS Master of Arts in Global Policy. He teaches courses in international politics and policy.

Markey’s latest book, China’s Western Horizon: Beijing and the New Geopolitics of Eurasia, was published by Oxford University Press in March 2020. It assesses the evolving political, economic, and security links between China and its western neighbors, including Pakistan, India, Kazakhstan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Iran. It explains what these changes are likely to mean for the United States and recommends steps that Washington should take in response.

From 2007 to 2015, Markey was a Senior Fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations. While there, he wrote a book on the future of the U.S.-Pakistan relationship, No Exit from Pakistan: America’s Tortured Relationship with Islamabad (Cambridge University Press, 2013).

From 2003 to 2007, Markey held the South Asia portfolio on the Secretary’s Policy Planning Staff at the U.S. Department of State. Prior to government service, he taught in the Department of Politics at Princeton University. He also served as Executive Director of Princeton’s Research Program in International Security. Earlier, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard’s Olin Institute for Strategic Studies.

Markey is the author of numerous reports, articles, book chapters, and opinion pieces. His commentary has been featured widely in U.S. and international media.

Fracking May be Needed in China to Wean it Off Coal

Environmental Price Might Be Worth Paying if Regulations Enforced

on April 24, 2015

Fracking of China’s huge shale gas reserves will only have a modest impact on the environment if anti-pollution controls—many of them new—are enforced rigorously, says a new report from the U.K.-based Overseas Development Institute (ODI).

The ODI said its appraisal of the prospects for shale gas in China found that many of the environmental impacts posed by the exploitation of shale are “manageable,” and would be covered by existing environmental laws.