U - Podcast

Professor Mierzejewski in Talking China#2 discusses the interpretations of the central government-sponsored policy of Belt and Road at the provincial level. In the first part he presents the definition of bridgehead/桥头堡 and checker/排头兵frequently use by the provincial level governments. The core question addressed here touches the different interpretations and contextualization of BRI in different regions of China, and it does so by analysing yearly governmental reports presented in front of Local People’s Congresses. By making the comparison Mierzejewski argues that, in different regions of China, the first-tier local governments use different strategies to gain more from the center and, by horizontal competition, position themselves in the newly formed political agenda and at the same time plays the critical role in China's economic growth. The podcast is based on the research supported by National Science Center "The role of local governments in China's foreign policy"UMO-2017/25/B/HS5/02117. W Talking