Geographies of China’s global engagements: place, scale, and power

This Special Issue on Geographies of China’s Global Engagements includes nine in-depth empirical studies from Southeast, South, and Central Asia, as well as Latin America and the former Eastern Europe. A Comment by a scholar studying China’s engagements in Africa is also included in the Issue. The articles cover a diverse array of Chinese engagements, including commercial agriculture, connective infrastructure, and special economic zones and corridors. They also explore the diverse nature of Chinese firms carrying out these engagements, as well as the role of discourse in shaping local and regional narratives about China as a global development actor. After a brief overview of the rise of “Global China” studies, the Introduction discusses themes of place, scale, and power as they run through the collection as a whole, suggesting that a geographical approach to understanding China’s global engagements offers an important arena for building broader interpretations that do not reduce those engagements to geopolitical strategies or policy aspirations.