Actors on the Ground: A Missing Dimension in China’s Belt and Road Initiative

Weishen Zeng

Journal of Development Studies, 2026, vol. 62, issue 4, 527-544

Abstract: China’s ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ (BRI) – a global infrastructure and development geostrategy – is often seen as a centralised, coherent, and top-down project. The on-the-ground actors, however, are largely missing from the related literature and policymaking. Building on 10 months of ethnographic research, taking China’s Zhanatas 100 MW Wind Power Plant in Southern Kazakhstan as a case, this article presents novel evidence of how non-state and quasi-state actors can substantially specify and operationalise China’s BRI in Central Asia’s green energy transition context. Biographical accounts reveal a missing picture of the everyday work of the fragmented and decentralised agencies and individuals underneath the powerful Chinese state. Even when they have different and sometimes conflicting interests, they can still consolidate China’s geostrategy on the ground. Theoretically, the article extends our understandings of development brokerage, especially in the context of large-scale development projects. Conceptually, the on-the-ground actors allow a shift away from the state-centric analysis and look at China’s BRI from below.

Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00220388.2025.2557933 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:jdevst:v:62:y:2026:i:4:p:527-544

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/FJDS20

DOI: 10.1080/00220388.2025.2557933

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Development Studies is currently edited by Howard White, Oliver Morrissey and Ken Shadlen

More articles in Journal of Development Studies from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().