Bearing the brunt:
The social impact of the Belt and Road Initiative’s infrastructure projects on the local communities in Myanmar
Abstract Since its unveiling in October 2013 by Chinese President Xi Jinping, the bulk of research
on the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has dealt with the development of Chinese-
sponsored and Chinese-built physical infrastructures, its economic consequences, such as
the inflow of foreign direct investments (FDIs) into partner countries, often developing
ones, and its geopolitical implications.
Due to its unique geographical location on the eastern coast of the Bay of Bengal
connecting the Chinese landlocked province of Yunnan with the Indian Ocean, Myanmar
has long been playing a pivotal role in the BRI. Although recognizing how the BRI can
positively impact Myanmar’s economic growth, this work moves away from the
modernist understanding of infrastructures and, in line with the so-called “infrastructural
turn”, acknowledges the negative societal externalities that infrastructural development
inadvertently brings about. Taking a bottom-up approach and building on Mark Overland
and Vakulchuk (2020), this study argues that the Chinese physical infrastructures’
construction phase and everyday functioning have been entailing negative social impacts
and that these have been disproportionately born by the Myanmar local communities,
especially land-dependent ones, whose lives and livelihoods were disrupted.
To assess these negative social impacts, the article introduces interrelated concepts of
infrastructural violence (Rodgers and O’Neill 2013) and infrastructural harm (Kallianos
Dunlap, and Dalakoglou 2023). The latter will be applied to two BRI-funded
infrastructure projects in Myanmar, namely the Myanmar-China Oil and Gas Pipelines
and the Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone (KP SEZ). The analysis shows that in both
cases no sufficient compensation was provided to the affected local communities and
ultimately makes a case for the development of non-exploitative infrastructures
benefitting Myanmar’s overall population in the future.
Link zum Paper No.12
Autor:
Chiara Mattioli is a Master’s student in Peace Research and International Relations
(MAPIR) at the University of Tübingen. She previously completed her Bachelor’s degree
in Philosophy, International and Economic Studies at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.
Adresse:
Melanchthonstraße 36, 72074 Tübingen
E-Mail:
chiara.mattioli@student.uni-tuebingen.de