| Abstract |
""The Tropical Silk Road" captures an epochal juncture of two of the world's most transformative processes: the People's Republic of China's rapidly expanding sphere of influence across the global south and the disintegration of the Amazonian, Cerrado, and Andean biomes. The intersection of these two processes took another step in April 2020, when Chinese President Xi Jinping launched a "New Health Silk Road" agenda of aid and investment that would wind through South America, extending the Eurasian-African "Belt and Road Initiative" to the Latin American tropics. How will this new tropical Silk Road shape political alliances, social landscapes, and ecological futures in South America? Through thirty short essays, this volume brings together an impressive array of contributors, from economists, anthropologists, and political scientists to Black, feminist, and Indigenous community organizers, Chinese stakeholders, environmental activists, and local journalists to offer a pathbreaking analysis of China's presence in South America that covers a wide range of topics, including humanitarian aid, agribusiness, and extractive industry-mineral mining, fossil fuel tapping, and port and transport infrastructure. As cracks in the progressive legacy of the Pink Tide and the failures of ecocidal right-wing populisms shape new political economies and geopolitical possibilities, this book provides a grassroots-based account of a post-U.S. centered world order, and an accompanying map of the stakes for South America that highlights emerging voices and forms of resistance"-- Provided by publisher. |
