China's economic statecraft in Myanmar : building infrastructure in Myanmar

China’s economic statecraft accounts for its ability to utilise economic means to advance its strategic agendas. This paper provides a greater understanding of China’s economic statecraft design in Myanmar, specifically on infrastructure projects. While existing literatures have studied the dynamics of largely successful Chinese-led projects under the static role of the state, limited works explore the mechanisms behind its economic statecraft. This paper evaluates the latter using policy design framework to understand the technical, operational and political capacities of two infrastructural projects and hence questions China’s promises for a win-win situation in their pursuit of its strategic goals. The findings suggest that unfavourable political environment and institutions, poor funding and contract transparency in a co-state partnership setting have compromised the policy capacity. The results of this paper provide motivation for policy-makers to optimise policy tools for the crafting of a more effective economic statecraft.Bachelor of Art