David Dollar: South East Asia and China’s Belt and Road Initiative

Asia Unscripted

This episode features Dr. David Dollar, who is a senior fellow in the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution and host of the Brookings trade podcast, Dollar&Sense. He is a leading expert on China’s economy and U.S.-China economic relations. From 2009 to 2013, Dollar was the U.S. Treasury’s economic and financial emissary to China, based in Beijing, facilitating the macroeconomic and financial policy dialogue between the United States and China. Prior to joining Treasury, Dollar worked 20 years for the World Bank, serving as country director for China and Mongolia, based in Beijing (2004-2009). He has a doctorate in economics from New York University and a bachelor’s in Chinese history and language from Dartmouth College.

David speaks to Amelie about the bilateral partnership between China’s Belt and Road Initiative and the respective South East Asian nations, as well as the controversial designation of the infrastructure project as China’s tool for “debt trap diplomacy.”

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