Does growing Chinese financial aid within the BRI framework make Central Asian states more authoritarian?
Contribution long abstract
The effect of financial diplomacy on democratization prospects has long become a subject of numerous academic debates. In some cases, authoritarian donors push their authoritarian agendas, in others the recipients actually democratize as a result of financial aid. In my talk I will explore the effect of Chinese financial diplomacy on Central Asian authoritarian regimes. Did they become more or less democratic since the BRI was launched in 2013?