This paper investigates the expatriation regime and the lived experience of Chinese managers, professionals and contract workers in Africa. Moving beyond taking contemporary Chinese migration to ...Africa as merely a state project or personal activity, it contributes a synthesised analysis of the forces at state, corporate and societal levels to produce and sustain expatriation. Specifically, I argue that expatriation fulfils multiple objectives of (1) addressing new state-led development priorities of job creation and poverty reduction; (2) facilitating the global ventures of Chinese companies with accessible, manageable, and productive labour power; and (3) creating opportunities for different social groups of Chinese to pursue career or life goals. Empirical research with 66 expatriates working in Chinese telecommunications, construction, and manufacturing companies in Ethiopia highlights three contrasting pairs of features of the expatriate life: emplacement and displacement, interaction and fragmentation as well as mobility and immobility. Motivated and constrained by varied life situations and complex institutional circumstances, expatriates are variably empowered or dispossessed during their migratory trajectories. The expatriation process not only reproduces the social differentiation in the Chinese society based on education, places of origin and types of employers but also generates new forms of inclusion and exclusion.
This paper investigates the employment patterns, training activities, and skills development outcomes of China's Overseas Economic and Trade Cooperation Zones (OETCZs) in Africa. Drawing upon ...ethnographic field research and a workers' opinion survey in Ethiopia's Eastern Industrial Zone (EIZ), it answers two questions: How well has intergovernmental collaboration on OETCZs been translated into training opportunities for local workers? What are local workers' perceptions and evaluations of the potentials and constraints of skills development in Chinese companies? Analyses based on field observations and regression models indicate that workers' demographic backgrounds, employment sector, and the peculiarities of Chinese workplaces are important factors to understand the skills development outcomes in Chinese OETCZs.
The paper unpacks the multi-level efforts to establish, promote and implement China standards in overseas contexts through an examination of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities of ...Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in Africa. Drawing upon document analysis of government policies, institutional guidelines and corporate reports from four case companies, as well as field research in Ethiopia, it identifies ways that Chinese corporate actors interpret, incorporate and initiate CSR standards through strategic planning and during overseas business activities. Analysis of both first-hand and secondary data shows the development of Chinese CSR standards is a co-production of international, national and local standards, which involves diverse actors and institutions and is driven by multiple considerations to fulfill commercial, political, social and diplomatic objectives for overseas companies and Chinese government.
The amino acid antiporter system Xc
is important for the synthesis of glutathione (GSH) that functions to prevent lipid peroxidation and protect cells from nonapoptotic, iron-dependent death (i.e., ...ferroptosis). While the activity of system Xc
often positively correlates with the expression level of its light chain encoded by SLC7A11, inhibition of system Xc
activity by small molecules (e.g., erastin) causes a decrease in the intracellular GSH level, leading to ferroptotic cell death. How system Xc
is regulated during ferroptosis remains largely unknown. Here we report that activating transcription factor 3 (ATF3), a common stress sensor, can promote ferroptosis induced by erastin. ATF3 suppressed system Xc
, depleted intracellular GSH, and thereby promoted lipid peroxidation induced by erastin. ATF3 achieved this activity through binding to the SLC7A11 promoter and repressing SLC7A11 expression in a p53-independent manner. These findings thus add ATF3 to a short list of proteins that can regulate system Xc
and promote ferroptosis repressed by this antiporter.
Employing the assemblage perspective, the paper examines the relations of exteriority, heterogeneity and fluidity in the development of global health cooperation 'with Chinese characteristics'. ...Through the case of Chinese health engagement in Africa, the paper (1) reviews the shifting imperatives of China's involvement in global health; (2) identifies the major approaches, institutions and actors in the design and implementation of overseas health projects; and (3) evaluates the linkages among diplomacy, politics and economics in shaping Chinese health cooperation. The findings demonstrate how public health emergencies such as Ebola and COVID-19 have served as catalysts to push forward new developments in the assemblage of China-Africa health cooperation. In particular, the last decade has witnessed a rescaling of the Chinese state to lead international health initiatives on the one hand and to incentivise diverse sub-state and non-state actors to engage in various health-related trade and investment activities on the other. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the move from a state-guided process of health cooperation to a collective project pursued by multiple official and enterprise actors. The pandemic offers an opportunity to strengthen the links between health and non-health imperatives, hence further deepening China-Africa interdependence.
Chinese companies have emerged as crucial players in Africa's infrastructure construction sector. Existing literature largely views Chinese companies as state-orchestrated actors that undertake ...government-financed projects in Africa. There is insufficient attention to the concurrent internationalization of diverse construction actors, specifically subcontractors, material suppliers, and service providers who often have different ownership status, provincial origin, and overseas competitiveness. Employing a resource- and network-based perspective, this article uncovers the networked internationalization of Chinese construction players and investigates their capacities and constraints to operate in Africa. Empirical research was conducted with a group of Chinese companies in Ethiopia between 2016 and 2017. Findings indicate that the internationalization of Chinese companies is a hybrid process of leveraging central and local government support back in China, externalizing domestic industrial relations, and building up local credentials in the host country. Companies' overseas competitiveness and performance are shaped by the amount and type of resources that they can mobilize, which is further implicated by their positions in the construction industry. Such positions are, however, subject to change and contingent on the assemblage of resources companies can pool together during their overseas ventures.
Critical geographic reflection on researcher subjectivity is inadequately practised by scholars studying workplaces, especially those involving emerging powers from the global south. In the context ...of growing Chinese investment in Africa, this paper reflects on the negotiation of my Chineseness during multi‐sited research on capital–labour and expatriate–local relations in three Chinese companies in Ethiopia. It examines the nexus of identity, power, and place to shape my fieldwork process at three stages: seeking access to the enclosed space of companies, building credibility in front of different groups of participants, and arranging interviews in the particular socio‐spatial contexts of the workplace. Specifically, I explain the enabling and problematic nature of my Chinese identity when intersectioned with my multiple subjective positions as a US‐based female student‐researcher. I elaborate how my engagements with expatriates and locals are influenced by the existing system of power relations in Chinese companies. I demonstrate that the place of interview can generate crucial insights into management practices and work relations, and facilitate researcher autonomy and employee agency to momentarily revert the power relations in the workplace. My field experiences highlight the importance of critical reflection to assist researchers to navigate the layered complexity and unexpectancy of doing fieldwork.
This paper reflects on the negotiation of my Chineseness during multi‐sited research on capital–labour and expatriate–local relations in three Chinese companies in Ethiopia. By examining how the nexus of identity, power, and place shaped my fieldwork process, I highlight the importance of critical reflection to assist the researcher to navigate the layered complexity and unexpectancy of doing workplace research.
Solid polymer electrolytes are light-weight, flexible, and non-flammable and provide a feasible solution to the safety issues facing lithium-ion batteries through the replacement of organic liquid ...electrolytes. Substantial research efforts have been devoted to achieving the next generation of solid-state polymer lithium batteries. Herein, we provide a review of the development of solid polymer electrolytes and provide comprehensive insights into emerging developments. In particular, we discuss the different molecular structures of the solid polymer matrices, including polyether, polyester, polyacrylonitrile, and polysiloxane, and their interfacial compatibility with lithium, as well as the factors that govern the properties of the polymer electrolytes. The discussion aims to give perspective to allow the strategic design of state-of-the-art solid polymer electrolytes, and we hope it will provide clear guidance for the exploration of high-performance lithium batteries.
Despite much scholarly debate on Chinese employment practices in Africa, firm-specific studies on how companies manage expatriate and local employees and the dynamics of power in the process remain ...scarce, especially in the knowledge-intensive sectors where relatively skilled portion of Chinese and Africans are recruited. The article addresses this weakness through a case study on the employee management strategies of one flagship Chinese telecommunications company in Ethiopia. Informed by a combined institutional and relational approach, it evaluates the promises and constraints of an ongoing workforce localization initiative to transform the extant managerial regime in the company. The structural and organizational features of the current regime reveal the incomplete nature of localization and internationalization of Chinese companies to achieve full-fledged employee integration and empowerment in Africa.
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