Agency and Autonomy in the Maritime Silk Road Initiative: An Examination of Djibouti's Doraleh Container Terminal Disputes
海上丝绸之路倡议中的代理与自治:吉布提多拉莱集装箱码头纠纷的考察
海のシルクロードイニシアチブにおけるエージェンシーと自律性:ジブチのドラレコンテナターミナル紛争の調査
해상 실크로드 이니셔티브의 대리인과 자율성: 지부티의 도랄레 컨테이너 터미널 분쟁에 대한 조사
Agencia y autonomía en la iniciativa de la Ruta de la Seda Marítima: un examen de las disputas de la terminal de contenedores de Doraleh en Djibouti
Agence et autonomie dans l'initiative de la route de la soie maritime : un examen des différends du terminal à conteneurs de Doraleh à Djibouti
Агентство и автономия в Инициативе по морскому шелковому пути: рассмотрение споров, связанных с контейнерным терминалом Дорале в Джибути
Benjamin Barton
School of Politics, History and International Relations (PHIR), University of Nottingham Malaysia
The Chinese Journal of International Politics, 2 August 2021
Abstract
Touted as the second coming of the Hambantota debt-for-equity swap deal, the ongoing legal dispute pitting Dubai Ports (DP) World (United Arab Emirates) and China Merchants Port (CMP) over the Doraleh Container Terminal (DCT) (Djibouti) in front of the Hong Kong High Courts has been hastily interpreted as yet another act of Chinese economic statecraft.
Yet, when looking more closely at the specifics of this dispute, it would appear that the evidence does not lend itself favourably to those who advocate the power of Chinese political leverage in return for "debt traps".
This article debunks the myth of Chinese grand strategy as the driving force behind the legal dispute over the DCT, by instead placing the combination of Djiboutian elite agency and CMP's entrepreneurial autonomy as the primary causal variables. It does so by predominantly drawing on unexplored publicly available data obtained from the various legal disputes pertaining to the DCT.