Research

Books

The Railpolitik: Leadership and Agency in Sino-African Infrastructure Development Oxford University Press. 2023.

  • Combines rigorous methodological analysis with engaging case studies
  • Focuses on a current key issue at the centre of contemporary policy and media debates
  • Includes more than 250 in-depth interviews and previously unpublished internal documents

China Business Perception Index: Survey on Chinese Companies’ Perception of Doing Business in Kenya. Geneva: Globethics.net, 2015. With Yating Luo.

Peer-reviewed Articles 

Individual Agency and Structural Constraints in South-South Policy Transfer: China and Ethiopia’s Industrial Park Development. Review of International political Economy (2024). with Hong Zhang.

Chinese capital, state effectiveness and the BRI: A tale of ‘fractured development’ in Cambodia. World Development, 169, 106290 (2023). With Linda Calabrese. | Media: Podcast

Presidential Extraversion: Understanding the Politics of Sino-African Mega-Infrastructure Projects. World Development, 158. 105976 (2022). Accepted version

Executive Agency and State Capacity in Development: Comparing Sino-African Railways in Kenya and Ethiopia. Comparative Politics, 54.2 (2022): 349-377. Accepted Version | Slides PDF

Honorable mention for the Kendra Koivu Paper Award given by APSA’s Qualitative and Multi-Method Research Section.

Clientelism at work? A case study of Kenyan Standard Gauge Railway project. Economic History of Developing Regions, 34.3, (2019): 280-299. With Uwe Wissenbach | Media: Caixin.

Book Chapters

Sun, Y. and Y. Wang, (2017). ‘Learning to Collaborate: The Case Study of a Chinese-Kenyan CSR Effort.’ In Young-Chan Kim (eds). (2015). China and Africa: A New Paradigm of Global Business. Springer. 

Wissenbach, U. and Y. Wang, (2015). ‘Development Policy – alternatives, challenges and opportunities.’ In Wang, J. and W. Song, (2015). China, the European Union and International Politics of Global Governance. Palgrave Macmillan. 

Working Paper/Policy Paper/Research Brief

Hangwei Li & Yuan Wang (2023), “African Media Cultures and Chinese Public Relations Strategies in Kenya and Ethiopia” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. 

Wang, Y. (2022). National Champions as ‘Learning Institutions’: Corporate Social Responsibility Norm Acquisition by Chinese State-Owned Enterprises during the Belt and Road Initiative. Research Brief, China Law and Development.

Wissenbach, U. and Y. Wang, (2017). ‘Local politics meets Chinese engineers – A study into the Chinese-built Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway Project in Kenya.’ Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies China-Africa Research Initiative (SAIS-CARI) working paper.

Wissenbach, U. and Y. Wang, (2017). ‘Local Politics Meets Chinese Engineers: A Study of the Chinese-Built Standard Gauge Railway Project In Kenya.’ Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies China-Africa Research Initiative (SAIS-CARI) policy brief.

Wang, Y. 2017. How Chinese businesses are seen in Myanmar: A survey of key social, environmental and development issues .  Human Rights Defender. 26(1), pp. 17-19. 

Wang, Y. and S. Zadek, (2016). ‘Sustainability Impacts of Chinese Outward Direct Investment: A Review of the Literature.’ International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) working paper. 

Work in progress:

with Benard Musembi Kilaka. Imagined community: African community agency in Sino-African infrastructure projects. Working paper.

with Keren Zhu and Will Shumate. Protecting Chinese security interests overseas.

with Hangwei Li. When African Media Encounters Chinese State-owned Enterprises:How Local Media Shape Chinese SOEs’ PR strategies in Kenya and Ethiopia

with Xiaonan Wang. Who Gained and Lost from the China-Sponsored infrastructure in Kenya.

with Jiahua Yue. Regulating global China.

with David Landry. Hard infrastructure, soft power.

Featured in Media:

An Evolution in China’s Development Model in Africa? March 15, 2023. US-China Dialogue on Global Issues.

Cheng, K.C., January 5, 2022, Africans’ Reactions Mixed to Chinese Presence on Continent. VOA.