The findings cast light on the important role played by recipient governments and substate actors (including regional governments, SOEs, military officials, etc.) in project implementation. This focus in turn shows that blame for ESG failures in Chinese projects frequently fall disproportionately on Chinese contractors (blameworthy as some of them are) while local stakeholders do not receive as much scrutiny. In this sense, this report is aimed at informing the current discussion of recipient agency in relation to Chinese-led infrastructure provision, an issue that has been particularly prominent in Africa–China scholarship.
