About the Author

Ching Kwan Lee is professor of sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Reviews

"Ching Kwan Lee's The Specter of Global China is the first book-length attempt to systematically consider the broadertheoretical implications of China-Africa relations. . . . In centering 'capital', Lee's book provides an important starting point."-- "Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute"

"Ching Kwan Lee has written a captivating ethnographic study comparing the behaviour of Chinese state capital and global private capital in Zambia. By looking at the activities of Chinese state capital in both the copper mining and construction sectors, Lee's field research creates a window at the grassroots level into the China-Zambia relationship. She weaves the worldviews of dozens of Zambians and Chinese into an accessible narrative that helps bridge the divide between different actors' perspectives. This book is a lesson to all scholars, myself included, on the value of perseverance and chutzpa in academic field research."--Joshua Eisenman "Pacific Affairs"

"The Specter of Global China engages with substantial theoretical questions at the center of the nature of capitalism as a system. It is not a book exclusively for students of China in Africa; its theoretical and empirical engagement with enduring questions in the social sciences make it an important contribution to all those interested in the theory and practice of development."-- "Edward Webster, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg"

"[A] masterful deployment of the global ethnographic method as a tool for rigorous conjunctural analysis. . . . The Specter of Global China will undoubtedly appeal to geographical political economists, critical resource geographers, Asia and Africa scholars, and economic sociologists who wish to understand the contemporary moment of economic restructuring, particularly as it unfolds in a non-North Atlantic setting."-- "Antipode"

"Lee has produced another pioneering treatise on China. With Zambia as her field site, she contrasts Chinese state investment with competing footloose private capital from other countries, thereby refuting mythologies of Chinese colonialism or world hegemony. Her novel political economy based on 'varieties of capital' displaces more conventional theories of 'varieties of capitalism' to reveal a startling contingency to global capitalism. Sure to be an unforgettable classic, The Specter of Global China represents the very best of historical and comparative ethnography."-- "Michael Burawoy, University of California at Berkeley"

"Rejecting simplistic depictions of Chinese investment in Africa as inevitably 'imperialistic' and 'exploitative, ' The Specter of Global China paints a richly nuanced portrait based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork in Zambian copper mines and construction sites. Lee makes a compelling case for the benefits of placing the study of China's political economy in global perspective."-- "Elizabeth J. Perry, Harvard University"