Comparative study of Costa Rica, Argentina, Malaysia, Djibouti and their complex relationship with China: advantages, disadvantages and lessons learned

This study provides a cross-country comparative analysis of China’s development finance policies and foreign policy practices to identify patterns of conduct within the sector and across regions as well as of differences in this conduct. Using both primary and secondary sources, we analyze the cases of Costa Rica, Argentina, Malaysia, and Djibouti and their complex relationship with Beijing. We find that China’s modus operandi in these countries has some telling similarities that help us understand how Beijing operates in the global South.