The United Nations University published in July 2021 a working paper titled "The Dynamics of State-Business Relations between the Ethiopian State and Chinese Private Firms: A Case Study of the Eastern Industry Park" by Weiwei Chen.
The paper argues that institutions led by Chinese government agencies serve only limited purposes and are led by the interests of certain kinds of firms, and that private firms tend to locally improvise and create their own bargaining mechanisms, even when the Chinese state has built official channels for bargaining. They do not fit a simple "win-win" narrative.
