Impact of China’s Rise on the Mekong Region

This book presents a contemporary analysis of the impact of China's rise on the Mekong Region with particular focus on the consequences stemming from investment, trade, foreign aid, and migration. This volume presents a contemporary analysis of the impact of China's rise on the Mekong Region at a critical point in Southeast Asian history. As the most populated country and the second largest economy in the world, China has become an increasingly influential player in global and regional affairs in recent decades. Economic ties between China and her southern neighbors are particularly strong. Yet relations between China and the Mekong region are embedded in complex socio-cultural and political issues. China's accelerated growth, increasing economic footprint, rapid military modernization, and global search for energy, natural resources, and food security have created a wide range of new challenges for smaller countries in Southeast Asia. These new challenges both encourage and limit cooperation between China and the emerging ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). The authors pay close attention to these challenges with particular focus on the impact of Chinese investment, trade, foreign aid, and migration "Yos Santasombat is one of the most prolific and innovative anthropologists in Asia. This time ... he assembles a group of researchers from different countries and disciplines in Asia [whose] nuanced research ... presents a comprehensive view of China's involvements in this region. Their findings are eye-opening, informative, and timely.' Shu-min Huang, Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan 'The transnational and interdisciplinary team of researchers led by Yos Santasombat competently scrutinizes the multi-faceted interactions between China and its mainland Southeast Asian neighbors, covering a wide range of topics such as trade, migration, transnationalism, eco-geographic strategies, and environment. This timely study makes an important contribution to the ongoing academic and policy debates about a rising China and its global reach."--Hong Liu, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, author of China and the Shaping of Indonesia, 1949-1965 'This volume provides fresh perspectives from experts on the Mekong Region on how China's neighbors have dealt with its initiatives in the Mekong Delta. A timely effort that will serve as a window to understand the way China's growth has affected the rest of Southeast Asia.' - Danny Wong Tze Ken, University of Malaya, Malaysia "Presents a contemporary analysis of the impact of China's rise on the Mekong Region at a critical period of Southeast Asian history. As the most populated country and the second largest economy in the world, China has become an increasingly influential player in global and regional affairs. Economic ties between China and her southern neighbors are particularly strong. Yet relations between China and the Mekong region are complex and embedded in other socio-cultural and political issues. China's accelerated growth, increasing economic footprint, global search for energy, natural resources, and food security, and the rapid pace of its military modernization have created a wide range of new challenges for smaller countries in Southeast Asia. These new challenges both encourage and limit cooperation between China and the emerging ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). This book pays close attention to some of these challenges with particular focus on the impact of Chinese investment, trade, foreign aid, and migration"-- Provided by publisher Front Matter....Pages i-x Introduction....Pages 1-21 China’s Geoeconomic Strategy: Toward the Riparian States of the Mekong Region....Pages 23-52 China’s “Comrade Money” and Its Social-Political Dimensions in Vietnam....Pages 53-84 Changing Landscape and Changing Ethnoscape in Lao PDR: On PRC’s Participation in the Greater Mekong Subregion Development Project....Pages 85-115 Commodifying Sovereignty: Special Economic Zones and the Neoliberalization of the Lao Frontier....Pages 117-146 Xinyimin, New Chinese Migrants, and the Influence of the PRC and Taiwan on the Northern Thai Border....Pages 147-166 China-Myanmar: Toward a More Balanced and Better Neighborhood....Pages 167-193 Patterns and Impacts of Chinese Assistance in Cambodia....Pages 195-225 The Internationalization of Renminbi: The Encroaching of the Variegated Dragon....Pages 227-256 Back Matter....Pages 257-261