China’s Belt and Road Initiative The Impact on Sub-regional Southeast Asia

This book evaluates China’s relations with sub-regional Southeast Asia through its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation framework. The book looks at domestic drivers and regional receptivity of China’s Belt and Road Initiative and also delves into the challenges of China’s engagement in the Greater Mekong Sub-region. The book examines how China’s BRI will contribute to the development of these countries, to regional economic integration and cooperation processes within a political-economic context. It addresses the BRI process within the GMS on three levels: regional, individual recipient countries and the Chinese perspective. The case studies in the book will help to provide insights on China’s growing economic influence in sub-regional Southeast Asia and its Belt and Road Initiative. This book will appeal to researchers interested in the BRI, China's relations with Southeast Asia and China’s neighbourhood policy and how domestic considerations are influencing China’s policy making.

1. Introduction and overview, Christian Ploberger I THE REGIONAL LEVEL 2. Regionalisation, regionalism and sub-regional integration processes: the Mekong River Basin and BRI, Christian Ploberger 3. Addressing the Mekong sub-region rising energy demand: implications for sub-regional investment strategies (Han, P., Meas, S., An-P., H.) 4. Southeast Asia’s raising energy demand Central Asia and the BRI (Promvek, K.) II INDIVIDUAL COUNTRY FOCUS 5. Thailand’s 4.0 development strategy in the context of the Belt and Road Initiative, Soavapa Ngamprmuan 6. From Balancing to Binding Engagement: An Empirical Examination of Laos’ Policy Responses to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, Wei Liang 7. Potentials and challenges in addressing Cambodia’s development challenge: integration China’s Belt and Road Initiative and the GMS process, Kha Sok III CHINESE PROVINCIAL LEVEL 8. Yunnan, the nexus hub between China and Southeast Asia, in the context of BRI (Song, T) 9. Guangxi: Multi-regional Cooperation along the Belt and Road, Hong Li, Yichuan Zhang, Meng Hu

Christian Ploberger is an Academic Researcher and Lecturer at the International Studies Program, Department of Political Science, Thammasat University, Bangkok, Thailand. Soavapa Ngampamuan is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Political Science, Ramkhamhaeng University, Thailand. Tao Song is Associate Professor at the Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources (IGSNRR), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing, China.