Guest Editorial: Crossing the river by feeling the stones – Alternative imaginaries of China and Southeast Asia in contemporary contexts

Lin, Shaun; Yang, Yang

doi:10.1111/sjtg.12448

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Especially since the launching of BRI in 2013, China has proactively reached out to connect with Southeast Asia as a key component of its economic and public diplomacy. From China's standpoint, Southeast Asia has become more important than ever and is an indispensable strategic partner in the grand BRI and especially the sea‐based Maritime Silk Road (Lin and Yang, 2022). It is argued that China has a long tradition of economic and public diplomacy towards Southeast Asia although BRI came into the picture only in 2013 (Zha and Gong, 2021).…”

Section: China's Presence In Southeast Asia: Contestations and Renewe...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The reopening of modern China in the late 1970s and its momentous rise to economic prominence in the 1990s and onwards have generated numerous and diversified transnational activities and connections within the Chinese diaspora (Lin and Yang, 2022). Southeast Asia has the largest and most diverse diasporic Chinese population, and hence it is currently a priority area for Chinese foreign direct investment, including major development projects linked to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Diasporic Chinese voluntary associations engage China's rise

Chen,

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Hertzman

2023

Asia Pacific Viewpoint

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Since the late 1970s, China has gradually risen as a global power, which culminates in the present moment when large‐scale geopolitical and economic ventures such as the Belt and Road Initiative have generated diversified cross‐border connections. This is most forcefully felt in the Chinese diaspora, and particularly those in Southeast Asia since the region is home to the largest and most diverse diasporic Chinese population. Chinese voluntary associations (CVAs), as crucial social institutions in the Chinese diaspora, are actively engaging with China's rise and responding to the (trans) regional political‐economic and socio‐cultural changes. In this introduction of the special section, we open up a collection of five research articles and one commentary that discuss the ambivalences and tensions in CVAs’ engagement with China's rise. We conceptualize CVAs as ever‐evolving ancestral communities which actively (re)position themselves in relation to complex configurations of power dynamics taking place between actors in China and the Chinese diaspora. Ancestral communities evolve through a constant mediation of the two mutually‐constitutive processes of transnationalization and localization, which take on dual‐facing and double‐embedded orientations. This special section also highlights the continuing significance and renewed engagement of CVAs and potential tensions and conflicts generated in changing geopolitical and domestic environment.

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Section: China's Presence In Southeast Asia: Contestations and Renewe...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diasporic Chinese voluntary associations engage China's rise

Chen,

Show,

Hertzman

2023

Asia Pacific Viewpoint

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“…This paper thus builds on recent critical studies of China's BRI (Oliveira et al, 2020;Sidaway et al 2020;Lin et al, 2021) that move beyond geopolitical narratives to examine how Chinese influence is 'translated in and through' (Woods, 2022: 7) local spaces and encounters, including but not limited to infrastructure projects. This growing body of work draws our attention to the essential role of host country actors, institutions and politics in shaping and directing BRI projects and their outcomes, which may differ from those promoted by Beijing (Chen, 2022;Dwyer, 2020;Han & Webber, 2020;Lin & Yang, 2022;Suhardiman et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The cooperation‐infrastructure nexus: Translating the ‘China Model’ into Laos

Harlan,

2024

Singap J Trop Geogr

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The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is frequently described as a ‘hard’ infrastructure programme of roads, railways, and ports. But a variety of ‘soft’ development cooperation activities—including trainings, dialogues, research, and development projects—have also been established under the banner of the BRI. We examine how this ‘soft’ cooperation works hand‐in‐hand with ‘hard’ infrastructure in what we call the cooperation‐infrastructure nexus. This nexus works in two parallel ways: cooperation activities establish discursive frames of Chinese development as a model to follow, while also creating channels of exchange and support that validate and facilitate infrastructure investments. These investments, in turn, legitimize and often provide direct channels for further cooperation. To make this argument, we present empirical research conducted in China and Laos in two sectors: hydropower and rubber. Both expanded rapidly in China over the past three decades and are held up as models to follow; both are also the basis for cooperation and infrastructure interventions across Southeast Asia. We show that Chinese rubber and hydropower cooperation activities serve both to frame existing projects positively and facilitate future investments in those sectors in Laos. The infrastructure established on the ground, however, rarely resembles the ‘China model’ upon which it is discursively based. Instead, we find that important obstacles and contradictions arise in translating China's domestic achievements into other country contexts. Our findings show the need to consider cooperation as intertwined with infrastructure, while acknowledging the disconnect between discourses of a China model and experiences on the ground.

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“…But the BRI has dominated much of the analysis of China's diverse activities in Southeast Asia. In response, there has been a recognized need for ways of understanding ‘how China's impacts on Southeast Asia can be better understood beyond only focusing on China‐centred framings such as the BRI’ (Lin & Yang, 2022: 228; see also Rowedder et al ., 2023). We proceeded from the premise that Chinese infrastructure development in the region is shaped by more than China's longstanding geopolitical ambitions, desires for market expansion, and the need for a spatial fix for Chinese surplus capital.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Guest Editorial: The social life of Chinese infrastructures in Southeast Asia

Byler,

Oakes

2024

Singap J Trop Geogr

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Guest Editorial: Crossing the river by feeling the stones – Alternative imaginaries of China and Southeast Asia in contemporary contexts

Abstract: Most people do not realise how important the region (Southeast Asia) is to China, especially after the region's decolonisation and the establishment of its nation-states. Were it not for

Cited by 5 publications

References 20 publications

Diasporic Chinese voluntary associations engage China's rise

Diasporic Chinese voluntary associations engage China's rise

The cooperation‐infrastructure nexus: Translating the ‘China Model’ into Laos

Guest Editorial: The social life of Chinese infrastructures in Southeast Asia

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