Power asymmetry and threat points: negotiating China's infrastructure development in Southeast Asia

Oh, Yoon Ah

doi:10.1080/09692290.2018.1447981

Cited by 40 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…The geopolitical importance of a BRI project for China is one feature that can asymmetrically affect outside options (Oh, 2018). For China, there are certain projects that are of greater geopolitical importance than others.…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Foreign direct investment along the Belt and Road: A political economy perspective

Assche

et al. 2021

J Int Bus Stud

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In 2013, China launched its ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a large portfolio of infrastructure projects across 71 countries intended to link Eurasian markets by rail and sea. The state-led nature of the Initiative combined with its transformative geopolitical implications have conditioned the type of engagement that many governments and firms in host and third countries are willing to take in Chinese-funded BRI projects. Building on two theoretical streams that have originated in international political economy but have received growing attention in international business, varieties of capitalism and geopolitics, this perspective shows how a greater understanding of the institutional and geopolitical context surrounding BRI helps decipher the selection of host-country firms and third-country MNEs in Chinese-funded BRI projects. We portray firm selection in a BRI project as the outcome of a one-tier bargaining game between China and a host country. We show how institutions and geopolitics influence both the legitimacy gap of Chinese SOEs in a host country and the host country’s relative bargaining power, affecting the likelihood that host firms and third-country MNEs are selected in BRI projects. We also discuss the geopolitical jockeying strategies that these firms can adopt to influence the outcome of the bargaining game.

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Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Foreign direct investment along the Belt and Road: A political economy perspective

Assche

et al. 2021

J Int Bus Stud

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“…On the one hand, this competition could benefit the region, as ample development literature highlights the positive effects of infrastructure on particularly developing countries' growth and industrialisation (Aschauer, 1989;Calderon & Serven, 2004;Easterly, 1999). Research confirms this benefit effect, as Asian countries are found to have actively engaged both China and Japan with a variety of infrastructure projects since their competition intensified (Kuik, 2016;Liao & Ngoc, 2020;Oh, 2018). On the other hand, such competition runs the risk of a race to the bottom (Naím, 2007;Sasada, 2019) as lenders under competitive pressure often relax their due diligence practice, which in turn exposes the borrowing or recipient states to the easy money conundrum.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…Some have also highlighted how this competition for 'leadership status' has shaped broader China-Japan relations, Beijing's and Tokyo's respective relations with other Asian countries, and Asia's regional orders and beyond (Kong, 2017;Yoshimatsu, 2017;Zhao, 2019). Still others examine how other Asian states calculate their interests and calibrate their relations towards China and Japan (Liao & Ngoc, 2020;Oh, 2018). Importantly, in recent years, a stream of new literature emphasising the 'Global South' perspective (Acharya, 2014) is on the rise against the backdrop of increased challenges and complications surrounding Chinese, and to a lesser extent, Japanese, financed infrastructure projects in developing Asia.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geoeconomics, easy money, and political opportunism: the Perils under China and Japan’s high-Speed rail competition

Liao

Katada

2020

Contemporary Politics

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China and Japan have engaged in fierce competition over infrastructure lending in East Asia, particularly since the 2010s. Under the intense focus on the geopolitical roots of this competition, the political-economic effects of this competitive statecraft on the smaller Asian countries are less discussed. At first glance, lending competition seems to benefit borrowing countries through access to more financial resources. This paper argues, however, that competitive statecraft leads to an 'easy money' conundrum where overeager creditor countries, in pursuit of geostrategic goals, perpetuate political opportunism in borrowing countries. To support this claim, we examine China-Japan competition over two high-speed rail projects in Indonesia and Malaysia. Our process tracing analysis explains how push factors (easy money from China and Japan) and pull factors (the host government's desire to exploit easy money for political gain) interacted to advance two troubled projects at the cost of borrowing countries' fiscal discipline and government accountability.

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“…As smaller states seek to maximize developmental gains, they also prefer to avoid becoming dependent on a single power. In Southeast Asia and elsewhere, while the BRI-related projects have made good progress in bridging physical and development gaps through infrastructure building, the projects have continued to face problems in narrowing political and perceptual gaps due to a combination of perceived dependency, lack of transparency, and adverse impact on social cohesion and environment (Kuik 2020b;Oh 2018). These recurring problems drive many host countries to diversify their connectivity partnerships whenever feasible.…”

Section: Implications: Changing Geostrategic Supply and Demandmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Twin Chessboards of US-China Rivalry: Impact on the Geostrategic Supply and Demand in Post-Pandemic Asia

Kuik¹

2021

Asian Perspective

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This essay offers a small state perspective on US-China rivalry in the post-COVID-19 era. After tracing the emergence of the "twin chessboards" of big power rivalry, namely, high and low politics competitions, the essay assesses the impact of these competitions on the post-pandemic Asian order, with a focus on Southeast Asia. I argue that while US-China competition has been rising rapidly in high politics (that is, in the military field), the increasing importance of low politics-infrastructure and connectivity development, technology, trade, finance, public health, and other functional areas-is shaping the prospects, pace, and patterns of the onset of Cold War 2.0. The intensified US-China animosity across the twin chessboards is widening the scope of the competition, increasing the number of players, and mounting pressure on all smaller states. Arguably, however, it is also providing these smaller states with more maneuvering space. These developments reshape geostrategic supply and demand in Southeast Asia. Accordingly, the smaller states are developing additional layers of partnerships with actors near and far, thereby broadening their hedging options in an increasingly uncertain and high-stake environment.

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Power asymmetry and threat points: negotiating China's infrastructure development in Southeast Asia

Cited by 40 publications

References 22 publications

Foreign direct investment along the Belt and Road: A political economy perspective

Foreign direct investment along the Belt and Road: A political economy perspective

Geoeconomics, easy money, and political opportunism: the Perils under China and Japan’s high-Speed rail competition

The Twin Chessboards of US-China Rivalry: Impact on the Geostrategic Supply and Demand in Post-Pandemic Asia

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