Impact of China's Rise on the Mekong Region, 2015

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.

Table of Contents List of Illustrations List of Contributors Preface Introduction 1. China's Geo-Economic Strategy Towards the Riparian States of the Mekong Region; Hsing-Chou Sung 2. China's 'Comrade Money' and its Social - Political Dimensions in Vietnam; Nguyen Van Chinh 3. Changing Landscape and Changing Ethnoscape in Lao PDR: on PRC's Participation in the Greater Mekong Subregion Development Project; Bien CHIANG and Jean Chih-ying CHENG 4. Commodifying Sovereignty: Special Economic Zones and the Neoliberalization of the Lao Frontier; Pinkaew Laungaramsri 5. 'Xinyimin', New Chinese migrants and the Influence of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and Taiwan on the Northern Thai Border; Aranya Siriphon 6. CHINA-MYANMAR: Towards More Balanced and Better Neighborhood; Khine Tun 7. Patterns and Impacts of Chinese Assistance in Cambodia ; Touch Siphat 8. The Internationalization of Renminbi: the Encroaching of the Variegated Dragon ; Romyen Kosaikanont

Jean Chih-ying Cheng, National Tsinghua University, Taiwan Bien Chiang, Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica and Graduate Institute of Anthropology, National Tsingha University, Taiwan Nguyen Van Chinh, Vietnam National University-Hanoi, Vietnam Pinkaew Laungaramsri, Chiang Mai University, Thailand Romyen Kosaikanont, Mae Fah Luang University, Thailand Aranya Siriphon, Chiang Mai University, Thailand Touch Siphat, Department of Training and Research, Phnom Penh, Cambodia Hsing-Chou Sung, Tunghai University, Taiwan Khine Tun, Asia Development Research Institute, Myanmar