Impact of China's Rise on the Mekong Region

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.

“Impact of China’s Rise on the Mekong Region, edited by Yos Santasombat, is one of the few scholarly works to date that explores the nature of such change. The book makes an important contribution to understanding these new Chinese–Southeast Asian engagements on numerous counts.” (Antonella Diana, Contemporary Southeast Asia, Vol. 37 (3), December, 2015)

'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

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