149. Chinese Outward Investments in Southeast Asia: Development for Whom? Transformations Where?

Session Submission Type: Organized Panel

Abstract

The literature on Chinese overseas direct investments (ODI) in Southeast Asia has generally been underdeveloped. While Chinese ODI has taken on multiple roles in regional economic growth, the question of whether or not China’s rise has fostered a new context of development does not just pertain to states, but also to ethnic groups, peripheral communities, and other local actors. Chinese ODI has rekindled the emergence of historical tensions among groups, local struggles for control, and anxieties toward globalization in the 21st century. Thus, the gap presents an opportunity to analyze the convergence between China’s multiple engagements with a variety of regional actors in different scales, places, and contexts.

To explore the tensions and outcomes of Chinese ODI in Southeast Asia, the panel presents four interdisciplinary, multi-methodology and comparative papers. Lim Tai Wei and Lin Wen Xin focus on how the link between China’s One Belt and One Road Initiative and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank facilitate Chinese ODI via the Nanning and Boao Platforms. Jason Morris-Jung analyzes how Chinese resource engagements encourage the emergence of long-term domestic grievances and competition among local actors in six Southeast Asian states. Ana Alves compare Chinese infrastructural investments in Southeast Asia vis-à-vis Africa and Latin America, and then analyze Malaysia and Vietnam as cases. Alvin Camba and Marilyn Grell-Brisk pursue an inter-regional comparison that examines Chinese ODI in Philippine artisanal small-scale mining and Zambian large-scale mining. As the discussant, Erik Harms furthers the panel’s findings with his expertise as a socio-cultural anthropologist.

Area of Study

• Interarea-Border Crossing

Session Organizers

• Alvin A. Camba, Johns Hopkins University

• Marilyn Grell-Brisk, Université de Neuchâtel

Chair

• Tai Wei Lim, SIM University and National University of Singapore

Individual Presentations

• China’s Engagement of ASEAN: Nanning and Boao Platforms - Tai Wei Lim, SIM University and National University of Singapore; Wen Xin Lim, IPP Review

• Resource Cooperation as a Form of Contentious Development in China's Relations with Southeast Asia - Jason Morris-Jung, SIM University

• Historical Migration, Geopolitical Relations, and Accumulation Regimes: Chinese Investments in Philippine and Zambian Mining - Alvin A. Camba, Johns Hopkins University; Marilyn Grell-Brisk, Université de Neuchâtel

• Adjustments of China’s Resource and Infrastructure Financing in Southeast Asia: Solving Problems or Causing Troubles? - Jessica C. Liao, North Carolina State University

Discussant

• Erik Lind Harms, Yale University