China’s BRI in Southeast Asia Concepts and Methodologies

China’ s BRI in Southeast Asia present empirical research that analyzes the dynamics and implications of the Belt and Roads Initiative (BRI) for the countries of Southeast Asia. While much has been written about the BRI from a geopolitical and macro-economic perspective, the studies in this volume focus on how its economic development affects socioeconomic and cultural realities at the micro-level of everyday life in local communities. While the BRI’ s development of infrastructure such as railways, special economic zones, and ports creates opportunities for ASEAN countries in trade, engineering, agribusiness, and finance, it also poses serious and fundamental challenges to local communities, state sovereignty, the global economic order, and international legal frameworks. The authors contend that the BRI should be examined through various perspectives, and use ethnographic methods to foreground the voices and experiences of local people to better understand the socioeconomic, political, and institutional effects of the BRI on the ground.

Decha Tangseefa is associate professor of Political Theory, Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University. Yos Santasombat is professor of Anthropology, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, and Director, China-Southeast Asian Studies Center, Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University, and Senior Research Scholar, Thailand Research Fund. Kian Cheng LEE, a Singaporean, holds a Ph.D. (Social Sciences), M.A. (Southeast Asian Studies), M.Th. (Asian Christianity), M.Div., M.A. (Biblical Studies), and B.Sc. (Physics). He is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Political Science and Public Administration while being affiliated with the School of Public Policy and Faculty of Social Sciences at Chiang Mai University.

List of Contributors List of Figures List of Photos List of Tables Preface Introduction Yos Santasombat, Kian Cheng Lee and Decha Tangseefa 1 Anthropology of Regionalization, Multi-sited Ethnography, and Voice Approach in BRI Research Yos Santasombat and Kian Cheng Lee 2 Making Sense of BRI in Malaysia: Negotiating Volatile Political Situations Danny Wong Tze Ken 3 Reconceptualizing Mobile Infrastructures and Infrastructural Temporality in the Transnational Cattle Trade Kengkij Kitirianglarp 4 Chinese loans for infrastructure development? Narratives of railways, highways, and China’ s Belt and Road Initiative in Vietnam Nguy?n Van Chí nh and Ð inh Th? Thanh Huy?n 5 Tracks of Change: An Ethnography of China’ s Railways in Laos and Thailand Panitda Saiyarod 6 Shadow Zones: Fraudulent Infrastructure, the Alchemy of Sovereignty, and Destructive Economies in Shwe Kokko SEZ/KK Park and Thailand’ s EEC Pinkaew Laungaramsri 7 The Belt and Road Initiative in Myanmar: A Review Ta-Wei Chu 8 The Belt and Road Initiative from the Perspectives of Political Economy and Business Transnationalism Hong Liu 9 Maximizing the Benefits of the Mekong Subregional Cooperation Frameworks Romyen Kosaikanont Bibliography Index