This kind of fuzzy debt is neither new nor unique to Chinese development financing. Many other countries, including the United States, have been financing infrastructure in Southeast Asia for decades with deals that obfuscate the precise role of the state and its responsibilit
Category: Mekong
Southeast Asia energy policies on track to disaster
ASEAN leaders’ climate change pledges are undeliverable empty promises
Mekong water level still low in Nakhon Phanom
On Sunday morning, the water level dropped to only 4 metres high — the lowest in five years during October. This part of the country has seen much lower rainfall than in past years.
Rhetoric, meet reality: how to green the Belt and Road Initiative
After much talk, concrete frameworks and guidelines are finally arriving, and the stage is set for China to improve its green credentials on the Belt and Road
Fires lit for agriculture boost air pollution in Mekong Region
Reducing fires lit for agricultural management and deforestation, which unduly affect poorer populations, could help prevent 59,000 premature deaths per year.
Are China’s BRI glory days over?
https://thediplomat.com/2021/10/are-chinas-bri-glory-days-over/
What’s behind China’s latest mega hydro-engineering project?
the proposal aims to annually divert 60 billion cubic meters of water from the major rivers of the ecologically fragile Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, including three transnational rivers (Mekong, Salween, and Brahmaputra), to arid Xinjiang and other parts of northwest China.
ADB is greenwashing big hydropower
In its policy document, ADB has placed large hydropower alongside other energy sources like solar, wind and geothermal energy and stated that it will be ‘selective’ in its support for such projects.
A greater Mekong alliance is necessary for the region to prosper
Although there are no territorial disputes like those in the South China Sea, and no Western presence, China’s economic might is on full display in the Mekong region. Before Covid-19 struck, cities like Sihanoukville, Pattaya, and Luang Prabang were swamped with Chinese tourists. One only has to look at the impact that Chinese business and interests have had on the Cambodian economy to understand how the world’s newest superpower is flexing its economic muscles.
Belt and Road starts and stops in China’s backyard
Beijing is seeking to showcase the China-Lao train, and incorporate the stop-and-go progress on a similar rail line in Thailand and a port project in Myanmar, both of which are key to the BRI’s vision of a better-connected regional economic sphere with China at its powerful center.