Water diplomacy and China’s bid for soft power in the Mekong
This article investigates how China’s new policies and practices toward water issues in the Mekong subregion are reshaping hydropolitics and geopolitics. Despite its unmatched hard powers in the region, China suffers from a lack of soft powers in regional geopolitics generally and the transbound...
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| Main Authors: | , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2022
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/160280 |
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| Institution: | Nanyang Technological University |
| Language: | English |
| Summary: | This article investigates how China’s new policies and practices toward
water issues in the Mekong subregion are reshaping hydropolitics and
geopolitics. Despite its unmatched hard powers in the region, China
suffers from a lack of soft powers in regional geopolitics generally and
the transboundary hydropolitics particularly. As the Mekong water
conflict emerges as a major source of regional concerns toward its rise,
China has been adopting water diplomacy in the Mekong subregion
under the auspices of the newly established Lancang Mekong Cooperation (LMC) to consolidate its position as both the hydro-hegemon and
regional power. On the one hand, China’s water diplomacy aims to
increase the country’s persuasive and ideational powers to consolidate
its status as the hydro-hegemon in the Mekong River Basin. On the
other hand, China is also interested in exporting its development approach and promoting the common identity among regional countries through water diplomacy. Although these efforts have boosted its geopolitical cloud in the Mekong to some degree, China’s regional
expansion has triggered counterefforts from both the Mekong countries
and other major powers. |
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