Conceptualizing Chinese engagement in South-East Asian dam projects: evidence from Myanmar’s Salween River

Abstract

Chinese engagement in South-East Asian dam projects is usually conceptualized by scholars as directly driven by China’s political leadership as part of a larger package whose terms would only be favourable to the Chinese party. This article argues against this notion, conceptualizing Chinese engagement in South-East Asian dam projects as engagement that can also be directly driven by a Chinese dam developer in a standalone project whose terms are favourable to all contractual parties involved. The cases of the Mong Ton and Hat Gyi dams on Myanmar’s Salween River, which feature the involvement of the Chinese dam developers China Three Gorges Corporation and Sinohydro, are presented as evidence for this latter conceptualization