Between Fear and Hope: Belt and Road Initiative in Southeast Asia

Abstract

This paper aims to describe the reason of China to change its governance of investment mainly the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Southeast Asia. Although many countries in this region need huge investment to improve and build their infrastructure as well as infrastructure’s connectivity between countries, there is some fear involving China’s investment in the past. These are unintended consequences of China’s investment on environmental, social, and debt-trap in certain poor countries. Nevertheless, there is still hope for better Chinese investment such as consideration of local people’s aspirations and more transparency. At the regional level, the BRI can synergize with local connectivity initiatives, such as the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity (MPAC) and Indonesia’s Global Maritime Fulcrum, and encourage the integration of the ASEAN Economic Community. Different from the previous studies, this paper also uses the historical approach by learning the relation between China and Southeast Asian countries in the past. Our argument is Southeast Asian countries do not need to fear Chinese economic expansions based on history that China is not a political threat in the region. However, China should change the governance of BRI to accommodate the interest of people in Southeast Asian countries.