News

Strategists in the West fear that China’s Belt and Road initiative (BRI) is a vast, well-laid and finely orchestrated plan to extend Chinese hegemony over much of the developing world. They should be afraid of something else: It’s nothing of the sort. Keep reading ...

As China’s ambitious Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB) and Maritime Silk Road (MSR) — popularly known as the Belt and Road Initiative, or BRI — continues to make ripples and waves in international affairs, its likely impact on mainland Southeast Asia warrants attention. Unlike many ...

More breakthrough solutions are needed to help farmers in the Mekong Delta cope with unpredictably rising water levels, according to experts. This year, floodwaters caused by heavy rains and water of the Mekong River have been rising at alarming levels, submerging thousands of hectares of ...

Japan has revamped its strategy in the Mekong. Earlier this year, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s diplomatic right-hand man Kentaro Sonoura delineated Japan’s foreign aid policy for the region, stressing the importance of the aid’s ‘quality’ rather than ‘quantity’. Accordingly, Japan has changed its strategy ...

When the president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, visited Beijing in October 2016, shook hands with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping and announced the “separation” of his country from the United States, it felt like a pivotal moment.  []The Philippines, like other states such as Cambodia ...

Thirty-five per cent of Cambodians are still living in poverty, with the rural population making up the majority, according to estimates from the 2018 global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative ...

Two decades ago, this sleepy city on the Mekong River was just starting to pave its streets. [] In recent years, Chinese investment in resource-rich Laos has strengthened the country’s economy, which is projected to grow by 7 percent this year.  Keep reading ...

The concrete casting for the first block of the Luang Prabang cross-Mekong River super major bridge’ continuous beam along the China-Laos Railway was completed on Sept. 17, the Chinese contractor told Xinhua on Saturday. Yan Haiyong, CPC party secretary of the China Railway No.8 Engineering ...

In November 2015, the foreign ministers of China, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam held a meeting to discuss the establishment of the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC). The LMC framework was formally established in March 2016 by the six member countries. The LMC is an important ...

Great power competition in Asia is not only about control of critical waterways in the South China Sea, but also about who controls Asia’s fresh water. The future of Asia’s water—upon which about four billion people depend—lies in China’s hands. Through its presence in Tibet, ...