COMPLETION REPORTJapan, China and the Quests for Socio-Technical Hegemony in Southeast Asia: The Case of Vietnam
Dr. Vu Truong MinhDirectorSaigon Center for International Studies, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Ho Chi Minh City
Chinese efforts for seeking a global position has attracted more research in recent years. While comprehensive
initiative promoting China’s global connections has been implemented, the conceptual frameworks so far applied
to China’s regional posture as well as predictions on changing regional hierarchy have not tackled the questions
raised by China’s infrastructural foreign policy. In this research, we studied particularly the case of China’sinvolvement in the Sub-Mekong area’s hydropower development, thereby narrowing down the scope of analysis,
away from the global towards the regional level. By explaining the role of large technical systems in exemplifying
the (potential) emergence of an alternative regional hegemon, we also argued that it additionally offers insights into
order making on a global scale.
The focus on controversial knowledge and sociotechnical imaginaries shows that the nexus between infrastructure
and political order remains contingent. Detailed in China’s process of constructing new regional order usinghydropower as a tool in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS), we had explored controversial knowledge,
infrastructural dependency, and competing imaginaries to offer an answer to the questions how order isreconstructed in the region, and which position “China” currently occupies. We found that, in response to China’sinfrastructural policies, some GMS countries showed their supports according to the fact that these power plants
and their adjacents helped develop the domestic economies; the others, however, had taken the Impact
Assessments (IAs) and postponed constructing process regardless of generous offers from the northern neighbor.
IAs, as a result, has stirred up debates among the parties involved. While the process of knowledge construction isongoing, no consensus about how to measures and weight positive and negative impacts of hydropower
development has been reached (Käkönen and Hirsch 2009). Regarding infrastructural dependencies as a factor, theconstruction of infrastructures helped to form a “hidden hierarchy” in GMS, between upstream and downstream
countries, in which the upstreams held absolute advantages. These asymmetric dependencies are additionallyincreased by China’s capacities to produce engineering expertise related to hydropower development in the region.
To counterbalance the knowledge gap, regional states have undertaken efforts to improve their epistemiccapacities. US-led initiatives such as the Low Mekong Initiative (LMI) can be seen as an attempt to rebalance theregional knowledge dependence. Conflicting sociotechnical imaginaries play an important role in forming “acommon GMS” since they convey a shared understanding, expectation and knowledge between different actors
within and across societies. China’s main competitors in fostering a regional order are the US and Japan. As
governments have welcomed Japanese and US actors to help them solve environmental issues and potentiallycreate a “power balance” with China (Nabers 2008), competing sociotechnical imaginaries evolved.
Despite political tensions, China’s promotion of hydropower has contributed greatly to ensure the region’s energysupply. The country is forming the center of a sort of technological a “hub-and-spoke” system in the GMS’selectricity field, and thus, seemingly remaking regional order. Yet, despite that most countries are heavily reliant on
China, diverging socio-technical imaginaries about the future of the region indicate that it is far too early to talkabout a China-centered regional order. Finally, hydropower in the GMS offers food for thought about whether andhow China’s recent infrastructure initiatives may lead to changes China’s overall position and, relatedly, globalorder. However, without shared imaginaries as well as the reliance on authoritative knowledge, Billions paid forinfrastructural projects might just produce unfulfilled dreams.

Publication of the Results of Research Project:
Verbal Presentation (Date, Venue, Name of Conference, Title of Presentation, Presenter, etc.)
1. March 23,2018, Vietnam, Mekong River Basin: Critical Perspectives on the Lancang Mekong
Cooperation, China’s involvement in the Sub-Mekong area’s hydropower development, Truong-Minh Vu.
Thesis (Name of Journal and its Date, Title and Author of Thesis, etc.)
None
Book (Publisher and Date of the Book, Title and Author of the Book, etc.)
1.Policy Paper.”South China Sea: Time for US-ASEAN Cooperation” in Yang Razali Kassim, The South China
Sea Disputes: Flashpoints, Turning Points and Trajectories, World Scientific Publishing Co, 2017 (withRichard Javad Heydarian)
2. Journal Article: “ASEAN among Great Powers”, in 50 years of ASEAN- Still waiting for social andEcological justice, Heinrich Boell Stiftung, 2017