On January 27th, Murray Hiebert discussed with CAS Director Tim Oakes his new book,听Under Beijing鈥檚 Shadow: Southeast Asia鈥檚 China Challenge. Hiebert is a senior associate at the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He joined us remotely from his home in Washington, DC. His talk was co-sponsored by the China Made Project () which explores China鈥檚 outbound infrastructure investment with a regional focus on Southeast Asia. China鈥檚 growing assertiveness in foreign investment 鈥� particularly in the fields of infrastructure development along with natural resource extraction 鈥� has certainly garnered much of the world鈥檚 attention. Much of that attention has focused on China鈥檚 signature initiative, the Belt & Road 鈥� and what this 鈥減roject of the century鈥� entails for the global political and economic order. China Made takes a grounded view of China鈥檚 development projects, particularly its infrastructure projects in Southeast Asia. How are these projects embedded within Southeast Asian societies? What do the on-the-ground effects of these projects tell us about a newly 鈥榞lobal China?鈥�
Murray Hiebert鈥檚 book offers a comprehensive view of how Southeast Asia has responded to China鈥檚 growing presence in the region. Hiebert brings to us a wealth of 鈥渙n-the-ground鈥� experience in Southeast Asia, as a former senior director for the US Chamber of Commerce, and as a former journalist for听The Wall Street Journal听补苍诲听The Far Eastern Economic Review. He brings both a journalist鈥檚 attention to detail and an strategic analyst鈥檚 attention to larger-scale political, economic, and security issues to the book. His talk, and the subsequent discussion, covered a broad range of topics, including the ways China鈥檚 investments 鈥� and indeed its broader presence 鈥� in the region of evolved and changed in response to the considerable push-back that they鈥檝e received, the prospects for US policy in the region in the new Biden Administration, the role of nationalism and of ASEAN, the complications of China鈥檚 South China Sea actions, ethnic minority relations, the development of Chinese-funded digital infrastructures in the region, and many others.
A key takeaway from Hiebert鈥檚 work is the extraordinary diversity of the Southeast Asian region. This diversity is seldom appreciated by outsiders with the attention it deserves. Hiebert argued that China has had difficulty getting many of its projects off the ground in part because of a lack of attention to the diverse nature of the societies within which it has been working. Despite its location at China鈥檚 southern doorstep, development in Southeast Asia has not been a simple proposition for China, and a key question remains the extent to which China is able to adjust to the realities of the region, and whether the US will return to its former status as a relatively trustworthy ally for many of the states in the region.听