Infrastructure and Chinese Influence in Southeast Asia 

Speaker: Selina Ho, Assistant Professor in International Affairs and Co-Director, Centre on Asia and Globalisation, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. She researches Chinese politics and foreign policy, with a focus on how China wields power and influence via infrastructure and water disputes in Southeast Asia and South Asia.

Chair: Amb. Shivshankar Menon, former Foreign Secretary and Visiting Fellow, Ashoka University

China’s increasing material capabilities stand at the heart of the US-China power transition. The focus on material power reflects a realist definition of power based on the possession of resources. However, material capabilities alone do not necessarily translate into influence and do not always determine outcomes. Non-material power matters at least as much as material capabilities. China under President Xi Jinping views power differently from previous generations of Chinese leaders. While material power remains important, Xi has paid greater attention to strengthening Chinese non-material power, specifically structural power and discursive power. Drawing from the findings of her book, Rivers of Iron: Railroads and Chinese Power in Southeast Asia, Selina Ho discusses how China wields infrastructure as a source of power in Southeast Asia. To what extent has China been successful in converting infrastructure power into influence? How have Southeast Asian states responded to China's infrastructure initiatives?

(Collaboration: Centre for Chinese Studies, Ashoka University; and NYU Shanghai)