Prof. Evelyn Goh1, Professor Evelyn Goh1
1Australian National University, Australia
Biography:
Tommy Chai (presenter) is PhD Candidate at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University. He researches Southeast Asia's great-power management strategy and China's investment influence in Southeast Asia.
Abstract:
This paper examines how ideas about developmentalism in Myanmar and Laos influence political elites to portray and narrate Chinese development projects in ways that reflect their perceptions of Chinese hegemony. Myanmar and Laos are key developing states in Southeast Asia that are crucial to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, and their proximity to China has made them susceptible to Chinese influence. However, Myanmar and Laos are not ‘client states’ or ‘dependencies’ of China as often portrayed in media and academic narratives. Political elites in these countries hold specific ideas about developmentalism that are explicitly tied to the goals of nation-building set by national leaders and to maintaining the authority of ruling regimes. By examining changes and continuities since the post-independence years, we identify a variety of "military kleptocracy" as the prevailing type of development, characterized by praetorianism as the legitimizing framework and partial liberalization as a means to optimize patronage networks. We analyse how this developmental model shapes Myanmar and Laos’ receptivity to China’s economic initiatives, underscoring the extent to which their narratives of Chinese hegemony are shaped by how well Chinese development projects align with the developmental imperatives of their ruling regimes and national leaders.