Conceptualizing Chinese Engagement in South-East Asian Dam Projects : Evidence from Myanmar's Salween River

Chinese engagement in Southeast Asian dam projects is usually conceptualized by scholars as engagement directly driven by China's political leadership as part of a larger package whose terms would only be favourable to the Chinese party. This paper argues against this notion, conceptualizing Chinese engagement in Southeast Asian dam projects as engagement that can also be directly driven by a Chinese dam developer as a standalone project whose terms are favourable to all contractual parties involved. The cases of the Mong Ton and Hat Gyi dams on Myanmar's Salween River, which feature the involvement of the Chinese dam developers China Three Gorges Corporation (CTGC) and Sinohydro, are presented as evidence for this latter conceptualization