Beijing to dominate Mekong region summit

Not everyone is convinced, especially when it comes to the Mekong, Southeast Asia’s largest river, which is shared by the region’s unequal members.

China is the only Mekong country to have dammed its mainstream, and it is planning several more hydropower projects on the Chinese and lower Mekong that have alarmed environmentalists worried about its ecology and fish stocks.

In 2004 Chinese engineers finished blasting rapids and dredging the river in the Golden Triangle area for cargo traffic, turning the sleepy Thai river port of Chiang Saen into a bustling trade hub with a Chinese casino.

Some Thai and Lao villagers blamed the river works for falling fish stocks.

China’s rise has transformed many other parts of the Mekong region.

In Cambodia, where the 1975-1979 communist Khmer Rouge regime was backed by Beijing, China is the largest foreign donor and has invested in power projects along Cambodia’s south coast as well as mines in the northeast.

The China National Overseas Oil Corp. has won rights to explore at least one offshore oil field block although no production date has been set.

The garment export industry, which accounts for some 80 percent of Cambodia’s foreign earnings, is heavily crowded with Chinese firms.

In Myanmar, a pariah state shunned by many Western countries, China was the biggest foreign investor in 2006, pouring in more than US$280 million — 100 times more than in 2003, according to Myanmar government figures.

Most of the investment has been in big-ticket projects such as dams, mainly to provide electricity for Yunnan, and offshore gas schemes. China is also mulling a gas pipeline to Myanmar’s Sittwe port near Bangladesh.

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