Hydropower as the Engine for the China-Indochina Peninsula Economic Corridor: A Hydro-Political Analysis of the BRI’s Economic Corridors

The China-Indochina Peninsula Economic Corridor (CICPEC) is a cornerstone economic corridor within China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The main avenue of economic development in CICPEC is the large-scale construction of integrative infrastructure. Within CICPEC, the development of the Mekong river’s resources is key to fulfilling the objectives of the economic corridor. The pursuit of hydropower infrastructure in CICPEC, specifically the Mekong basin, is the foundational infrastructure being pursued by developers. With China’s large-scale hydropower development in the Mekong basin under the BRI, the Mekong basin is undergoing significant hydro-developments. These developments coincide with the rising identity of the region and the region-building process. Large-scale hydropower facilities are becoming central to rural development and expanding economies of the downstream states. Integrative infrastructures bring in questions of environmental, economic, geopolitical, and sovereignty implications. This article attempts to examine the possibility of hydro-infrastructure in steering the region building process. This paper concludes that the BRI’s enabling of latent desired to develop CICPEC has created the bedrock for a developing region to solidify its position through connecting hydro-infrastructure and ripple effects developments.