Jonathan Manthorpe,
Vancouver Sun (British Columbia, Canada)
For the 100 years when France held much of Southeast Asia in its colonial grasp, it dreamed of turning the Mekong River into a trade highway with western China.
The French were confounded, however, by the many rapids which make large sections of the 4,880 km-long Mekong impassable for shipping, the inhospitable geography of much of Southeast Asia, resistance to the French presence by local people, and grander potholes on the road to imperial expansion like the Second World War.
Rusting remnants of a railway portage around rapids in a section of the Mekong in Cambodia are now almost all that is left of the French dreams.
But the vision of taming the Mekong for the domestic benefit of the 250 million who live by the river and its tributaries in the six countries through which it passes never died.
Which is how, a month ago, two small river tankers each carrying about 1,000 barrels of refined oil pulled into a Mekong River port in China's southwestern Yunnan province after a voyage from Thailand's northern Chiang Rai province.
A good deal of secrecy surrounded this pioneering delivery, and for good reasons: Preparations for the voyage of the little flotilla have been long in the making, not everyone is happy, and the implications are profound.
At the strategic level, the fashioning of the Mekong River -- which rises in Tibet and flows through China, Laos, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam before reaching the South China Sea -- into a regional highway for the passage of trade and people is part of Beijing's aim to match or supplant the influence of the United States in Southeast Asia.
Transportation of people and trade goods on the river have already increased dramatically since 2004, when the blasting away of rapids by Chinese engineers in the Laotian section of the Mekong made possible passage by ships carrying up to 300 tons.
At a tactical level, China also sees the Mekong route as part of its network of energy security, especially against the possibility of conflict with the U.S.
China imports about 966 million barrels of oil a year, and 75 per cent of that comes from Africa and the Middle East through the narrow Malacca Straits between Singapore and Indonesia.
This is a choke point vulnerable to blockade by an enemy navy, and for some years China has been looking for less-exposed routes for importing Middle East oil. One solution is China's continuing program to build a pipeline from Burma's port of Sittwe on its Bay of Bengal west coast to the southwest Chinese city of Kunming.
The Mekong River route is another strand in China's Southeast Asian network.
Beijing has had to overcome a good deal of suspicion and animosity in the governments of the five other countries involved, who work together in the Mekong River Commission and the Greater Mekong Subregion Cooperation group, through which the Asia Development Bank is overseeing vast infrastructure development projects.
Suspicion has arisen because of China's refusal to join these regional groups or even fully inform the other five countries about what it has been doing on its stretch of the Mekong.
The French were confounded, however, by the many rapids which make large sections of the 4,880 km-long Mekong impassable for shipping, the inhospitable geography of much of Southeast Asia, resistance to the French presence by local people, and grander potholes on the road to imperial expansion like the Second World War.
Rusting remnants of a railway portage around rapids in a section of the Mekong in Cambodia are now almost all that is left of the French dreams.
But the vision of taming the Mekong for the domestic benefit of the 250 million who live by the river and its tributaries in the six countries through which it passes never died.
Which is how, a month ago, two small river tankers each carrying about 1,000 barrels of refined oil pulled into a Mekong River port in China's southwestern Yunnan province after a voyage from Thailand's northern Chiang Rai province.
A good deal of secrecy surrounded this pioneering delivery, and for good reasons: Preparations for the voyage of the little flotilla have been long in the making, not everyone is happy, and the implications are profound.
At the strategic level, the fashioning of the Mekong River -- which rises in Tibet and flows through China, Laos, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam before reaching the South China Sea -- into a regional highway for the passage of trade and people is part of Beijing's aim to match or supplant the influence of the United States in Southeast Asia.
Transportation of people and trade goods on the river have already increased dramatically since 2004, when the blasting away of rapids by Chinese engineers in the Laotian section of the Mekong made possible passage by ships carrying up to 300 tons.
At a tactical level, China also sees the Mekong route as part of its network of energy security, especially against the possibility of conflict with the U.S.
China imports about 966 million barrels of oil a year, and 75 per cent of that comes from Africa and the Middle East through the narrow Malacca Straits between Singapore and Indonesia.
This is a choke point vulnerable to blockade by an enemy navy, and for some years China has been looking for less-exposed routes for importing Middle East oil. One solution is China's continuing program to build a pipeline from Burma's port of Sittwe on its Bay of Bengal west coast to the southwest Chinese city of Kunming.
The Mekong River route is another strand in China's Southeast Asian network.
Beijing has had to overcome a good deal of suspicion and animosity in the governments of the five other countries involved, who work together in the Mekong River Commission and the Greater Mekong Subregion Cooperation group, through which the Asia Development Bank is overseeing vast infrastructure development projects.
Suspicion has arisen because of China's refusal to join these regional groups or even fully inform the other five countries about what it has been doing on its stretch of the Mekong.
1 comment:
I don't see why we can't have both,
that is trade route and dams, but
we are currently too far from
facing this humongous challenge
because of our poor status, but
don't give up hope. Stay on the
right path, and we'll overcome
all challenges in time.
Chey Yoh, East Asia!!!
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