Regional development and the politics of China-sponsored infrastructure construction in Laos and Myanmar

Abstract

The Laos-China Railway and the Muse-Mandalay Railway are two key projects of China-sponsored regional development. These two railway projects, both driven by the Chinese state to build economic corridors with its neighboring countries, achieve different outcomes, showing the complicated intersection of regional development, political interactions, and infrastructure construction. The former was completed as planned in 2021 and started to operate, but the latter made no progress. How do two seemingly similar railway projects, each backed by substantial economic and political support from the Chinese state, result in divergent outcomes? What are the geographical implications of infrastructure-led regional development in the Global South? To address these questions, this paper employs the concept of political agency to examine how domestic and bilateral political dynamics interact to shape the trajectories of large-scale infrastructure projects. We argue that China cannot unilaterally impose infrastructure projects on host nations; rather, project outcomes depend on political negotiations both within these countries and in their relations with China. Furthermore, host countries are not passive recipients of Chinese investment; they engage in bargaining, adaptation, resistance, or appropriation in ways that reflect their own political institutions, elite networks, and local power dynamics.