“Chinese Overseas Ports in Southeast and South Asia”
This piece serves as the introduction to the Mr. & Mrs. S.H. Wong Center for Study of Multinational Corporations (Wong MNC Center)’s well-received book, Chinese Overseas Ports in Southeast and South Asia (Routledge, 2025). This introduction highlights debates about Chinese involved ports in Southeast and South Asia. It also details the economic (national, sectoral, and corporate level), military-security, and political factors pushing China and Chinese companies abroad and that encourage countries to welcome multi-faceted and extensive Chinese participation in their ports. The chapter further provides an informative overview of China’s presence in ports in Southeast and South Asia as an investor, contractor, and operator. The chapter next discusses positive and negative views about the military-security, political, and economic impact of China’s involvement. Aside from the above, the chapter offers summaries of the individual chapters in the book, highlighting some of their main findings, which pertain not only to China’s overseas ports, but also India’s response and the potential of individual ports to serve as military bases. The introduction concludes with some important observations about the diversity of China’s overseas ports involvement, the progress or lack thereof of port projects, and the economic and political results associated with Chinese overseas ports.
“Chinese Overseas Ports in Southeast and South Asia” is available in Chinese Overseas Ports in Southeast and South Asia (Routledge, 2025) at https://www.routledge.com/Chinese-Overseas-Ports-in-Southeast-and-South-...