China and Japan in the CLMVT: Institutional Coexistence and Sub-regional Governance

Abstract

This article examines China and Japan in the CLMVT—Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand—through the lens of institutional coexistence and sub-regional governance. It argues that development assistance in the Mekong Basin should not be understood simply as a zero-sum competition between Chinese and Japanese influence, nor as a process in which China’s rise replaces Japan’s long-standing role. Instead, the CLMVT has become a layered sub-regional space in which China’s Belt and Road Initiative, BRI and Lancang–Mekong Cooperation, LMC, coexist with Japan’s Official Development Assistance, ODA and the Mekong–Japan cooperation framework. China’s assistance has expanded through infrastructure finance, policy-bank lending, state-owned enterprises, rapid project implementation and highly visible connectivity projects. Japan, by contrast, has adjusted its Tokyo Strategy by emphasizing quality infrastructure, institutional coordination, human security, sustainability, resilience, digitalization and non-traditional security. The article shows that these two assistance systems are competitive but not mutually exclusive. Their interaction creates a form of institutional coexistence in which recipient states compare, combine and selectively use external resources to expand their bargaining space. By analyzing China’s expanding development assistance, Japan’s strategic adjustment and the role of CLMVT recipient states, this article demonstrates that sub-regional governance in the Mekong Basin is shaped not only by major-power rivalry, but also by the practical coexistence of different development models.