The Technopolitics of State and Region-Building: Examining China’s Belt and Road Initiative in Its Southwestern Frontier and Southeast Asia

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has received considerable attention since it was announced in 2013. However, its role in state and region-building remains understudied. Using a discursive and technopolitical lens, this study traces how Chinese domestic discourses about security and development generate domestic state-building initiatives, consequently producing region-building projects. Additionally, it assesses how region-building projects are promoted through discourses embedded in foreign policy statements that aim to establish the historicity of China’s engagement with its neighbors as well as norms of non-interference and co-development. Finally, it traces the technopolitical construction of regions through integrative infrastructure. Applying this framework to the BRI in peninsular Southeast Asia reveals how discourse and technopolitics intersect to promote economic corridors that link China’s underdeveloped southwestern frontier provinces to their Southeast Asian neighbors. As a result, these corridors reinforce China’s state-building efforts through a region-building project in the region.