Will the BRI Enhance China’s Status? History and Identity in Southeast Asia

Through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a trillion-dollar developmental assistance program, Xi Jinping has sought to bolster China’s global status and influence. Southeast Asia is a priority area for the BRI. Has the BRI elevated China’s status? The leading theoretical explanation of the BRI’s impact is that Southeast Asian states are hedging. But the hedging argument does not consider states’ need for status or the influence of history in shaping how they deal with a great power’s demands for status recognition. In response to the BRI, Southeast Asian states have acted in ways that parallel the behavior of their predecessors in the Imperial Era by engaging in performative compliance instead of internalizing China’s hegemony and norms for order. The BRI has enhanced China’s standing in Southeast Asia but has not established a Sino-centric order.