To the 20 million inhabitants
of the Mekong Delta
who are deprived of
their voice
To US Secretary of State
Marco Antonio Rubio
To the Friends of the
Mekong Group
With an inconsistent and
always “pivoting” policy, with a negligible total investment, over the past 50
years since 1975, the United States has made almost no positive and effective
moves to prevent China’s expansion and encroachment – not only in the Mekong River
basin – but also in the East Sea. To be able to counterbalance Beijing, of
course, Washington needs to have a strategic vision, accepting a commensurate
price to pay in order to restore its long-standing influence on the Mekong
River Chessboard. NGO THE VINH
*
INTRODUCTION: Over the
past thirty years, tens of millions of people living in the Mekong River basin
have suffered from increasingly severe and frequent floods and droughts. Their
food sources in the basin have gradually depleted and the living environment is
no longer healthy to support them and their children. These disadvantages are
largely due to the hydropower projects of China and Laos, accumulated from
upstream, which have been brought down on them. China is the culprit and the
main driver of the projects in Laos. This region is an important geopolitical
dispute between China and the United States. Step by step, China has completed
12 of the largest dams on the Mekong mainstream, despite all the protests from
the people and the authorities in the lower basin. The United States has been
powerless against all these developments from the beginning and has recently
withdrawn its trump card, not allowing the Mekong Dam Monitor (MDM), an
organization that monitors and reports on the activities of reservoirs across
the basin, to operate. This paper by Dr. Ngo The Vinh, a persistent
environmental activist, presents the inconsistent US Mekong strategy as a
failure in the Mekong River basin. PHAM PHAN LONG, PE
*
TUOBA / 托巴: A SPECTACULAR DISCOVERY BY MDM
The Mekong River Commission (MRC)
after 30 years of operation [1995-2025], is considered ineffective, has not
prevented any mainstream dams on the Mekong River, and has achieved only a few
very symbolic achievements such as: an agreement to share information among the
4 member countries, establishing and putting into use an "internet
network" to predict floods and monitor dry season flows; and signing an
agreement with China [April 2002] to exchange hydrological data. But over time,
it has been seen that this agreement is only in form, Beijing has never really
wanted to exchange this information with the Mekong River Commission and the 4 downstream
countries!
The recent discovery of
the Tuoba / 托巴 hydroelectric dam, on the main stream of the
Lancang River (Lancangiang / 澜沧江) – the Chinese name for
the Mekong River in Yunnan, is the 12th mainstream dam with a capacity of up to
1,400 MW (equivalent to the Manwan / 漫湾 dam). China quietly
started construction without any official notification to the MRC and the 4
downstream countries [Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam], but the Tuoba dam
was discovered and monitored by the “eyes” of the US, satellite system MDM (Mekong Dam Monitor) from
the beginning of construction until the completion of filling the reservoir
with water. The discovery was only possible thanks to MDM using satellite
images to monitor the entire Mekong River basin. In March 2023 Stimson Center released imagery from Planet Labs showing that
the Tuoba dam had completed construction and started taking water into the
reservoir around February 2024. In less than five months (June 2024), it is
estimated to have reached its maximum capacity of 1,215 billion cubic meters of
water. https://www.stimson.org/2024/mekong-dam-monitor-annual-report-2023-2024/ [Figure 1]
China completed its
first hydroelectric dam, the Manwan Dam, on the Lancang-Mekong mainstream in
1995 in secret, thus meeting no opposition. They have continued to build, and
by 2020, China has completed a cascade of 11 big dams, and despite their
impact, China has not shared data with any of the Mekong countries. During that
time, there have been no official cabinet-level objections from any of the
Mekong’s neighbors, and only diplomatic warnings from the United States. In
December 2020, after 15 years of unilateral action by Beijing, the United
States finally took action and established the Mekong Dam Monitor (MDM) to
report all information about Mekong dams in real time, publicize the operations
of the reservoirs and their environmental impacts on the Mekong River basin.
MDM is an open-source
online system capable of near-real-time monitoring of hydroelectric dams and
their environmental impacts in the Lancang-Mekong River basin. The project is a
result of a collaboration between the Stimson Center's Southeast Asia Program
and Eyes on Earth, Inc. MDM uses remote sensing, with satellite images analyzed
through a Geographic Information System (GIS) to provide near real-time
information and download data with many previously unknown indicators in the
Mekong River Basin. These data are widely available for public use and
research, and can be downloaded completely free of charge.
The information from MDM
is extremely essential for Mekong countries – of course including Vietnam, a farthest
downstream country. Some of the potentials of MDM include:
_ Cascade Analysis: Active Storage in
Lancang Cascade 2016-2025
_ Modeling the natural flow of the Mekong River
through monitoring stations 1992-2025
_ Comparing Maps and Data over time such
as: Rainfall, Surface Wetness Anomaly, Precipitation, Surface Temperature
Anomaly
_ Basin-Wide Dams and Connectivity
Spotlight: January 6 – 19, 2025
_ Mekong Floodpulse holds steady in
early January
_ Where is the Water? How wet is the
Mekong basin? How much water in reservoirs by county? How much water in the
largest reservoirs? How strong is the flood pulse? How wet is the Mekong
Floodplain? How do Dams Impact Different points along the Mainstream?
…
The Stimson Center MDM project team
alone currently consists of five people: with two co-leaders, Alan Basist and
Brian Eyler, along with two communications and assistant members, Regan Kwan,
Courtney Weatherby, and Claude Williams, a Research Fellow. https://www.stimson.org/project/mekong-dam-monitor/
BRIAN EYLER’S
CALL FOR HELP FROM STIMSON CENTER.ORG
On Friday morning, January 24, 2025,
Pham Phan Long PE, a constant companion of the writer for 30 years on the
Mekong River, forwarded a Facebook message from Brian Eyler, Director of the
the Stimson Center’s Southeast Asia as follows:
Image 3: Screenshot from Brian
Eyler’s Facebook at 4:25 pm on January 24, 2025 [source: Pham Phan Long]
My team at the Stimson
Center received bad news today. Most of our Mekong work
is supported by US government grants from the State Department and USAID. We
are ordered to stop work on those grants for 90 days pending further review.
And that means our Southeast Asia program might not be able to keep the light
on. If you feel you’ve benefited from the good work of the Mekong Dam Monitor
over the Years or any of our good efforts, I’d like you to consider a donation
to the Stimson Center.
Our work directly
benefits millions of people in the Mekong region and educates the world about
why this river, its peoples, and cultures are so important.
Our funding gap is $
125,000 to cover a team of five over the next three months. We have families
and mortgages and debt and needs that must be met. And we can do much good work
with your donation.
We have already raised $
52,500 today alone. So there is hope.
If you would like to
make a donation please click the link below to learn more. Please note in your
submission for the donation to support the Stimson Center Southeast Asia.
Progarm. Thank you for your consideration as it is deeply appreciated.” Brain Eyler.
Figure 4: Brian Eyler, with an MA from the University of California, San Diego and a BA from Bucknell University, Pennsylvania, leads the Stimson Center’s Southeast Asia Program and Energy, Water, and Sustainable Development Program. An expert on transboundary issues in the Mekong region and China’s economic cooperation with Southeast Asia, Brian has spent more than 15 years living and working in China and has conducted extensive research with stakeholders in the Mekong region. He is a leading voice on environmental, energy, and water security issues in the Mekong. Brian is co-leader of the MDM. Author of Last Days of the Mighty Mekong, published by Zed Books in 2019.
What Brian Eyler calls “Bad News”
comes from here:
Figure 5: Presidential Order. Reevaluating
and Realigning United States Foreign Aid.
Executive Order, signed January 20,
2025: 90-day global funding cut off to
reassess and reorganize U.S. Foreign Assistance. And the Stimson Center is one
of the victims of that decision.
By virtue of the authority vested in
me as President under the Constitution and laws of the United States, I hereby
order the following: Quoted from Sections 1, 2, and 3(a) & (e)
Section 1. Purpose. The foreign aid
industry and the United States bureaucracy are inconsistent with U.S. interests
and in many cases are contrary to U.S. values. They serve to destabilize world
peace by promoting ideas in foreign nations that are diametrically opposed to
harmonious and stable relations within and among nations.
Section 2. Policy. It is the policy
of the United States not to disburse any additional U.S. foreign assistance in
a manner that is not fully consistent with the foreign policy of the President
of the United States.
Section 3. (a) Suspend
U.S. foreign development assistance for 90 days to evaluate programmatic
effectiveness and consistency with U.S. foreign policy. All department heads
and agencies responsible for U.S. foreign development assistance programs shall
immediately suspend new obligations and disbursements of development assistance
funds to foreign countries and to nongovernmental organizations, international
organizations, and contractors currently implementing them, pending a review of
such programs for program effectiveness and consistency with U.S. foreign
policy, which shall be conducted within 90 days of this order. The Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) shall implement this suspension through its
appropriations authority”… (e) with the exception of emergency food assistance
and military funding for the two countries of Israel and Egypt. [End of citation] THE
WHITE HOUSE, January 20, 2025.
…
CHRONOLOGY OF A HALF-CENTURY OF THE US
POSITION IN THE MEKONG RIVER BASIN
After the Vietnam War in
1975, all US troops withdrew from Vietnam, the absence of the US in Southeast
Asia left a geopolitical vacuum, and this was also an opportunity for an
ambitious China to quickly fill it. With Beijing's expansion from economy to
military increasingly weighing on the countries in the Mekong River basin,
coupled with China's aggressive moves towards: "Tibetization of the
South China Sea", in the very figurative language of B.A. Hamzah, of
the Malaysian Maritime Institute (MIMA), has directly threatened America's
vital interests, so it is time for the US government to pay attention to the
rise of China, the world's most populous country that is rapidly emerging as a
superpower both economically and militarily. Beijing is not only competing
fiercely but also has ambitions to surpass the US in the next decade of this
century. Even more dangerous, in the words of Jane Perlez, of the New York
Times, it is a "zero-sum game". Therefore, the US's return to
Southeast Asia must be a strategical necessity process, not a coincidence. The
United States is one of the long-standing sponsors of the MRC, and has also
provided aid to the Mekong countries, and has an influential voice in the
world's major banking organizations such as the World Bank/ WB and the Asian
Development Bank/ ADB... With that position and proactive actions, the United
States hopes to regain its position, or at least have a "counterbalancing
role" to somewhat limit China's influence in the entire basin.
A START FROM THE EXECUTIVE: LOWER
MEKONG INITIATIVE/ LMI 2009
From the ASEAN
Conference, on July 23, 2009, at the request of the United States, there was an
additional sideline meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the 5 countries: the US
side was Hillary Clinton, along with the 4 Foreign Ministers of the Lower
Mekong region including Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam in Phuket,
Thailand. Representing Vietnam at that time was Foreign Minister Pham Gia
Khiem, who is also Deputy Prime Minister.
US Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton emphasized the importance of the Lower Mekong region and the
role of each country in the basin to the United States, along with a commitment
to support the promotion of peace and prosperity for the ASEAN region as a
whole. The foreign ministers of Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam welcomed
closer US cooperation with the Lower Mekong countries in areas of mutual
significance to ensure sustainable development in the region.
This was followed by a
statement, relating to issues of common concern, especially in the areas of
Environment, Health, Education, and Infrastructure Development in the region.
The US State Department
also expressed concern about the negative impact of hydroelectric dams on “food
security” in the region, including the importance of Mekong fish as a major
source of protein for residents. The five foreign ministers discussed the issue
of “climate change” and how to respond effectively. They reviewed
ongoing efforts and agreed to explore new areas of cooperation; and
particularly welcomed the “Sister-River Partnership” initiative to share
expertise in climate change adaptation, flood and drought management,
hydropower development and impact assessment, water resources management, and
food security.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Lower Mekong
Initiative (LMI) aims to facilitate and coordinate responses to basin-wide
development challenges through technical information exchanges, training
workshops, and study visits.
With only 22 million USD
allocated – too little, to say the least – for environmental programs in the
four Lower Mekong countries; part of that budget is also used for the “Twin
Agreement between the Mekong and Mississippi River Commissions” and for
USAID to study the impact of climate change on water resources, food security
and the lives of people in the basin.
According to Aviva Imhof,
former Director of Communications for the International Rivers Network, the US
Geological Survey/ USGS can provide technical support in collecting data on
hydrology, ecology, sediment flows and water quality, ensuring that this
information is widely disseminated to the public.
The LMI is seen as
having some influence on the development dynamics in the basin, and drawing
attention to the geopolitical issues that are being challenged. Although
initially insignificant, the US re-engagement with the Mekong and ASEAN nations
could prompt China to pay more attention to the communities and governments of
the lower Mekong River.
SENATOR JIM WEBB AND THE U.S. LEGISLATURE
Former Senator Jim Webb has been a prominent figure in
the U.S. legislative community for more than a decade as an environmental
activist, a strong voice in protecting the Mekong River and its people. In a
press release, Senator Jim Webb affirmed: “The United States and the world
community have a strategic commitment and a moral obligation to protect the
health and well-being of the people who depend on the Mekong River for its
resources and their way of life.” [Former Senator Jim Webb’s Press Releases
12/ 08/ 2011]
Along
with the voice of the State Department on the Executive Branch, there was a resonance
with the Legislative Branch, the U.S. Senate. Senator Jim Webb, as Chairman of
the Senate East Asia and Pacific Affairs Subcommittee, has been active for many
years in preventing irreversible environmental damage from dams on the upper
Mekong River. In 2009, Senator Webb made a two-week trip
through five Southeast Asian countries to examine Mekong River development
projects and trans-basin water use practices. He also mobilized many US
diplomats, policy makers, environmental experts and scholars to pay attention
to the risks of disrupting the ecological balance of the Mekong River and the
importance of the Mekong River in the economic and social development of
Southeast Asia.
Figure 7:
Prime Minister Hun Sen – who has always supported all Chinese dam projects on
the Mekong River, is receiving Senator Jim Webb on August 19, 2009 during his
trip through 5 Southeast Asian countries to survey Mekong River development
projects and cross-basin water use methods. [source: Office of Senator
Jim Webb]
On September 23, 2010, Senator Jim Webb also held a
hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the topic: “Challenge
to Water and Security in Southeast Asia”. In addition to the voice of
Joseph Yun, Assistant Secretary of State for Southeast Asia, the Executive
Branch, there were also authoritative and prestigious voices from NGOs from The
Stimson Center such as Richard Cronin [R. Cronin was the previous head of Brian
Eyler], International Rivers Network such as Aviva Imhof, and Dekila Chungyalpa
from the Greater Mekong Program World Wildlife Fund for Nature.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee later approved a
resolution calling on US representatives where multilateral development banks
must strictly adhere to “international environmental standards” in any funding
for hydropower projects on the Mekong mainstream. The resolution serves as a
reinforcement of support for the MRC to follow the PNPCA “prior consultation
process” for each dam project and also calls on both Myanmar and China to
increase cooperation with the MRC.
US SENATE RESOLUTION 227 [July 7, 2011]
Mr. Webb (for himself, Mr. Inhofe, Mr. Lugar,
and Mr. Kerry) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to
the Committee on Foreign Relations
WITH
AN AMENDMENT
[December 1, 2011] Reported by
Mr. Kerry, with an amendment, an amendment to the preamble, and an
amendment to the title
RESOLUTION
Calling for the
protection of the Mekong River Basin and increased United States support for
delaying the construction of mainstream dams along the Mekong River.
Whereas the Mekong River
is the world's 12th longest river, originating on the Tibetan Plateau and
flowing nearly 3,000 miles down through China into Burma, Thailand, Laos,
Cambodia, and Vietnam;
Whereas the Lower Mekong
River in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam is a source of freshwater, food,
and economic opportunity for more than 60,000,000 people;
Whereas the Mekong River
is second in biodiversity only to the Amazon River, with an estimated 1,500
different species of fish, of which at least a third migrate up the river and
tributaries in their life cycle, including the majority of the commercial fish
catch;
Whereas the Mekong River
supports the world's two largest rice exporters, Thailand and Vietnam, as well
as the world's largest inland fishery of 4,000,000 tons of freshwater fish per
year, providing up to $9,000,000,000 annual income and approximately 80 percent
of the animal protein consumed in the Lower Mekong Basin;
Whereas China is
constructing up to 15 dams along the mainstream of the Upper Mekong River, and
Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam are planning to construct or finance the
construction of up to 11 dams on the lower half of the river's mainstream;
Whereas scientific
studies have cautioned that mainstream dam construction on the Mekong River
will negatively affect the river's water flow, fish population, and wildlife;
Whereas the Mekong River
Commission is a river basin management organization including the Governments
of Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam that have signed the Agreement on the
Cooperation for the Sustainable Development of the Mekong River Basin, done at
Chiang Rai, Thailand, April 5, 1995, and agreed to cooperate on management of
the river and “development of the full potential of sustainable benefits to
all riparian States”;
Whereas the members of
the Commission have also agreed to “make every effort to avoid, minimize and mitigate harmful effects
that might occur to the environment, especially the water quantity and quality,
the aquatic (eco-system) conditions, and ecological balance of the river
system, from the development and use of the Mekong River Basin water resources
or discharge of wastes and return flows”;
Whereas the Mekong River
Commission sponsored a Strategic Environmental Assessment of the proposed
series of mainstream dams along the Lower Mekong River, concluding that the
mainstream projects are likely to result in serious and irreversible
environmental damage, losses in long-term health and productivity of natural
systems, and losses in biological diversity and ecological integrity;
Whereas such changes
could threaten the region's food security, block fish migration routes, increase
risks to aquatic biodiversity, reduce sediment flows, increase saline
intrusion, reduce agricultural production, and destabilize the river channels
and coastline along the Mekong Delta;
Whereas the United
States has significant economic and strategic interests in the Mekong River
subregion that may be jeopardized if the construction of mainstream dams places
the region's political stability at risk;
Whereas the Department
of State initiated the Lower Mekong Initiative in July 2009 to engage Thailand,
Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam on water security issues, to build regional
capacity, and to facilitate multilateral cooperation on effective water
resources management;
Whereas funding for the
Lower Mekong Initiative has primarily focused on the environment, health, and
education, leaving the fourth pillar—infrastructure—largely unfunded;
Whereas attention to
infrastructure development is a critical element of promoting the coordinated
construction of hydropower dams in the region;
Whereas, on September
22, 2010, Laos submitted for review to the Mekong River Commission the proposal
for the Xayaburi Dam, the first of nine mainstream dams planned by Laos along
the Lower Mekong River;
Whereas, on April 19,
2011, the Mekong River Commission's Joint Committee representatives met to
discuss the Xayaburi project without reaching consensus on whether the project
should proceed, but agreed during the meeting to table the decision and
consider it at a later date at a higher, ministerial level; and
Whereas, on May 8, 2011,
the Government of Laos agreed to temporarily suspend work on the Xayaburi dam
and announced plans to conduct further environmental assessments on the project
in response to regional concerns: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved,
That the Senate—
(1) calls on the United
States Government to recognize different national circumstances of riparian
states along the Mekong River, including their energy and natural resource
profiles, and to support the development of cost-effective base load power that
meets electricity generation needs, promotes economic growth, and alleviates
poverty;
(2) calls on United
States representatives at multilateral development banks to use the voice and
vote of the United States to oppose financial assistance to hydropower dam projects
on the mainstream of the Mekong River that have not been adequately coordinated
within the region and would impose significant adverse effects on the
environment, population, and economic growth along the river and its basin;
(3) encourages greater
United States engagement with the Mekong River countries through the Lower
Mekong Initiative and increased support for energy and water security in
Southeast Asia;
(4) calls on the United
States Government in leading the Lower Mekong Initiative to devote greater
attention to capacity building projects on energy and water infrastructure;
(5) applauds the
decision of the Government of Laos to temporarily suspend work on the Xayaburi
Dam in response to regional concerns;
(6) supports delay of
the construction of mainstream hydropower dams along the Mekong River until the
comprehensive environmental assessments have been completed and adequate
planning and multilateral coordination has been achieved;
(7) calls on all
riparian states along the Mekong River, including China, to respect the rights
of other river basin countries and take into account any objection or concerns
regarding the construction of hydropower dams;
(8) encourages members
of the Mekong River Commission to adhere to the prior consultation process for
dam construction under the Commission's Procedures for Notification, Prior
Consultation and Agreement;
(9) calls on the
Governments of Burma and China to improve cooperation with the Mekong River
Commission and information sharing on water flows and engage in regional
decision-making processes on the development and use of the Mekong River; and
(10) supports assistance
to the Lower Mekong River riparian states to gather data and analyze the
impacts of proposed development along the river.
Amend the title so as to read: “A resolution calling for states
in the Mekong River Basin, including China, to respect the rights of all
riparian states along the Mekong River and for increased United States
engagement in promoting the resolution of multilateral water sovereignty
disputes.” https://www.congress.gov/112/bills/sres227/BILLS-112sres227rs.xml
SECRETARY OF STATE MIKE POMPEO AND THE LOWER MEKONG
INITIATIVE
On August 1, 2019, also
at the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Bangkok, US Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo reiterated the 2009 Lower Mekong Initiative of his predecessor, Hillary
Clinton, and also criticized China for building hydroelectric dams on the Mekong mainstream, which have seriously
affected downstream countries.
“The river's water level
is at its lowest in a decade, a problem related to China's decision to withhold
water from upstream dams.”
Pompeo also mentioned
China's blasting, dredging, river patrols outside of its area, seeking to
impose rules on river management, and thus weakening the role of the Mekong
River Commission.
Figure 8: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (third from left),
Vietnamese Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh (second from right) at the
Ministerial Meeting in Bangkok, Thailand on August 1, 2019, on the occasion of
the 10th anniversary of the Lower Mekong Initiative 2020. [Source: US Embassy in Vietnam]
Secretary Pompeo also
spoke of the commitment of the United States and Japan to cooperate with the
countries in the Mekong River basin to deal with difficulties. The Japan-US
Mekong Power Partnership [JUMP], will build power transmission networks in the region,
and the United States has pledged to contribute more than $29 million. And the
US government is working with Congress to provide $14 million in assistance to
the Mekong countries to deal with transnational crime, human trafficking,
prevent wildlife trafficking, and deal with the spread of drug smuggling from
the Golden Triangle. These are only very symbolic aid programs but in terms of
strategic value they are very fragmented…
THE 2009 LOWER MEKONG INITIATIVE IS NOW A THING OF THE PAST
The
US's return to Southeast Asia through the LMI has now been 16 years
(2009-2025), almost becoming a thing of the past! Meanwhile, China is in a
superior position in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) compared to the US in
many areas:
_
China has the advantage of geographical access, owning half of the length of
the Lancang-Mekong River flowing through 6 countries instead of the US, which
is an entire ocean distance.
_
China owns 12 giant mainstream dams in Yunnan on the upper stream, making the
Mekong River "a water tower and power plant" of China. _ China has
been expanding SEZs/ Special Economic Zones “Made in China” in the basin [Laos,
Cambodia, Vietnam] with human resources and infrastructure capable of lasting
long term.
_
China has a military force that has been authorized to openly patrol the Mekong
River outside of Chinese territory since December 2011 to protect security and
economic privileges.
_
China is exploiting the division of ASEAN and the Mekong countries, typically
the rift between the three Indochina countries with Cambodia and then Laos
separating from Vietnam to gradually enter Beijing's orbit.
_
China has an almost unlimited source of money, is a creditor of the United
States, and has more than enough capacity to finance infrastructure projects
and mainstream dams in the lower Mekong River.
In
addition to money from China, exploiting hydropower on the Mekong River is now
much easier when investment capital can also come from commercial banks in the
region such as Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam... instead of having to be funded by
large international financial organizations in which the US has great influence
such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank as before.
IN
LIEU OF EPILOGUE
The writer wonder: where is the strategic
position of the United States in the Mekong River Basin today? With an
inconsistent and always "pivoting" policy, with a negligible total
investment, over the past 50 years since 1975, the United States has made almost
no positive and effective moves to prevent China's expansion and encroachment – not only in the Mekong River basin - but also
in the East Sea. US officials from the Executive to the Legislative branches
have long talked about the commitments to the expanded role of the United
States in the Mekong River Basin [the State Department's LMI 2009 with only
22 million USD allocated – too little, to say the least, the US Senate's Resolution Res. 227]…
If we compare the total USD
investment of the United States and China, we can see that there is an ocean of
distance. For example:
_ BRI (Belt and Road
Initiative), is a global infrastructure and economic development strategy
launched by China in 2013. Beijing has invested an estimated 1,000 Billion USD in BRI. It aims to enhance trade and
investment connectivity between Asia, Europe, Africa, and beyond through large-scale
infrastructure projects, including roads, railways, ports, and energy networks.
_ AIIB (Asian
Infrastructure Investment Bank) also initiated by China in 2016 to finance
infrastructure projects in Asia and beyond. Headquartered in Beijing, it aims to enhance
connectivity and economic development through investments in sectors such as
transportation, energy, water, and urban development. The AIIB is capitalyzed at USD 100
billion and operates with a focus on sustainability, innovation, and
regional connectivity.
It has become clear that since 1975, Washington's policy
has lacked strategic substance, causing the United States to lose its
"foothold" in the Mekong River region. Now, if it loses its MDM
"vision" in the entire basin, the inevitable consequence is that the
United States has almost suffered a strategic defeat in the Mekong River
region. In the current "nearly zero-sum
game" (3) between the United States and China. To be able to counterbalance Beijing, Washington needs to have a strategic vision, accepting a commensurate price to restore its long-standing influence on the
Mekong River Chessboard.
NGO THE VINH MD California
01.29.2025
REFERENCE:
1. Challenge
to Water and Security in Southeast Asia; U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign
Relations; Presiding: Senator Webb, Thursday, September 23, 2010; http://www.foreign.senate.gov/hearings/hearing/?id=4c2fd291-5056-a032-52fd-414f26c49704
2. In
The Senate of The United States: The full text of S. Res. 227 (as passed July 7, 2011), (Mr. Webb,
Mr. Inhofe, and Mr. Lugar) A resolution calling for the protection of the
Mekong River Basin and increased United States support for delaying the
construction of mainstream dams along the Mekong River.
3. China
Sees U.S. as Competitor and Declining Power, Insider Says; By Jane Perlez,
April 2, 2012; http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/world/asia/chinese-insider-offers-rare-glimpse-of-us-china-frictions.html?_r=1&hp
4. US orders immediate pause to
foreign aid, leaked memo says. Tom Bateman, BBC
State Department correspondent. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce9nx5k7lv0o
5. Presidential Action. Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aids. Executive
Order. White House Jan 20, 2025 https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/reevaluating-and-realigning-united-states-foreign-aid/
