Abstract

LIZ-RIVAS, Lenny. Chinese Hydro-hegemonic Geopolitics in the Mekong River Basin. URVIO [online]. 2021, n.30, pp.108-120. ISSN 1390-4299.  https://doi.org/doi.org/10.17141/urvio.30.2021.4770.

Water has particular connotations, intrinsically related to a series of asymmetries over its control. It has been the subject of frequent disputes or controversies between nations and states over its domination, which the literature calls bio-politics, hydro-politics or, as we will call it here, hydro-hegemony. The objective of the article is to identify asymmetries of power in the Mekong River Basin by China, contributing to the academic debate on China's hydro-politics strategies with its riparian neighbors. We will methodologically support this research in the state of the art on power asymmetries based on water resources, emphasizing the unequal power relations between riparian states and discussing the hypothesis of the water war with the intention of introducing basic concepts of hydropolitics to a Spanish-speaking audience. The conclusions offered by this research arrive, once the geopolitical importance of water is discussed, at unilateralist approaches by China, rejecting binding commitments when these may collide with national interests of supply and control over the water resource in the Mekong River Basin.

Keywords : China; geopolitics; hydro-behaviour; hydro-hegemony; hydro-politics.

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