NEWS & EVENTS

On March 24, 2021, Dr. David Lampton presented his latest book, River of Iron: Railroads and Chinese Power in Southeast Asia, at the Reischauer Center hosted with Dr. Kent Calder and Amb. David Shear.
To start, Dr. Lampton described the important research question underpinning his book, whether China can successfully build a transnational high speed railway linking mainland China with Southeast Asia. In total, the project covers eight Southeast Asian countries, plus China.

During the talk, Dr. Lampton drew on his extensive field research and interviews to help illuminate the unique challenges and concerns facing China’s regional infrastructure investment. Dr. Lampton highlighted how academic research has started to shift away from in-person visits because of heightened political risks. Instead, he suggested that studying China’s interactions from the outside could become more common in the future.

Following Dr. Lampton’s remarks, Amb. Shear opened the Q&A by commenting on how the book captures Southeast Asia’s incredible diversity and the role this plays in each country’s decision-making. To conclude, Dr. Lampton emphasized the notion of “balanced connectivity” and how the US could be playing a more active part, along with countries like China and Japan, in fostering north-south and east-west connectivity across the region.