ABSTRACT
As a result of China’s ‘going-out’ strategy in the beginning of the 21st century and the BRI’s implementation, massive investments have arrived in Southeast Asia over the past two decades, which have led to the formation of what I called ‘new Chinese capitalism’. This chapter first contextualizes the phenomenon of new Chinese capitalism for an understanding of the political economy of Southeast Asia, and the role of Chinese capitalism and the diaspora Chinese. I then discuss the regional architecture of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Economic Community (AEC) and its implications for the preexisting and deeply ingrained politico-economic relations prevalent in Southeast Asia. Using cases of both private and state-sanctioned Chinese investments in Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore, this chapter delineates the geographical and sectoral distributions of Mainland Chinese outward FDI, as well as explains how those Chinese enterprises make an inroad into ASEAN and with whom they have collaborated in such endeavors, demonstrating the analytical value of the International Political Economy (IPE) and network. This chapter concludes by considering the characteristics of new Chinese capitalism in the context of an emerging AEC and broader literature on capitalism studies.
