Far Eastern Economic Review
August 26, 2004

Is the opening of the Mekong for large trading vessels an example of Beijing’s strong-arm tactics with it’s neighbours?

Four boatloads of angry Thai villagers waving protest banners surrounded nervous Chinese work teams installing navigation poles on rocks in the Mekong River in late April. Only after the Thais satisfied themselves that the workers were not marking demolition
targets did the confrontation end.

The incident, near Chiang Khong in northern Thailand, showed just how sensitive some Thais have become to a Chinese scheme to open the river to large trading boats. It’s a case study in how not to go about developing the Mekong, say environmentalists. They say the plan lacked transparency, involved Beijing bullying its neighbours and gave priority to commercial prospects at the expense of livelihoods and the environment.

China’s Foreign Ministry has defended the project as a collaboration with its neighbours that has “dramatically improved” navigation on the upper Mekong. In 2000, China, Burma, Laos and Thailand signed an agreement on commercial navigation that permits their vessels to sail freely on the Mekong between the Chinese port of Simao in Yunnan
province and Luang Prabang in Laos, a distance of 886 kilometres.

China proposed to remove major rapids, shoals and reefs to allow boats of 150 tonnes, then 300 tonnes and finally 500 tonnes, to ply the course. The previous maximum was 120 tonnes. The signatories hastily adopted an environmental impact assessment–done, Beijing says, by an “expert group” from the four countries–which independent
researchers at Australia’s Monash University later declared “fundamentally flawed” in many places.

Laos and Thailand went along for the sake of good relations with Beijing, even though they had serious reservations about the scheme, say Southeast Asian diplomats. The diplomats say government officials in Vietnam and Cambodia have told them privately that they fear their countries are vulnerable to any adverse effects from changes to the Mekong River. The Southeast Asia Rivers Network reports that fluctuating water levels, due to the combined effect of Chinese- funded demolition work and Chinese dams, are disrupting fishing for up to 1,000 kilometres downstream.

Thailand suspended its participation in the project in April last year, after the military expressed concern that faster-flowing water in an obstacle-free Mekong, which forms part of the border between Laos and Thailand, may alter the boundary. Given this opposition by the military and local communities, observers expect the Thai withdrawal to become permanent.

On May 1, after three years of clearing and dredging in the Mekong, the first 300-tonne Chinese vessel reached Chiang Saen in Thailand. The Chinese have indicated privately that they won’t proceed with plans to clear the river between Chiang Saen and Luang Prabang, the diplomats say.