Asian development models: Chinese vs American

China’s plan for a railroad to span Asia and link with Europe is a grand scheme that will connect the world’s biggest landmass and promote unprecedented trade and development, thereby raising the standard of living for billions of people. What rail development did for the US and Britain, transforming the latter into a manufacturing powerhouse in the 19th century will be repeated here, only on a much larger scale. Asia will become as prosperous as Europe is today and Thailand will be a major beneficiary, further enhancing its role as a hub for Southeast Asia.

Another point worth noting is that China’s development model is in stark contrast to the competing US “Asia pivot” strategy, which emphasises security. Besides being exploitative and divisive, the US model has little to offer by way of trade and development. Much worse, it is vulnerable to military conflict elsewhere, as we are witnessing in the Middle East, where the US is focused on oil and gas extraction and is the main powerbroker. Asian countries would do well to be mindful of this and go for the Chinese model.

Prapa Smutkojon