Abstract:

China and Japan primarily adopt a “business-to-business” (B2B) model for infrastructure cooperation in the third-party market in Southeast Asia. This long-standing model, which predates the “government-to-government” (G2G) approach, has primarily focused on sub-sectors such as energy and takes on various forms. However, this model faces several challenges. Firstly, Japanese private enterprises prioritize economic rationality, whereas Chinese state-owned enterprises partly undertake national geopolitical objectives, leading to difficulties in aligning goals. Secondly, China tends to engage in bilateral cooperation with individual Southeast Asian countries, whereas Japan prefers regional-level cooperation with ASEAN as a bloc, resulting in misaligned cooperation levels. Finally, differences in standards, especially in sectors such as transportation, further complicate cooperation. These challenges significantly hinder the progress of China-Japan cooperation in Southeast Asia, leading to delays, terminations, or the absence of cooperation in some projects. To address these challenges, China and Japan should appropriately increase the G2G component while deepening strategic B2B cooperation. Additionally, China should remain vigilant about Japan’s influence in Southeast Asia and the comparative advantages of Japanese financial enterprises’, carefully managing competition throughout the cooperation process.

Key words: China-Japan, Southeast Asia, infrastructure, “business-to-business” cooperation model, cooperation goal alignment