Rivers of Iron: Railroads and Chinese Power in Southeast Asia examines China’s effort to create an inter-country railway system connecting China and its seven Southeast Asian neighbors (Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam). Authors David M. Lampton, Selina Ho, and Kuik Cheng-Chwee illuminate the political strengths and weaknesses of the plan, as well as the capacity of the impacted countries to resist, shape, and even take advantage of China’s wide-reaching actions. The authors seek to explain how domestic politics in these eight Asian nations shaped their varying external responses and behaviors. How does China wield power using infrastructure? Do smaller states have agency? How should we understand the role of infrastructure in broader development? Does industrial policy work? And crucially, how should competing global powers, including the United States, respond?

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