Replication Data for: From Wealth to Power: China’s Economic Statecraft in Southeast Asia

Although China’s economic statecraft in other regions is well-documented, little is known about how Beijing utilizes economic instruments, especially official financing (COF), in Southeast Asia. What accounts for the amount of official financing China commits to a Southeast Asian country in a given year? We argue that China’s economic statecraft in Southeast Asia is mainly driven by trade concerns. Statistical evidence from mixed-effects models using the most updated aid data between 2000 and 2021 suggests that COF in Southeast Asia is significantly influenced by the volume of imported Chinese goods into a country in the previous year.
This country-year panel dataset spans from 2000 to 2021, encompassing eight formal ASEAN member states. These countries include Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. The dataset contains approximately 200 observations. While this may seem like a modest sample size, it is adequate for our statistical analyses as it includes most stakeholders in the region.
We use China's Official Financing (COF) as the Dependent Variable, aggregating annual Official Development Assistance (ODA), Other Official Flows (OOF), and Vague Official Financing (VOF) data for eight ASEAN countries from William and Mary College's AidData.