澜湄水资源治理:域外大国介入与中国的参与

Lancang-Mekong Water Resource Governance: Involvement of Extraterritorial Powers and China’s Participation

在当前的澜湄水资源治理中,域外大国的介入,如"美湄合作""日湄合作"等已成为治理结构与进程的有机组成部分。域外大国通过发起合作倡议、构建合作机制、提供资金援助和技术交流等方式,加强对澜湄水资源治理的介入,提升其在湄公河次区域的影响力。域外大国的介入,对澜湄水资源治理有着双重影响:正面效应是它有利于治理体系的发展和治理能力的提升;负面效应是它增加了治理进程中主体关系的复杂性,加剧了治理机制的碎片化。域外大国的介入还助推"中国水威胁论"的传播,损害了中国的国际形象和地区影响力。在此背景下,相较于域外大国而言,中国在治理中的参与有着鲜明的特点和特有的不足。特点在于治理目标上注重利益共享,治理机制上注重对更高层次治理体系的有机嵌入。不足之处在于作为上游国家,水资源的开发与利用易遭到下游国家的猜疑,同时对下湄公河国家的民生发展问题关注不够充分。对于这些问题与挑战,中国需要综合施策,妥善应对。

In the current Lancang-Mekong water resource governance,the involvement of extraterritorial powers has constituted an organic part of the governance structure and process. Extraterritorial powers strengthen their involvement in Lancang-Mekong water resource governance and beef up their influencing power in the Great Mekong Subregion by launching cooperation initiatives,establishing cooperation mechanisms and providing financial assistances and technical exchanges. The involvement of extraterritorial powers demonstrates a dual effect on Lancang-Mekong water resource governance: Positive effect lies in that it is conducive to the development of governance system and the improvement of governance capacity,whereas negative effect lies in that it makes relationship among actors increasingly complicated in the governance process and exacerbates the fragmentation of governance mechanism. The involvement of extraterritorial powers also fuels the spread of the so-called "China Water Threat",thereby scarring China’s international image and regional influence. In this context,China ’s participation in governance embodies the distinct characteristics and unique shortcomings. The distinct characteristics are revealed by the emphasis on benefit sharing in terms of governance goals and the organic embedding of higher-level governance systems in terms of governance mechanism. The shortcomings are exposed by a fact that as China is in the upstream of Lancang River and Mekong River,the development and utilization of water resources are susceptible to doubts and suspicions by downstream countries. Furthermore,the people’s livelihood development issues of the countries in the Lower Mekong Basin are not sufficiently concerned by China.