澜湄区域合作中“区域”观念的错位及其影响

The Misalignment of the Concept of“Region”and Its Influence in the Lancang-Mekong Regional Cooperation

澜沧江—湄公河是中国与大陆东南亚国家共享的一条跨界河流。冷战后,以这条河流为地缘纽带建立的区域合作已超过30年。截至目前,该区域有九个多边合作制度的名称里含有“湄公河”字样,但这些合作制度所指涉的地理范围却不完全相同,形成了大湄公河次区域、湄公河上游与下游、湄公河六国、湄公河五国、澜沧江—湄公河区域等五类区域观念。这些各不相同但又同时存在的区域观念导致对这条河流及这个区域的称谓变得复杂和不稳定,并进一步影响到各国在澜湄区域合作中的“身份”认知。其中一些区域观念与澜沧江—湄公河的地缘纽带发生了错位,呈现出身份上将湄公河国家去中国化、议题上将湄公河事务泛中国化、价值导向上将湄公河合作“阵营化”的特征,可能在澜湄区域合作进程中产生身份认同偏差、合作制度竞合、地缘政治失稳等系统性影响。中国作为区域内国家,应主动参与澜湄区域观念的规范性建构,引导形成更加稳定、包容的区域合作秩序。

Lancang-Mekong River is a transboundary River shared by China and Southeast Asian countries on the mainland.After the cold war,regional cooperation based on this river has been established for more than 30 years.Up to now,there have been nine regional cooperation institutions established in the region with the word“Mekong”in their names,but the geographical scope of each cooperation institution is different,corresponding to the formation of five regional concepts,namely,the Greater Mekong Subregion,the upper and lower reaches of the Mekong River,the six countries of the Mekong River,the five countries of the Mekong River,and the Lancang-Mekong region.These different but coexisting regional concepts make the appellation of this river and this region complex and unstable,and further affect the recognition of“identity”of countries in the Lancang-Mekong regional cooperation.Some of them are also misplaced with the geographical ties of the region.In general,the dislocation of these regional concepts shows the characteristics of de sinicizing the“Mekong River countries”in identity,over sinicizing the“Mekong River affairs”in cooperation issues,and“camp”of Mekong River cooperation in value orientation,which may lead to systematic impacts such as identity deviation,complex competition and cooperation among these cooperation institutions,and geopolitical instability in the process of Lancang-Mekong regional cooperation.As a country in the basin,China should actively participate in the normative construction of the concept of the Lancang-Mekong region and guide the region to form a more stable and inclusive regional cooperation order.This paper also has some reference for the study on the relationship between regional cooperation and geopolitical dynamics based on the formation of transboundary river basins.