Corridors of Influence? The China–Indochina Peninsula Economic Corridor and Beijing’s Expanding Power Architecture

This webinar, the fourth in the Silk Cage Series, moves beyond South Asia to examine how China’s continental corridors interface with maritime strategy, influence operations, and broader geopolitical contestation. It situates the China–Indochina Peninsula Economic Corridor (CICPEC) within a wider strategic arc linking the South China Sea to the Bay of Bengal and further into the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). As part of the Stockholm Center for South Asian and Indo-Pacific Affairs (SCSA-IPA) project, “The Silk Noose: China’s Power Architecture in South Asia and the Indian Ocean Region,” the discussion explores how China is constructing not only economic corridors, but an interlinked power architecture stretching from continental Southeast Asia into the Indian Ocean. Within this framework, South Asia represents a central theater of this evolving system, while CICPEC illustrates how adjacent regions reinforce, extend, and sustain it. The entire webinar is available on YouTube.