Guanie Lim is a research fellow at the Nanyang Centre for Public Administration, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Alvin Camba is a senior fellow of the Paramadina Public Policy Institute, Indonesia.
Is China "buying up" Southeast Asia? Since Beijing boasts the world's second-biggest economy and is the largest trade partner of many of the region's economies, this question unsettles onlookers across the world, from Washington's Capitol Hill to Metro Manila's jeepney drivers.