Compared with other ethnic regions of the People’s Republic of China, the southwestern borderlands remain largely invisible in Western public discourse. Historically, the area served colonial powers as a strategic ‘bridgehead’ into Chinese inland territory; today, it fulfils a comparable function for China’s expanding interests in Southeast and South Asia and beyond, particularly along the ‘21st Century Maritime Silk Road’, a key component of the Belt and Road Initiative. At the same time, the region plays a central role in China’s domestic green energy transition. This talk examines how the Chinese state engages with a climatically, topographically, and ethnically diverse frontier to advance its economic and geopolitical objectives. It also explores how local—often largely indigenous—communities adapt, negotiate, and domesticate state power in order to maintain aspects of their own lifeways and safeguard their interests.

The lecture can be watched online.

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