Research On Abe Administration's Foreign Aid Policy Towards Southeast Asia

With an increased amount of aid funds in Southeast Asia,the Shinzo Abe government has reduced the untied rate of the funds.The aid funds,which have been amassed in the Mekong River Basin,are mainly utilized for political and social aid programs.Pivoted on Vietnam and the Philippines,security aid programs now directly inject naval arms and capital into the two countries other than in technical form.Strategic motivation can be detected in the Abe administration's aid policy towards Southeast Asia.Compared with its predecessor,political and security purposes in such aid have been intensified,and the regression of mercantilism in economic sense has also been manifested.The Abe administration's aid policy towards Southeast Asia has been influenced by the domestic foreign policy ideology,security concept,institutional breakthrough,deteriorated economic status,Abenomics and changes in policy and decision-making systems.Besides,it is also influenced by the “Asia-Pacific Rebalance” strategy of the US and the economic and military rise of China.The aid policy on one hand strengthens the intergovernmental and civil relations between Abe's administration and the Southeast Asian countries,and on the other hand enhances the numbers of Japanese enterprises and their foreign direct investment in Mekong countries.However,there are weaknesses seen in the implementation effects,such as limited consolidation of intergovernmental relations,ineffective value export and inability to reverse the general down-going trend of Japanese economic power in Southeast Asia.In addition,the policy is encountering three major problems,namely,the worsening domestic financial situation in Japan,decision-making power change and the restriction of the US elements.There are two major influences of the Southeast Asia Aid Policy of the Abe administration on China: the increasingly intense competition between these twocountries in the Southeast Asian infrastructure construction market,and the damage to China's maritime rights and interests in South China Sea.China should seek cooperation with Japan in competition and,meanwhile,protect China's rights and interests in South China Sea by adopting the policy of joint right-safeguarding interaction between East China Sea and South China Sea.The foreign aid policy of the Japanese government has built its good national image,which provides implications for China's foreign aid policy and the realization of “people-to-people ties” as stated in the “Belt and Road Initiative”.