On February 27, the first lecture of Governance in Border Areas: A Lecture Series from the Perspective of Area Studies organized by the Institute of Area Studies, Peking University (PKUIAS), took place in No. 66, Yannanyuan. The lecture’s theme was “From Yunnan to Global Lancang-Mekong: Mutual Reinforcement Between Knowledge and Practice.” The lecture featured Zhang Lei, associate professor at Yunnan University. Attendees included Zhai Kun, deputy director of PKUIAS; Prof. Song Qingrun at School of Asian Studies, Beijing Foreign Studies University; and Yao Ying, program director of the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue, alongside scholars specializing in related interdisciplinary fields. The event was chaired by PKUIAS PhD candidate Zhang Yixun.

Zhang Lei began by introducing the development and operation mechanism of the Study on Economic Cooperation in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS), which was initiated by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in 1992 and covers the six countries of the Lancang-Mekong River Basin. At the 8th GMS Summit of Leaders, in November 2023, the heads of state of the six countries unanimously adopted the GMS Innovation Strategy for Development 2030. The strategy is not only a refinement of the overall objectives of the GMS-2030 Strategy proposed at the 2021 Summit, but also a core guideline for the development of the countries in Lancang-Mekong River Basin in the following three to five years. The GMS-2030 strategy, adopted unanimously at the 7th GMS Summit of Leaders, in 2021, emphasizes the three pillars of connectivity, competitiveness and community, and takes “knowledge-based” as an important development direction. Against this background, the GMS Knowledge Network mechanism was born. Yunnan University has been designated as the national focal point of the network in China to promote regional knowledge sharing and cooperation. In 2022, Prof. Zhang Lei participated in the Chinese team led by the Ministry of Finance of China to complete the draft of the GMS Innovation Strategy for Development 2030. Based on in-depth research on the border areas between China and the Mekong countries, this draft document, which integrates Chinese wisdom and solutions, was submitted to the Asian Development Bank for multi-stakeholder consultation, and was reviewed and approved by GMS senior officials and ministers. Eventually, the draft was considered and adopted by the 8th GMS Summit of Leaders, in November 2024, as a common program of action document for the six GMS countries.

Drawing on her firsthand experience in drafting cross-border governance frameworks, Zhang Lei pointed out that the dynamic interplay between borderland governance and regional governance mechanisms has grown in salience. Yunnan Province, a key link between China and mainland Southeast Asia, handles borderland governance that involves both central-local interactions and its role as a bilateral openness hub. As the global order undergoes significant transformation and China’s role continues to expand, the evolving approach to borderland governance now focuses on two main dimensions. First, it involves cross-border collaboration with neighboring countries. Second, it requires close coordination between national strategies and local implementation. These dual priorities shape both high-level policy frameworks and practical on-the-ground solutions in China’s frontier regions. The frontier has formed a dual role of connection and buffer in the global and regional governance structure, and its role in the integration and redistribution of governance resources has become more and more prominent. Borderland governance has become a permanent presence in linking regional cooperation mechanisms and promoting regional good governance, and the new model of regional governance based on innovative borderland governance has also provided new ideas for the Lancang-Mekong region to transcend the “spaghetti bowl effect.” The overlapping and competition of mechanisms lead to lower efficiency, and the key to solving this problem is to find differentiated cooperation paths instead of blindly pursuing universality. Finally, Zhang Lei added that the local practice of borderland governance also provides useful reference for regional cooperation. In the future, as more local practices of borderland governance are explored and promoted, regional cooperation will have a broader development space.

In the discussion session, Yao Ying and Zhang Lei exchanged views on China’s role and coordination of interests under the GMS mechanism, Song Qingrun discussed the impact of the US aid cuts on the regional cooperation pattern as well as the current status of Japan’s East–West Economic Corridor project. Sun Yitong, a PhD student at PKUIAS, asked questions focusing on the dominant intention of Vietnam in the regional cooperation and its internal attitudinal differences. Zhai Kun discussed with Zhang Lei on the functional expansion of borderland governance and the theoretical revision of the “spaghetti bowl effect.” Students and faculty asked about the future development of GMS and Lancang-Mekong cooperation. Zhang Lei gave detailed answers based on her research.