That's driving some of the world’s fastest economic growth rates and providing Chinese companies with low-cost alternatives as they seek to move capacity out of the country. It's also helping Asia's largest economy and nations in its orbit adapt to what looks more and more like a new era of waning U.S. commitment to the region from a more inward-looking administration of President-elect Donald Trump.

"China’s definitely looking at these countries in general as an area where it can sell products and get good return for its investments," said Edward Lee, an economist with Standard Chartered Plc in Singapore. "China itself is getting more expensive for its companies, and that’s reinforcing this trend."

China is investing in everything from railroads to real estate in Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar — the frontier-market economies of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

China Minsheng Investment Group and LYP Group, headed by Senator Ly Yong Phat, signed a $1.5bn deal this month to build a 2,000-hectare city near Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, with a convention center, hotels, golf course, and amusement parks, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. The spending equals roughly one-tenth of the country’s $15.9bn gross domestic product.

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