China wants to sell nuclear reactors to Southeast Asia, but the region’s trust deficit—fueled by South China Sea disputes—may keep Beijing’s Hualong One designs grounded despite China accounting for roughly half of the world’s nuclear reactors currently under construction, ThinkChina reported. The stakes are enormous: Southeast Asia currently operates zero commercial nuclear plants, yet faces the prospect of accounting for nearly 20% of global energy demand growth through 2035 as industrialization, electrification and data centers strain existing grids.
The urgency sharpened after disruptions around the Strait of Hormuz exposed the region’s vulnerability. Southeast Asia sources around 60% of its crude oil imports and a third of its gas imports from the Middle East, a dependency that has pushed governments to reconsider nuclear power as a steady, low-carbon generation source capable of running for 60 years or more. ASEAN has responded by including civilian nuclear energy in its 2026-2030 energy cooperation programme, marking a formal shift from aspiration to policy.
The world's largest Hualong One nuclear power base, the Zhangzhou Nuclear Power Plant, made key progress in the construction of Unit 4's nuclear island on Monday in southeast China's Fujian Province, as a refueling pool module was successfully hoisted into place. With six units… pic.twitter.com/UhKngDqCOq
The Hormuz Shock That Rewired Regional Energy Planning
Vietnam has revived its Ninh Thuan projects, while Indonesia and the Philippines are advancing plans—the Philippines’ Department of Energy has laid out key milestones targeting operational reactors in the early 2030s, according to asia-pacificresearch.com. Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore are studying small modular reactors as part of future planning. Yet the path remains blocked by high upfront costs, limited regulatory capacity, lengthy construction periods and persistent public opposition—challenges that have stalled earlier ambitions for decades. With solar, batteries and geothermal offering faster deployment and SMR economics still uncertain, governments face difficult choices about which technologies to pursue and which foreign partners to trust with critical infrastructure.
Vietnam’s Two-Supplier Gambit Sets the Regional Tone
Vietnam illustrates the multi-vendor strategy now emerging across ASEAN. In March 2026, Hanoi signed an agreement with Moscow to revive the Ninh Thuan 1 nuclear power plant—a project first negotiated over a decade ago—while simultaneously discussing a second plant with South Korea. Seoul, which has experience delivering reactors overseas including in the UAE, signed exploratory agreements in the Philippines, and its Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy outlined a May 2026 nuclear export strategy signaling independent competition for overseas contracts. This approach gives Southeast Asian governments room to negotiate and diversify, though Japan’s withdrawal in 2025 over an ambitious construction timetable demonstrates the limits of such leverage when financing and delivery commitments remain uncertain.
Why Beijing’s Reactors Haven’t Landed in Southeast Asia
China brings formidable technical advantages. The country operates 61 nuclear reactors with another 36 under construction, giving it the world’s third-largest fleet while leading global construction, asia-pacificresearch.com reported. Its Hualong One reactor generates around 1,100 megawatts per unit—enough for roughly one million homes—and draws on a domestic manufacturing base that has localized roughly 90% of reactor components, reducing supply-chain vulnerabilities and costs. Beijing can offer comprehensive turnkey packages covering engineering, procurement, construction, financing, training and long-term fuel supply, and has reportedly targeted exporting 30 reactors to Belt and Road Initiative countries by 2030, a push potentially worth 1 trillion yuan, according to asia-pacificresearch.com. Chinese institutions have cultivated relationships across the region for years: Thailand’s RATCH acquired a 10% stake in China’s Fangchenggang nuclear project in 2015, and Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry signed a memorandum of understanding with China’s Atomic Energy Authority in August 2026.
Yet these relationships have not produced a single commercial reactor construction contract in Southeast Asia. While China has succeeded in Pakistan, its overseas experience remains limited compared with Russia’s track record across different markets. More significantly, political considerations present a formidable barrier. Vietnam and the Philippines are still locked in tense territorial and maritime disputes with Beijing over the South China Sea, and nuclear collaboration requires sensitive infrastructure, sustained technical support and substantial trust between governments. According to ISEAS’s 2026 survey of regional elites, 55.4% of respondents who named China as the region’s most influential economic power voiced concern about its rising influence, with particularly strong reservations in Vietnam and the Philippines reflecting worries about overdependence on Beijing for critical infrastructure.
The world's largest Hualong One nuclear power base, the Zhangzhou Nuclear Power Plant, made key progress in the construction of Unit 4's nuclear island on Monday in southeast China's Fujian Province, as a refueling pool module was successfully hoisted into place. With six units… pic.twitter.com/AN7nuzesOx
The 60-Year Commitment No Government Takes Lightly
The competition extends well beyond China. Russia has made the most concrete progress, proposing floating reactors for Indonesia that would sell electricity to local buyers under long-term contracts—an arrangement that eases upfront financing while giving Moscow a continuing role in local generation. The US has signed civil nuclear cooperation agreements with five Southeast Asian countries, establishing legal frameworks for technology transfers under non-proliferation safeguards, and is working with Japan and South Korea to jointly develop overseas SMR projects. France and Canada have also pursued cooperation agreements with ASEAN economies.
For Southeast Asian governments, the choice carries generational weight. A nation’s first reactor hands its supplier an edge in winning later projects, since local engineers and regulators grow accustomed to its technology and supply chains. But this also means entrusting electricity systems to foreign partners for decades, with Russia controlling around 40% of global uranium-enrichment capacity and US utilities still purchasing 20% of enrichment services from Russia as of 2024. As governments weigh nuclear against faster renewable alternatives, the fundamental question remains how far they are willing to extend trust to great powers with whom they have unresolved security disputes—a decision that could shape regional alignment for generations.
The world's largest Hualong One nuclear power base, the Zhangzhou Nuclear Power Plant, made key progress in the construction of Unit 4's nuclear island on Tuesday in southeast China's Fujian Province, as a refueling pool module was successfully hoisted into place. With six units… pic.twitter.com/RlnDCq837m
China's homegrown nuclear tech has hit a major milestone as the first Hualong One reactor in Hainan was connected to the grid for power generation on Saturday at the Changjiang Nuclear Power Plant. Featuring two 1.2 million-kW Hualong One reactors, the plant's phase two project… pic.twitter.com/jarRIGh5ji
