China Digs Deep in Landlocked Laos
Laos, a country of 6.8 million people roughly the size of China’s southern autonomous region of Guangxi, is often overlooked in China’s outreach to Southeast Asia. This year marks the 10-year anniversary of the upgrading of Chinese-Lao relations to a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership and in that spirit, officials launched the Visit China-Laos 2019 initiative to promote tourism. Historically, China’s involvement in the country has been more contained to the northern provinces closest to the border, but investment projects in transportation infrastructure, a border economic zone, hydropower dams, schools, and military hospitals indicate an amplification of Chinese ties.
