Chinese Support Gives Laos an Edge Over Powerful Neighbor Vietnam
A Mekong River hydropower dam scheduled to open this month worries Vietnam because the country sits just downriver from it and would be threatened by lower water flows.
Officials in Hanoi aren’t wildly protesting to the dam’s host country, Laos, however, because Vietnam knows Laos has support from their much larger neighbor, China.
Vietnamese leaders instead are approaching Laos cautiously about the dam, out of fear the tiny landlocked country would seek more of that help from Beijing, Southeast Asia scholars say. Vietnam struggles to get along with China and resents Chinese expansion in other parts of Asia.
Ralph Jennings
