Country: Laos
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As U.S. Engagement Wavers, Southeast Asia Finds a New Climate Partner in China
As aid from the United States and other Western countries dwindles and global trade tensions rise, Southeast Asia’s urgent need for green energy is finding a ready banker and builder in China. Experts caution that this shift is reshaping the region’s economic and strategic landscape at the ...
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As China Builds the Grid, Laos’s Power Ambitions Enter a New Phase
2026 marks a strategic turning point for Laos in its ambition to become the “Battery of Southeast Asia”, with two mega power transmission projects advancing this year. On the first day of January 2026, the 230 kV Thavieng-Mahaxay transmission line ...
China’s High-Speed Rail Network Passes 50,000 km With New Line
China’s high-speed rail network has crossed 50,000 kilometers of operating track, state media reported, with authorities opening a new line linking Xi’an and Yan’an in northwestern China on Friday. China marked the milestone by launching the Xi’an–Yan’an high-speed route in ...
China to Expand Power Exports to Vietnam as Needs Surge
Vietnam is considering a sharp jump in electricity purchases from China as it looks for ways to keep the lights on in its fast-growing northern region. Factories there have multiplied. So have homes. Hanoi wants double-digit economic growth, and officials say the grid needs help to ...
Beijing Drives New Rail Bridge Linking Thailand – Laos with China
China, Thailand, and Laos have agreed to accelerate the construction of a second Nong Khai–Vientiane rail bridge. This move underscores Beijing’s central role in reshaping Southeast Asia’s transport and trade routes. It is designed to carry trains directly from Thailand ...
China Backs Malaysia’s BRICS Bid, Laos Reiterates Interest
China has pledged full support for Malaysia’s full membership into BRICS, while Laos has reaffirmed its interest in joining. The moves underline Southeast Asia’s growing engagement with the bloc, which has expanded its membership in recent years. ...
China-Laos Railway Fuels Trade and Record Travel Boom in Early 2025 Amid Scrutiny
Since its launch on December 3, 2021, the China-Laos Railway has handled over 48.6 million passenger trips and 54 million tons of goods as of February 2025. The number is seen as strengthening regional trade and economic integration under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), amid ...
China’s Sprawling Rail Projects Around Asia
Vietnam approved plans on Wednesday for a multi-billion-dollar railway with China, boosting links between the two communist countries. Around the region, China has been financing railways under its Belt and Road Initiative, which funds infrastructure projects globally, but has come under ...
Chinese Victims Among 4 Killed in Laos Explosion
An explosion at a shop in northern Laos killed four people, including Chinese nationals, Beijing's consulate general in the country reported. The "blast" happened Friday at a Chinese store in Oudomxay province, the Chinese consulate in Luang Prabang said in a ...
Thailand Approves 2nd Phase of High-Speed Rail, Connecting Bangkok to China by 2030
Thailand’s long-anticipated high-speed rail project to China is moving forward. On Tuesday, the Thai cabinet formally approved the second phase of the Thai-Chinese high-speed rail line, a 357-kilometer stretch from Nakhon Ratchasima to Nong Khai, with an investment of approximately $10 billion, equivalent to 340 billion ...
Thailand, China Stage Myanmar Talks
Chinese officials will attend meetings in Bangkok on Thursday and Friday aimed at crafting regional solutions to the crisis in Myanmar. The two meetings are seen as a bold attempt from Thailand to resolve the crisis, which is threatening the ruling military junta’s grip on the country. ...
Debt-Saddled Laos Struggles to Tame Rampant Inflation
By Thanaporn Promyamyai and Damon Wake Suffocating under a mountain of debt to China, Laos is struggling to tame rampant inflation, with food prices rising so sharply that a growing number of households are resorting to foraging.
Blinken at ASEAN Meet Condemns China’s ‘Increasingly Dangerous’ Sea Moves
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned Beijing's "increasingly dangerous" actions in the South China Sea and voiced support for freedom of navigation as he met leaders of the ASEAN bloc on Friday. "We remain concerned about China's increasingly dangerous and ...
Blinken Arrives at Asia Summit With Firm Line on Myanmar, China
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Laos on Thursday for the East Asia Summit, where he will push a firm line on Myanmar's junta and Beijing's assertive actions in the South China Sea. In a shift of focus after ...
Philippines Challenges China Over South China Sea at ASEAN Meet
By Martin Abbugao and Damon Wake Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos challenged Chinese Premier Li Qiang over recent clashes in the South China Sea at regional summit talks on Thursday, as fears grow that conflict could erupt in the disputed waterway.
Myanmar, South China Sea Dominate ASEAN Summit
Leaders from the ten member countries that make up the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) gathered in Laos on Wednesday for an unusually fraught ASEAN summit. Their time in Vientiane is likely to be dominated by twin crises: the civil war in Myanmar and rising tensions ...
China Says Premier Li Qiang to Visit Laos, Vietnam This Week
Chinese Premier Li Qiang will visit Laos for meetings with Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) officials as well as Vietnam this week, Beijing's foreign ministry said Tuesday. Li will attend the ASEAN summit meetings and "pay an official visit to ...
Blinken, in Laos, set for talks with Chinese foreign minister
By Léon Bruneau U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived early Saturday in Laos, where he will attend a regional meeting and hold talks with his Chinese counterpart. This is part of a multi-nation Asia visit aimed at reinforcing ties with ...
Blinken Set for Talks With Chinese Counterpart in Laos
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to arrive Saturday in Laos, where he will meet his Chinese counterpart at a regional conference and work to reinforce Washington's ties with its allies. The top U.S. diplomat is due to meet ...
Russia, China FMs Meet as ASEAN Talks Get Underway in Laos
By Montira Rungjirajittranon The foreign ministers of Russia and China met on Thursday on the sidelines of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers talks in Laos, Moscow and AFP journalists said. ...
Blinken Says Will Meet Chinese Counterpart in Laos Next Week
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday he would meet his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi next week at an ASEAN ministerial meeting in Laos. "I speak to him on a fairly regular basis, and I'll be seeing him next week, ...
China-Laos Railway Brings Higher Mobility, Employment As Profit Concerns Linger
A group of Thais boarded the high-speed train between Boten and Vientiane, the capital of Laos. They had just finished a tour in China before crossing to the Boten station, about five minutes from the China-Laos checkpoint. The carriage was half empty because it was the last ...
China, Thailand Flock to Laos’ Rivers for Electricity
Pak Beng is a small, sleepy town north of Laos. Little happens in this town except when the slow boat emerges on the Mekong River pier at six in the evening. When that happens, shops, bars, and restaurants near the pier come alive to greet arriving tourists. ...
Q&A: How Cambodia’s Chinese-backed Funan Techo Canal Risks Destabilizing the Lower Mekong Delta
In May 2023, the former prime minister of Cambodia – Hun Sen – led a cabinet meeting that gave the green light to the “Funan Techo Canal”, the first waterway system in Cambodia, which will connect Phnom Penh Autonomous Port to Kep Province of Cambodia.
“The Mekong is Dying”: How China’s River Diplomacy Neglects Locals, Exacerbates Climate Change
The rainy season would usually start in May, but this was late June and it was still not raining much. Niwat Roykaew, who grew up on the bank of the Mekong River in Thailand’s northern Chiang Rai province, noticed. Born and ...
Chinese Scholar on Why Railway Financing Makes Sense for Beijing, Despite Criticism
Chinese-financed railways in Asia and Africa have sparked enormous controversies over whether it was wise for countries like Kenya, Indonesia, Nigeria and Laos to put themselves in so much debt for infrastructure that will take decades to become profitable, if it ever does.
What Does Kenya’s SGR Tell Us About the Future of Chinese Railway Development in the Global South
The Chinese-financed Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) in Kenya is one of the flagship projects of the Belt and Road Initiative. But the SGR like other Chinese-sponsored railway projects elsewhere in the Global South also serves as a prime example of the ...
As China Nitpicks Terms, Asia’s Debt Bomb is Ticking…
As technocrats in Sri Lanka and Laos grapple with renegotiating loans to a variety of creditors, including China, the region's creeping debt distress is slowly tipping into a full-blown humanitarian disaster. The situation is the most critical in Sri Lanka, where ...
Wang Touts China’s Human Rights Record to Visiting Asian, African Diplomats on Their Way To Visit Xinjiang
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke glowingly of Beijing's human rights record with indirect references to the situation in Xinjiang when he met on Tuesday with a delegation of visiting UN diplomats from Asian and African countries. The group is currently in the ...
Debt Warnings Are Flashing in Laos
How China acts in the Zambian debt restructuring process will no doubt be closely watched in Laos. This is because of rising fears that the Southeast Asian country could be the next to fall into debt distress. Laotian public debt now stands at $14.5 ...
A Taliban security personnel operating an anti-aircraft gun keeps watch for Pakistani airstrikes near the Torkham border crossing between Afghanistan and Pakistan in the Nangarhar province on February 27, 2026 following overnight cross-border fighting between the two countries. Photo by AIMAL ZAHIR / AFP
Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif declared "open war" against Afghanistan on Friday amid a surge of fighting between the two South Asian neighbors. Pakistan said it's retaliating against Afghanistan for a series of attacks, including a suicide bombing in early February that killed at least 36 people ...
