China leveraging Laos to link up its Southeast Asian economic interests
Premier Li Qiang visited Laos earlier this month, with the relatively undeveloped and small Southeast Asia nation seen as key to China’s plans in the region
China aims to scale up infrastructure construction in uniquely strategic Laos to accelerate trade and investment throughout Southeast Asia as Chinese businesses scout for space to grow offshore, analysts said.
Laos, relatively undeveloped and small at just 7.4 million people, matters to Beijing because it shares borders not only with China, but also with the larger Southeast Asian economies of Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.
“Laos is seen as a transport hub for China to export Chinese products to the other countries in the subregion and import products from those countries to China,” said Supitcha Punya, an assistant professor of political science and public administration with Chiang Mai University in Thailand.
The additions would boost China’s economic reach in Southeast Asia for its own landlocked western regions, said Naubahar Sharif, head of public policy at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) bloc has a combined population of about 673 million, including several manufacturing hubs and some of the world’s fastest growing economies.
Laos is the only Asean nation with a direct railway route from its capital, Vientiane, to China, Sharif added.