![]() ![]() Chinese companies, she said, can use Lao workers however they please. “Laos is so indebted to China that can come over here take our land,” said Nin, a 23-year-old vegetable and condiments seller at a local market in Vientiane, who like other Lao spoke on the condition of anonymity or only with their first name for fear of retribution. Lao on social media most recently expressed outrage at reports in late August that a Chinese mining company had detained some 50 villagers for illegally digging gold in a part of northern Laos where the company held a concession and demanded a ransom for their release. Lao people have begun to express unprecedented discontent online, targeted at China and their own government, rare in a one-party socialist state where critics are harassed and even disappeared. Riding the new Chinese-built high-speed rail from Vientiane, the capital, to Boten, and then back down to the tranquil tourist town of Luang Prabang, revealed a landlocked country torn between a recognition of its limitations - no progress would have been possible without China - and deeply anxious about its reliance on Beijing. The Chinese Embassy in Laos and the Chinese Foreign Ministry did not respond to requests for comment sent via email and fax. referred questions to the Laos Foreign Ministry, which did not respond to a request for comment. A representative for the Laos-China Railway Company Ltd. The Laotian Embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment. “It is challenging not to let this affect your diplomatic relations,” Parks said. ![]() “We are now getting acquainted with China as the world’s largest debt collector,” said Parks at AidData, something that is uncharted territory for both the borrowers and China. Beijing has loaned almost $1 trillion to developing nations in the past two decades, a mammoth amount that has fundamentally reshaped China’s position in the world. We are continuing to document Beijing’s reach.ĭebt forgiveness to countries like Laos will also open up China to similar requests from governments around the globe.
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