Via The Washington Post, an article on Laos’ economy, pushed into distress by BRI infrastructure loans: At speeds of almost 100 miles an hour, the Chinese-built train zips over the Mekong River and careers through dozens of newly bored tunnels as it travels north from the capital. At its last stop, near the Chinese border, […]
Read more »Courtesy of Nikkei Asia, a look at Laos’ border economic zones: Lae joked with her 12-year-old daughter, feeding her sticky rice with chili paste aboard a high-speed train barreling through northern Laos’ rugged landscape on its way to the Chinese border. The cheery conversation took a darker turn when they’re asked about their destination – Boten. […]
Read more »Courtesy of The Wall Street Journal, an interesting video look at how a $6B China-built rail line in Laos aims to jumpstart the country’s exports and provide China a key link to overseas markets.
Read more »Courtesy of the Wall Street Journal, a report on Laos’ new $6B Chinese-built railway, allowing people and investments flow into Laos, making it ‘more like China’ and efforts to position the nascent Boten Special Economic Zone in Laos as a new gateway between China and Southeast Asia: Locals stopped selling mushrooms to watch a train […]
Read more »Via The Diplomat, a report on Laos, which is disturbingly reliant on investment from China – and no one knows how much, or under what terms: China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) turns 10 this year. Much ink has been spilled, digitally and otherwise, about the global infrastructure project. The “debt-trap diplomacy” claims that arose […]
Read more »Via the Wall Street Journal, a report on the People’s Bank of China use of currency-swap lines to support governments that borrowed heavily from Chinese banks via the BRI program: Hungry for foreign currency to shore up their dwindling reserves, some troubled countries have in recent years turned to an unusual source of funds: The People’s […]
Read more »