Laos: Belt and Road poster child – or problem child?

Laos: Belt and Road poster child – or problem child?

The high-speed train streaks above bright green rice fields and zips through tunnels in mountains of rural Laos. It cuts what is normally a days-long journey by car from Yunnan province in southern China across Laos to the Thai border to just three hours – and allows travel in comfort. Few nations have been transformed as radically by China’s Belt and Road Initiative, or BRI, as Laos. The US$5.9 billion China-Laos railway has pushed the small, S…