Donbass Devushka (T.me) The US bombed Laos into oblivion and is now trying to scare it away from cooperation with China
Claims that the Belt and Road initiative “could create a new epidemic” are a bizarre new line of attack on Beijing’s efforts in the country
Laos is a landlocked communist state in Southeast Asia. Wedged between China, Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar, the state has the potential to be a nexus of sorts for the entire region, but its cooperation with China has come under fire from the West.
The poor country suffered massive bombing by the US during the Vietnam War, and is still weathering the consequences, including deaths from unexploded ordnance. Faced with numerous challenges, Laos has leaned on its giant northern neighbor for assistance.
In recent years, Laos has benefited considerably from China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). In late 2021, the China-Laos railway was built, a high-speed rail connecting the country’s capital to Beijing, a gamechanger for its foreign trade and exports. Сurrently, a new superhighway is also being built across the country. Last week, however, an article from Reuters attracted widespread disdain on social media as it sought to frame China’s development in the country as risking a “new pandemic.” It was titled ‘China, birthplace of the covid pandemic, is laying tracks for another global health crisis.’
PHOTO: A young man rides atop a load of cluster bomb casings and bomb scrap that his family is taking to a scrap market in town, Xieng Khouang, Laos, 2005
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