LUANG PRABANG, Laos — China’s growingly assertive posture in the South China Sea and escalating violence in Myanmar topped the agenda for Southeast Asian diplomats meeting in Laos on Monday. The gathering is the first high-level meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations since Laos took over the rotating chairmanship. The diplomats for the … Read more
At first glance, the scene is unremarkable: women in wide-brimmed hats are dotted across a rice paddy field nestled in the Laotian mountains, toiling under the relentless sun. But instead of sickles, the women are carrying heavy metal detectors. Their buckets aren’t full of the staple crop, but scraps long buried in the ground. And … Read more
Add to your saved storiesSave Jerry Doolittle, a onetime Washington Post humorist whose eclectic career took him to Laos as a U.S. press attaché who later helped disclose the full scope of a secret U.S. bombing campaign, and then to the White House as a speechwriter tasked with crafting jokes for President Jimmy Carter, died … Read more
A pedestrians at a bus station in Vientiane, Laos, on Saturday, June 24, 2023. Valeria Mongelli | Bloomberg | Getty Images An alarming debt crisis has unfolded in Laos in recent years, raising worries about the tiny nation’s obligation to its biggest creditor — China. China became the largest foreign investor in Laos in late … Read more
VIENTIANE, Laos — 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, brand-new residential towers rise out of the jungle. China funded much of the … Read more