Laos opens its mega railway to China as debt to Beijing keeps rising

In this photo released by Xinhua, an electric multiple unit (EMU) train of the China-Laos Railway arrives at Yuxi Railway Station in Yuxi in southwestern China's Yunnan Province, Friday, Dec. 3, 2021. The China Laos railway is one of hundreds of projects under Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative to build ports, railways and other facilities across Asia, Africa and the Pacific. - AP

BEIJING, Dec 5 (AP): After a blessing by Buddhist monks, Lao Prime Minister Phankham Viphavanh on Friday rode the first run of a US$5.9 billion Chinese-built railway that links isolated, mountainous Laos with southern China in an effort to increase trade.

Both governments tout the 1,035-kilometres (642-mile) line from the Lao capital, Vientiane to Kunming in China’s poor southwest as a boost to economic growth. But it leaves a debt that foreign experts warn Laos, a country of 7 million people wedged between China, Vietnam and Thailand, might struggle to repay.