{"id":4492,"date":"2021-04-09T14:23:21","date_gmt":"2021-04-09T18:23:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/?p=4492"},"modified":"2021-04-09T14:23:21","modified_gmt":"2021-04-09T18:23:21","slug":"laos-grants-25-year-concession-to-chinese-company-to-manage-power-grid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/2021\/04\/09\/laos-grants-25-year-concession-to-chinese-company-to-manage-power-grid\/","title":{"rendered":"Laos Grants 25-Year Concession to Chinese Company to Manage Power Grid"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Link: https:\/\/www.voanews.com\/east-asia-pacific\/laos-grants-25-year-concession-chinese-company-manage-power-grid<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last September, Laos struck a deal with China to develop a series of dams along the Mekong in order to power Southeastern Asia provided that their deeply indebted power grid be given control to the China Southern Power Grid Company. Just recently, Laos negotiated a 25 year concession to this company to control the entire power grid of their country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is seen as an overt instance of China\u2019s \u201cdebt trap diplomacy\u201d being exacted upon their neighbors. Loans China has given to Laos along with their own economic decline has led them to require China in order to stabilize their infrastructure and finances; soon after, China imposed themselves in Laos to widen their influence and regional security. China has only shown interest in the high-voltage lines of the Laotian energy grid, likely because this will be the highest-profile type of transmission especially when the long series of dams along the Mekong are finished construction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On one hand, China is expanding its influence by exploitation and soft power; however, on the other, Laos with their access to the Mekong has for a long time desired to be the \u201cBattery of Southeast Asia,\u201d as they named the extensive dam project. Laos being under the wing, or boot, of China was in many ways inevitable just by their proximity, history, and valuable geography: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Chinese private sector in southern China has in the past maintained a fruitful relationship with Laos, and it\u2019s in the direct interest of China to make sure that their border states are stable and secured. Access to the Mekong is far more than just a cherry on top of the deal, as the magnitude of the dam plan along the great river has the potential to help power much of southeastern China, in line with desires China has stated publicly to develop central China (this includes their southeast, as \u201cCentral China\u201d stretches as far eastward as until it meets the ecumenes along the coast). Developing Laos and taking advantage of its geography works in tandem with their own growth westward. Finally, Laos has every reason to align itself with China without seeking other allies; the last noteworthy time we ourselves had a diplomatic presence in Laos was after we bombed them as a part of our Vietnam campaign, and investments from organizations like the IMF would require damaging their mutually beneficial relationship with China by violating their privacy in the Chinese investments they already have ongoing in Laos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Stimson Center director in Washington described Laos to be on track to become a \u201cpseudo-province of China,\u201d and I agree wholly with this assessment of their position in Southeast Asia. Laos represents the capability for a clean energy transformation for the entire region provided that their power grid is able to support it, enabling China to make this happen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Link: https:\/\/www.voanews.com\/east-asia-pacific\/laos-grants-25-year-concession-chinese-company-manage-power-grid  Last September, Laos struck a deal with China to develop a series of dams along the Mekong in order to power Southeastern Asia provided that their deeply indebted power grid be given control to the China Southern Power Grid Company. Just recently, Laos negotiated a 25 year concession to this company to control the entire power grid of… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":174,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-analysis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/174"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4492"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4493,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4492\/revisions\/4493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}