Breaking News, World News and Taiwan News.

Updated Friday, July 30, 2010 12:18 am TWN, By Bruce Gale, The Straits Times/Asia News Network

Sponsors
▪	Buy china wholesale products from reliable chinese wholesalers on DHgate.com!
▪	Save 75% for all hotels in Shanghai, Beijing and whole China. Lowest rates for Flights in China.
▪	Get the best deals for Guangzhou Hotels or choose from more than 10,000 hotels in 499 Chinese cities.
▪	Find great real time deals on China Flights. Book flights to China or China domestic flights 24/7.

US-China contest in Southeast Asia is good news for Laos

The Americans have arrived at an opportune time. Many Laotians are concerned about the hundreds of thousands of Chinese workers who have entered the country in recent years to work on various Beijing-sponsored projects. The north of the country in particular, say critics, is beginning to take on the character of a Chinese province. Large construction projects involving Chinese contractors in Vientiane have also prompted talk of “Chinese City” in the capital.

With the support of Vietnam, a traditional ally that also fears growing Chinese influence, the Lao leadership seems eager to reap the benefits of the competition between Beijing and Washington. At an international conference held in Tokyo in May, Lao Prime Minister Bouasone Bouphavanh announced new plans to overhaul foreign investment policies and reach annual growth rates of over 8 percent for the next five years. The Prime Minister repeated his commitment to a fast growth strategy the following month at the World Economic Forum on East Asia in Vietnam.

For both the U.S. and Laos to achieve their goals, however, the U.S. needs to be consistent. Washington's new-found friends in Vientiane may not be quite so eager to support U.S. initiatives if they suspect they may one day be abandoned to the mercies of a growing pro-Chinese faction. Many in South-east Asia still remember the apparent downgrading of the region in 2007 when then President George W. Bush skipped the Asean Regional Forum, postponed a U.S.-Asean Summit and left the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) conference a day early.

Human rights issues could still complicate matters. About 250,000 Hmong have resettled in the U.S. since the war and often speak of persecution in Laos, enlisting support of U.S. lawmakers to pressure the Vientiane government. The strength of the anti-communist sentiment within the community can be seen in the fact that 12 Californians, including 11 ethnic Hmong, have recently been charged in U.S. courts with plotting to overthrow the Lao government.

While wooing countries such as Laos and Cambodia, the U.S. may also have to temper its activities to avoid upsetting Thailand, a traditional U.S. ally that considers Indochina its backyard.

For the time being, however, the competition between Washington and Beijing is heating up. And Laos seems set to reap the benefit.

1|2