China has opened a new military training and logistics facility in Laos, extending Beijing's security presence deeper into mainland Southeast Asia and potentially giving the Chinese air force its first dedicated foothold overseas. The China-Laos Joint Support and Training Center at Ban Keun Airport, north of the capital Vientiane, formally began operations late last month alongside the new China-Laos Friendship Aviation Academy. Beijing says the center will primarily help train Lao air force pilots and will be jointly maintained and operated by the two countries.
The opening adds to China's still relatively small network of overseas military facilities. Beijing established its first foreign military base in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa in 2017. A Chinese-funded expansion of Cambodia's Ream Naval Base was formally inaugurated last year, giving Chinese forces access to a facility strategically positioned near the South China Sea.
Laos and Cambodia are widely regarded as China's closest political partners in Southeast Asia, and military cooperation with both has expanded substantially in recent years. "The two institutions … are not directed against any third party and aim to help further deepen practical cooperation between the two militaries and contribute to maintaining peace and stability in the region," said the Chinese Defense Ministry in a public statement. The facility's infrastructure gives Beijing the option of expanding its military use in the future, Hunter Marston, director of the Southeast Asia Program at Australia's Lowy Institute, told DW.
"The focus may well be on joint training, but it has the potential to become a more permanent base. Should Beijing choose to use it as such, it has ample political leverage over Vientiane to demand exclusive access in the future," he added. Laos has become heavily dependent on Chinese investment and financing during the past two decades.
Critics have frequently accused Beijing of engaging in "debt-trap diplomacy." The International Monetary Fund estimates Laos' public debt at around 81% of GDP last year, with China by far the largest bilateral creditor. In 2020, China's state-owned China Southern Power Grid acquired a reported 90% stake in Electricite du Laos Transmission Company, which operates much of Laos' electricity transmission network. A more durable Chinese military presence in Laos would also add another dimension to the strategic competition between Beijing and Washington in Southeast Asia.
The United States still enjoys far more extensive military access across the wider Indo-Pacific, particularly through alliances with the Philippines, Japan and Australia. Beijing has historically lacked comparable overseas facilities. But Ban Keun, alongside Ream, could gradually reduce that disadvantage by giving the Chinese military additional locations from which to train, maintain equipment and potentially preposition supplies.
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