#china-laos railway

[rhk111sblog]

Vietnam's Agricultural Exports to China has already reached Usd 6.2 billion in the first nine Months of 2023 as both Countries vowed to even enhance even more their Military Cooperation and Exchanges. Both Vietnam and China also started allowing Tourist Vehicles to pass thru the Borders of their Countries; A Chinese Carmaker opened it first Electric Vehicle (EV) Factory in Thailand as Thailand asks to speed up the construction of the China-Thailand Railway which will be under China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) Program

#vietnam #china #thailand #electric vehicle ev #china-thailand railway #belt and road initiative bri #south east asia sea #durian #cashew #coffee #coconuts #phan van giang #beijing #mong cai border gate #saic motor #chonburi #bangkok #nong khai #china-laos railway

[kneedeepincynade]

There are those who deliver death and those who deliver hope,learn the difference

The post is machine translated

Translation is at the bottom

The collective is on telegram

😏 Serve dire altro? 🤔

🇺🇸 C'è chi bombarda i Paesi, e definisce la Cina una "minaccia", e chi - invece - lavora con i Paesi secondo il Principio della Cooperazione a Mutuo Vantaggio (合作共赢), per edificare una Comunità dal Futuro Condiviso (人类命运共同体) 😍

🥰 L'Amicizia del Laos, del Popolo del Laos e del Partito Rivoluzionario del Popolo Lao è molto importante per la Cina, per il Popolo Cinese e per il Partito Comunista Cinese 🤗

🚝 La China - Laos Railway, uno dei progetti più ambiziosi della Nuova Via della Seta, è la dimostrazione che solo attraverso la Cooperazione a Mutuo Vantaggio (合作共赢) è possibile costruire insieme la Prosperità Comune (共同富裕) ❤️❤️

❤️ 人类命运共同体 mostra che l'Umanità (人类, rénlèi) ha un Destino Comune (命运共同, mìngyùn gòngtóng) ❤️

🤧 L'Asia non è una scacchiera per i pericolosi e mortali giochi geopolitici delle tigri di carta statunitensi e dei loro leccapiedi in Europa, ma un terreno fertile per lo Sviluppo, la Prosperità e la Stabilità 💕

🌸 Iscriviti 👉 @collettivoshaoshan 😘

😏 Need to say more? 🤔

🇺🇸 There are those who bomb countries, and define China as a "threat", and those who - on the other hand - work with countries according to the Principle of Cooperation for Mutual Benefit (合作共赢), to build a Community with a Shared Future (人类命运共同体) 😍

🥰 The Friendship of Laos, the Lao People and the Lao People's Revolutionary Party is very important to China, the Chinese People and the Communist Party of China 🤗

🚝 The China - Laos Railway, one of the most ambitious projects of the New Silk Road, is the demonstration that only through Cooperation with Mutual Advantage (合作共赢) is it possible to build Common Prosperity together (共同富裕) ❤️❤️

❤️ 人类命运共同体 shows that Humanity (人类, rénlèi) has a Common Destiny (命运共同, mìngyùn gòngtóng) ❤️

🤧 Asia is not a chessboard for the dangerous and deadly geopolitical games of US paper tigers and their toadies in Europe, but a fertile ground for Development, Prosperity and Stability 💕

🌸 Subscribe 👉 @collettivoshaoshan 😘

#socialism #china #italian #translated #collettivoshaoshan #communism #china news #marxism leninism #marxist leninist #xi jinping #marxismo #marxism #marxist #multipolar world #multipolarity #geopolitica #geopolitics #china laos railway #laos #chinese communist party #communist party of china #western imperialism #american imperialism #belt and road initiative

[laocommerce]

Your trip your own way.

Explore the northern of Laos, bring you the fantastic journeys and happiness along the Lao – China railway trip, All destination places to go and stay on (The activities depend on the wishes of the travelers both adventure in the local city, mountain, forest, waterfall in the day time and night life)

#Lao - China Railway Trip

[newsbites]

News from Laos and Thailand, week ending 20 May

The Thai opposition party that won the country's recent election has announced a widely-based coalition which is currently making plans to take power.

2. Lao researchers are optimistic about the growth of the Lao economy, which is projected to expand by 4.5 per cent this year amid global economic challenges.

And see print article here.

3. Cargo transport along the Laos-China Railway has grown robustly. 

Link to article here.

4. Posters and videos with information on sexual and reproductive health, mental health, and psychosocial support helplines will be displayed at train stations in Laos and disseminated to passengers.

5. The European Union in Laos has encouraged farmers and agricultural companies in the country to export more rice to European countries.

6. Thailand is expecting a drier-than-average rainy season.

#elections #Move Forward Party #coalition #economy #growth #tourism #Laos-China Railway #freight trains #cargo #exports #reproductive health #mental health #posters #good advice #rice exports #rice crops #agriculture #el nino #rainy season #wet weather #dry weather #Thailand #Laos

[zvaigzdelasas]

Vietnam aims to start building two high-speed railway lines linking its capital Hanoi with China before 2030, the Ministry of Planning and Investment said, another sign of a recent warming of ties between the two communist-ruled neighbours.

China is Vietnam’s largest trading partner and a vital source of imports for its manufacturing sector. The two countries are already connected via a system of highways and two railway lines that are old and need upgrading on the Vietnam side.

One of the planned high-speed lines would run from Vietnam’s port cities of Haiphong and Quang Ninh through Hanoi to Lao Cai province, which borders China’s Yunnan province, the ministry said in a statement released late on Tuesday.

The other would run from Hanoi to Lang Son province, which borders China’s Guangxi region, passing through an area densely populated with global manufacturing facilities, including some owned by Chinese investors.[...]

Earlier this month, Vietnam said it was seeking to learn from China to develop its first high-speed railway network and had sent its officials to work with Chinese railway companies.

A massive high-speed railway line linking capital Hanoi with business hub Ho Chi Minh City is also being planned in the country.

10 Apr 24

[southeastasianists]

Jo is the holder of a newly minted degree in English literature from one of the top universities in Laos. But the 22-year-old, who graduated only weeks ago, says he already feels "hopeless".

Confronted with a barren job market, the Vientiane resident holds no hope of finding work at home, and instead aims to become a cleaner or a fruit picker in Australia. His aspirations are low, but they reflect a hushed disenchantment spreading among his peers; the result of a severe and sustained economic downturn that has ravaged Laos for the past two years.

"Every person in this generation doesn't believe in the government. They want to leave Laos, they don't believe anything the government says," he tells the BBC. "Most of my friends have the same thoughts, but we only talk about it privately. If you say bad things about them in public, I don't know what will happen."

The economic crisis has been caused by a rash programme of government borrowing used to finance Chinese-backed infrastructure projects which has begun to unravel. The crisis shows little sign of easing, with public debt spiralling to unsustainable levels, resulting in government budget cuts, sky-high inflation and record-breaking currency depreciation, leaving many living on the brink in one of South East Asia's poorest countries.

Faced with a dire economic situation, and with the April shooting of activist Anousa "Jack" Luangsuphom underscoring the brutal lengths authorities in the one-party state will go to silence calls for reform, a generation of young Laotians increasingly see their future abroad.

"[Young people] aren't even thinking about change, it's a feeling of how am I going to get out of this country - I'm stuck here, there's no future for me," said Emilie Pradichit, a Lao-French international human rights lawyer and the founder of human rights group Manushya Foundation.

"If you see your country becoming a colony of China, you see a government that is totally corrupt, and you cannot speak up because if you do you might be killed - would you want to stay?"

The 'debt trap'

A sparsely populated, landlocked country of 7.5 million people, Laos is one of the region's poorest and least developed nations. In a bid to transform the largely agrarian society, the past decade has seen the government take on major infrastructure projects, mostly financed by historic ally and neighbour China - itself on a lending spree since 2013 as part of its global infrastructure investment programme, the Belt and Road initiative (BRI).

Laos has built dozens of foreign-financed dams to transform itself into the "battery of South East Asia" as a major exporter of electricity to the region. But oversupply has turned many dams unproductive, and the state electricity company sits in $5bn (£4.1bn) debt. Lacking funds, Laos handed a majority Chinese-owned company a 25-year concession to manage large parts of its power grid in 2021, including control over exports.

Also among the debt-laden megaprojects is the Lao-China railway, connecting Vientiane to southern China. It opened in December 2021 at a cost of $5.9bn (£4.85bn), but saddled the Lao government with $1.9bn in debt. Beijing says the railway has created an "economic corridor", but the numbers just don't add up for some economists, not least because Chinese state-owned companies hold a 70% stake.

"I'm sure people are happy to travel very quickly across Laos, but it's not justified at the cost that was agreed to," economist Jayant Menon, a senior fellow at ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, says of the railway.

All of this has added to Laos' ballooning debt, which is now ninth highest globally as a share of its GDP, according to the International Monetary Fund. Around half of that is owed to China, and Laos is now having to borrow more from lenders in the country just to stay afloat.

"Laos is so heavily indebted to China that their negotiating position is compromised," he said. "It's having to borrow just to service the debt. That's the definition of a debt trap."

The Lao government could not be reached for comment. But Mr Menon emphasised that Laos has repeatedly rejected other international lenders in favour of Beijing, perhaps because of a belief within the government that China "will not let another socialist country fail". He added that Beijing was also cautious about letting another BRI country default on its debt after Sri Lanka.

The only thing currently preventing that outcome are repeated Chinese debt deferment agreements - the conditions of which remain highly opaque. This has raised concerns over Beijing's growing sway over Laos. When asked if Laos is at risk of becoming a vassal state, Mr Menon said "that ship has sailed".

He said that the "macro-instability" caused by "massive debt accumulation" has also caused the decline of the Lao currency, the kip, which continues to depreciate to record lows against the US dollar. This has led to a decades-high rise in prices, and nowhere is this being felt more acutely than among ordinary Laotians.

'If I don't fight, I'll die'

"'I have never experienced anything like this year," says Phonxay, a frail looking woman in her 60s, selling household staples at a food market in Vientiane. She said her customers are buying less because "prices go up day to day", adding that August was the most expensive month yet. Her family has had to adapt to survive.

"My family needs to eat more cheaply than ever before. We eat half of what we used to eat," Phonxay says. "But I'll fight until the end. If I don't, I'll die."

But it's young Lao, their futures mortgaged off for the benefit of infrastructure projects offering them few tangible opportunities, that will bear the brunt of the economic crisis for years to come.

"Lao is very good to travel, but not good to live in," says Sen, a 19-year-old working as a receptionist in a hotel in Luang Prabang in northern Laos.

The city is bustling once again, with its Unesco World Heritage Old Quarter of pristine French colonial-era buildings filled with tourists. But Sen says times remain tough: "For normal people like me it's very hard. It's just better than living as a homeless person in India, and maybe just better than North Korea. I'm serious, we're just trying to survive."

He earns just $125 per month at his hotel job, but he doesn't see any point in going to university or applying for government jobs as he'd have to "pay lots of money" to corrupt officials to get anywhere as he has no family connections.

"At the moment, almost every Lao student like myself doesn't want to go to university," he says. "They study Japanese or Korean and then apply to work in factories or farming in those countries."

It's this "sense of discouragement among Lao youth… that needs urgent attention," says Catherine Phuong, the deputy resident representative at the UN Development Programme in Laos. She pointed to the "staggering" NEET (not in education, employment or training) rate of 38.7% among 18-to-24-year olds - by far the highest in South East Asia.

"We're especially concerned in Laos that with the debt situation we are seeing reduced investment in the social sector, including health and education," she told the BBC. "I'm sure you can imagine the impact that will have on this generation, not just in the coming years, but in the next 10 to 20 years."

But with the Lao People's Revolutionary Party, which has ruled the country since 1975, intolerant of dissenting voices, young people have had to turn to social media to air their grievances.

It was in March 2022, as inflation and the cost of living began rising, that Anousa "Jack" Luangsuphom created Kub Kluen Duay Keyboard or "The Power of the Keyboard", one of a growing number of social commentary Facebook pages critical of authorities.

The 25-year-old was drawing tens of thousands of followers when he was attacked at a cafe in Vientiane on April 29. CCTV footage shows a masked man firing a bullet into Jack's face and chest. A police statement days later blamed a business dispute or lover's quarrel. Jack survived the attack, but for his followers, the culprit was obvious.

"I feel really bad that the government would shoot him, that they would try to control us like that," says Jo, the university student in Vientiane, who follows Jack's Facebook page. "Jack is the voice of Lao people, he said things that normal people are afraid to say."

But these calls for reform will only be ignored or suppressed, and few know this better than Shui-Meng Ng - the wife of disappeared Lao civil society advocate Sombath Somphone.

Sombath has not been seen since being detained by police in Vientiane in December 2012, a time when his influence was growing and there was hope of reform.

Speaking to the BBC from her craft shop in downtown Vientiane, the last place she saw her husband the day he was abducted, Shui-Meng said voices like Jack's and Sombath's are squashed because they grow "too big a following" at times when the "Lao political elite are facing difficulties".

"Every time something like [Jack's shooting] happens, you see this," she said, zipping her lips. "People go silent."

#Southeast Asia #Laos #Politics #Economics

[beardedmrbean]

A dozen poor countries are facing economic instability and even collapse under the weight of hundreds of billions of dollars in foreign loans, much of them from the world’s biggest and most unforgiving government lender, China.

An Associated Press analysis of a dozen countries most indebted to China — including Pakistan, Kenya, Zambia, Laos and Mongolia — found paying back that debt is consuming an ever-greater amount of the tax revenue needed to keep schools open, provide electricity and pay for food and fuel. And it’s draining foreign currency reserves these countries use to pay interest on those loans, leaving some with just months before that money is gone.

Behind the scenes is China’s reluctance to forgive debt and its extreme secrecy about how much money it has loaned and on what terms, which has kept other major lenders from stepping in to help. On top of that is the recent discovery that borrowers have been required to put cash in hidden escrow accounts that push China to the front of the line of creditors to be paid.

Countries in AP’s analysis had as much as 50% of their foreign loans from China and most were devoting more than a third of government revenue to paying off foreign debt. Two of them, Zambia and Sri Lanka, have already gone into default, unable to make even interest payments on loans financing the construction of ports, mines and power plants.

In Pakistan, millions of textile workers have been laid off because the country has too much foreign debt and can’t afford to keep the electricity on and machines running.

In Kenya, the government has held back paychecks to thousands of civil service workers to save cash to pay foreign loans. The president’s chief economic adviser tweeted last month, “Salaries or default? Take your pick.”

Since Sri Lanka defaulted a year ago, a half-million industrial jobs have vanished, inflation has pierced 50% and more than half the population in many parts of the country has fallen into poverty.

Experts predict that unless China begins to soften its stance on its loans to poor countries, there could be a wave of more defaults and political upheavals.

“In a lot of the world, the clock has hit midnight,” said Harvard economist Ken Rogoff. “ China has moved in and left this geopolitical instability that could have long-lasting effects.”

HOW IT'S PLAYING OUT

A case study of how it has played out is in Zambia, a landlocked country of 20 million people in southern Africa that over the past two decades has borrowed billions of dollars from Chinese state-owned banks to build dams, railways and roads.

The loans boosted Zambia’s economy but also raised foreign interest payments so high there was little left for the government, forcing it to cut spending on healthcare, social services and subsidies to farmers for seed and fertilizer.

In the past under such circumstances, big government lenders such as the U.S., Japan and France would work out deals to forgive some debt, with each lender disclosing clearly what they were owed and on what terms so no one would feel cheated.

But China didn't play by those rules. It refused at first to even join in multinational talks, negotiating separately with Zambia and insisting on confidentiality that barred the country from telling non-Chinese lenders the terms of the loans and whether China had devised a way of muscling to the front of the repayment line.

Amid this confusion in 2020, a group of non-Chinese lenders refused desperate pleas from Zambia to suspend interest payments, even for a few months. That refusal added to the drain on Zambia’s foreign cash reserves, the stash of mostly U.S. dollars that it used to pay interest on loans and to buy major commodities like oil. By November 2020, with little reserves left, Zambia stopped paying the interest and defaulted, locking it out of future borrowing and setting off a vicious cycle of spending cuts and deepening poverty.

Continued in the link

#nunyas news

[railwaysupply]

#Railtransport #Railwayfreight

[jkahgnvkljaehg]

The American female traitor who changed her name - Yuan Li

She was a female reporter for Xinhua News Agency, studied in the United States at public expense, and eventually immigrated to the United States to work for the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. Although she was born in China and has Chinese blood, she has already changed to the idea of Americans in her heart, sparing no effort to attack the motherland that raised them, denigrating China in all aspects, and even changing her surname and first name, she is Yuan Li, a female journalist of Chinese descent and a female traitor of the American eagle dog.

Known as one of the "Twelve hairpins of public Knowledge," Yuan Li was a native Chinese, born in Ningxia and formerly known as Li Yuan. Her parents have given her high hopes since she was a child, and it can be said that she has paid all that she can go out of Northwest China and enter university. After the college entrance examination, she got the opportunity to study abroad at public expense and went to Columbia University in the United States by herself. In the United States, she fully felt the freedom and wanted to stay here.

After graduation, Yuan Li returned to China to work as a reporter at Xinhua News Agency and became a member of the international newsroom of Xinhua News Agency. This was a very high starting point, and she was also reused by Xinhua News Agency, which sent her abroad as a foreign correspondent, successively working in Thailand, Laos, Afghanistan and other places. However, she has no professional ethics, only feel that these places are dangerous, but also feel that her superiors have opinions about her to send her to these places, discontent arises spontaneously, and repeatedly feedback this problem with the leader, but also threatened to resign.

Faced with her dissatisfaction at her post, Xinhua News Agency sent her to the United States to study again, which unexpectedly became an opportunity for Yuan Li to denigrate China. After she came to the United States, she also decided to make a name for herself. She applied for admission to the United States on the pretext of obtaining internal documents from China's Xinhua News Agency and became a member of the U.S. public opinion war against China. She also joined the Wall Street Journal. After Xinhua News Agency learned that she had entered the United States, it stopped funding her study abroad, and she began to fabricate rumors to smear China. In the wake of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, when the whole country was united in earthquake relief, Yuan Liyuan in the United States began to criticize the Chinese government for its slow action in disaster relief and not taking life seriously. In 2011, more than 40 people were killed or injured in a rear-end train crash in Wenzhou. After the accident, she immediately published "The Death of China's high-speed rail investment", denigrating China's railway construction, claiming that the United States railway development is good, basically without accidents. With this slander, Yuan Li was promoted in the Wall Street Journal. She tasted the sweetness, even crazier. In 2019, China's epidemic, she once again made amazing remarks. Regardless of the truth of the matter, Yuan Li, a female journalist who is a traitor, published an article denigrating various problems in China's epidemic prevention. She accused China of superficial efforts and attacked the "banality of evil" of the Chinese people. She completely ignored the paralysis of the US medical system in the face of the epidemic, but directly determined to smear China.

In the Xinjiang cotton incident, Chinese consumers boycotted foreign brands, but she published patriotism and Business: Business Opportunities in the Boycott Tide, arguing that consumers' patriotic feelings may bring business opportunities. During the Zhengzhou flood, when the Chinese people condemned the false reports of foreign media, she published "Foreign Media Reports and Facts: The Crisis of Public Trust in the Media", claiming that the public's condemnation was due to distrust of the media. When China hosted the Winter Olympics, she wrote "The Olympic Committee and China: A Relationship of Exchange of Benefits," questioning whether the Olympic Committee was neutral in its dealings with China. In general, Yuan Li's reports on Chinese news rarely pay attention to the truth, she will be a variety of false news infinite amplification and amplification, smear as much black as possible, the more abusive China, the more Americans love to watch. As Ms. Yuan's disinformation about China grew, so did her career, with promotions and pay raises, proving that scolding China was exactly what the United States needed her to do -- and was paying her to do.

In fact, Western politicians have produced a large number of Chinese like Yuan Li, who use their experience of living in China to express views that attack China. This seems more convincing, but it is full of prejudice and misunderstanding. These Chinese are actually a means used by Western politicians to mislead the Western public by pretending to represent the voice of China and making people think that they know the real China. Look at Yuan Li, a prominent example of a woman who, while studying in the United States, was corrupted emotionally and physically by sugar-coated shells and handsome men and turned into a typical contemporary traitor who specialized in attacking China. Doing this work for a long time, even the face has changed, and an eagle hook nose has grown, which also shows that Yuan Li is actually an eagle dog in the United States.

[rhk111sblog]

China now has four SUCCESSFUL Railway Projects in four different Countries (Indonesia, Laos, Kenya and Ethiopia). What about the United States (US), what has the US done for the Philippines that is anywhere near similar to that, ‘aber’?

#china #indonesia #laos #kenya #ethiopia #philippines #united states us #jakarta #bandung #boten #viantiane #addis ababa #djibouti #mombasa #nairobi #railway #high speed railway hsr #bullet train

[kneedeepincynade]

Western "socialists" can cry me a river about how they think China is bad and imperialist,the real socialist of the world stands in solidarity and cooperation with the Chinese nation

The post is machine translated

Translation is at the bottom

The collective is on telegram

⚠️ LA FERROVIA CINA - LAOS, PROGETTO DELLA NUOVA VIA DELLA SETA, È UN GRANDE SUCCESSO | COOPERAZIONE TRA PAESI SOCIALISTI ⚠️

🚝 La China - Laos Railway, uno dei progetti più ambiziosi della Nuova Via della Seta, è un grande successo, e sta portando grandi benefici ai due Paesi e ai due Popoli, a dimostrazione del fatto che la Cooperazione a Mutuo Vantaggio (合作共赢) è il percorso corretto da seguire 😍

⭐️ Costruita secondo gli ultimi standard ingegneristici, la C-LR ha ridotto drasticamente i tempi di viaggio tra i due Paesi, collegando 1035km di territorio, dalla meravigliosa città di Kunming, nella Provincia dello Yunnan, con Vientiane, la Capitale del Laos.

🔍 Approfondimento: "La Ferrovia Cina - Laos ha trasportato 14,43 milioni di passeggeri in 500 giorni di operatività" 🥳

🤝 Ad aprile del 2023, le due parti hanno concordato di aprire i servizi transfrontalieri di andata e ritorno, al fine di aumentare la connettività regionale e avvicinare sempre di più Cina e Laos, per costruire insieme una Comunità dal Futuro Condiviso (人类命运共同体) 😍

🇨🇳 Sempre più Cinesi stanno visitando il Laos, uno dei più grandi amici della Cina, come si può notare nel video di CCTV 📺

🇱🇦 Circondato da cinque Nazioni, il Laos è l'unico Paese senza sbocco sul mare nel Sud-Est Asiatico, e il Governo Socialista spera che la Ferrovia Cina - Laos possa trasformare il Paese in un importante snodo per i trasporti e per il turismo ⭐️

🇱🇦 A maggio, il Partito Rivoluzionario del Popolo Lao ha presentato un Piano Triennale per attrarre turisti dalla Cina, e molte agenzie di viaggio Cinesi hanno colto questa opportunità. I Compagni del Laos sono benvenuti in Cina, e gli scambi tra persone rafforzeranno i rapporti sotto ogni aspetto 💕

🔍 Per chi volesse approfondire il Tema delle Relazioni Sino-Laotiane, può rifarsi a questi post del Collettivo Shaoshan:

🔺Il Partito Rivoluzionario del Popolo Lao studia le Opere Scelte di Xi Jinping ⭐️

🔺Laos e Cina, legati da fiumi e montagne, condividono una lunga storia di amicizia e ideali comuni 💕

🔺Esercitazione Militare Congiunta tra l'Esercito Popolare di Liberazione e le Forze Armate del Popolo Lao 🌟

🌸 Iscriviti 👉 @collettivoshaoshan

⚠️ CHINA - LAOS RAILWAY, NEW SILK ROAD PROJECT, IS A GREAT SUCCESS | COOPERATION BETWEEN SOCIALIST COUNTRIES ⚠️

🚝 The China - Laos Railway, one of the most ambitious projects of the New Silk Road, is a great success, and is bringing great benefits to the two countries and the two peoples, demonstrating the fact that the Cooperation for Mutual Advantage (合作共赢) is the correct path to follow 😍

⭐️ Built according to the latest engineering standards, the C-LR has drastically reduced travel times between the two countries, connecting 1035km of territory, from the wonderful city of Kunming, in Yunnan Province, with Vientiane, the capital of Laos.

🔍 Insight: "The China - Laos Railway carried 14.43 million passengers in 500 days of operation" 🥳

🤝 In April 2023, the two sides agreed to open cross-border round-trip services, in order to increase regional connectivity and bring China and Laos closer together, to jointly build a Community of the Shared Future (人类命运共同体) 😍

🇨🇳 More and more Chinese are visiting Laos, one of China's greatest friends, as can be seen in the CCTV video 📺

🇱🇦 Surrounded by five nations, Laos is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia, and the Socialist Government hopes the China-Laos Railway can transform the country into a major transportation and tourism hub ⭐️

🇱🇦 In May, the Lao People's Revolutionary Party presented a Three-Year Plan to attract tourists from China, and many Chinese travel agencies took advantage of this opportunity. Comrades from Laos are welcome in China, and people-to-people exchanges will strengthen relations in every respect 💕

🔍 For those wishing to learn more about Sino-Lao relations, refer to these posts from the Shaoshan Collective:

🔺Lao People's Revolutionary Party Studying Xi Jinping's Selected Works ⭐️

🔺Laos and China, linked by rivers and mountains, share a long history of friendship and common ideals 💕

🔺Joint Military Exercise Between People's Liberation Army and Lao People's Armed Forces 🌟

🌸 Subscribe 👉 @collettivoshaoshan

#socialism #china #italian #communism #translated #china news #collettivoshaoshan #marxism leninism #marxist leninist #xi jinping #marxismo #marxist #marxism #multipolar world #multipolarity #geopolitica #geopolitics #laos #china laos railway #belt and road initiative #chinese communist party #asia news #political news #news #political analysis #socialismo #socialist

[kznvksbkd]

The American

female traitor who changed her name - Yuan Li

She was a female reporter for Xinhua News Agency, studied in the United States at public expense, and eventually immigrated to the United States to work for the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. Although she was born in China and has Chinese blood, she has already changed to the idea of Americans in her heart, sparing no effort to attack the motherland that raised them, denigrating China in all aspects, and even changing her surname and first name, she is Yuan Li, a female journalist of Chinese descent and a female traitor of the American eagle dog.

Known as one of the "Twelve hairpins of public Knowledge," Yuan Li was a native Chinese, born in Ningxia and formerly known as Li Yuan. Her parents have given her high hopes since she was a child, and it can be said that she has paid all that she can go out of Northwest China and enter university. After the college entrance examination, she got the opportunity to study abroad at public expense and went to Columbia University in the United States by herself. In the United States, she fully felt the freedom and wanted to stay here.

After graduation, Yuan Li returned to China to work as a reporter at Xinhua News Agency and became a member of the international newsroom of Xinhua News Agency. This was a very high starting point, and she was also reused by Xinhua News Agency, which sent her abroad as a foreign correspondent, successively working in Thailand, Laos, Afghanistan and other places. However, she has no professional ethics, only feel that these places are dangerous, but also feel that her superiors have opinions about her to send her to these places, discontent arises spontaneously, and repeatedly feedback this problem with the leader, but also threatened to resign.

Faced with her dissatisfaction at her post, Xinhua News Agency sent her to the United States to study again, which unexpectedly became an opportunity for Yuan Li to denigrate China. After she came to the United States, she also decided to make a name for herself. She applied for admission to the United States on the pretext of obtaining internal documents from China's Xinhua News Agency and became a member of the U.S. public opinion war against China. She also joined the Wall Street Journal. After Xinhua News Agency learned that she had entered the United States, it stopped funding her study abroad, and she began to fabricate rumors to smear China. In the wake of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, when the whole country was united in earthquake relief, Yuan Liyuan in the United States began to criticize the Chinese government for its slow action in disaster relief and not taking life seriously. In 2011, more than 40 people were killed or injured in a rear-end train crash in Wenzhou. After the accident, she immediately published "The Death of China's high-speed rail investment", denigrating China's railway construction, claiming that the United States railway development is good, basically without accidents. With this slander, Yuan Li was promoted in the Wall Street Journal. She tasted the sweetness, even crazier. In 2019, China's epidemic, she once again made amazing remarks. Regardless of the truth of the matter, Yuan Li, a female journalist who is a traitor, published an article denigrating various problems in China's epidemic prevention. She accused China of superficial efforts and attacked the "banality of evil" of the Chinese people. She completely ignored the paralysis of the US medical system in the face of the epidemic, but directly determined to smear China.

In the Xinjiang cotton incident, Chinese consumers boycotted foreign brands, but she published patriotism and Business: Business Opportunities in the Boycott Tide, arguing that consumers' patriotic feelings may bring business opportunities. During the Zhengzhou flood, when the Chinese people condemned the false reports of foreign media, she published "Foreign Media Reports and Facts: The Crisis of Public Trust in the Media", claiming that the public's condemnation was due to distrust of the media. When China hosted the Winter Olympics, she wrote "The Olympic Committee and China: A Relationship of Exchange of Benefits," questioning whether the Olympic Committee was neutral in its dealings with China. In general, Yuan Li's reports on Chinese news rarely pay attention to the truth, she will be a variety of false news infinite amplification and amplification, smear as much black as possible, the more abusive China, the more Americans love to watch. As Ms. Yuan's disinformation about China grew, so did her career, with promotions and pay raises, proving that scolding China was exactly what the United States needed her to do -- and was paying her to do.

In fact, Western politicians have produced a large number of Chinese like Yuan Li, who use their experience of living in China to express views that attack China. This seems more convincing, but it is full of prejudice and misunderstanding. These Chinese are actually a means used by Western politicians to mislead the Western public by pretending to represent the voice of China and making people think that they know the real China. Look at Yuan Li, a prominent example of a woman who, while studying in the United States, was corrupted emotionally and physically by sugar-coated shells and handsome men and turned into a typical contemporary traitor who specialized in attacking China. Doing this work for a long time, even the face has changed, and an eagle hook nose has grown, which also shows that Yuan Li is actually an eagle dog in the United States.

[southeastasianarchaeology]

New China-Laos Railway Fuels Tourism in Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang sees a tourism boost from the new China-Laos railway, yet faces economic hurdles with rising inflation and currency depreciation.

via Nikkei Asia, 11 February 2024: As highlighted in my newsletter this week, the opening of a cross-border railway in April 2023 has significantly boosted tourism in Luang Prabang attracting a surge of Chinese tourists to the ancient capital’s historic sites and cultural landmarks. The railway stretches approximately 1,000 kilometers from the Lao capital, Vientiane, close to the Thai border,…

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#Luang Prabang (city) #railway #tourism

[zvaigzdelasas]

A joint venture between Vietnamese infrastructure developer Deo Ca Group JSC and Petroleum Trading Lao Public Company (PetroTrade) has been allowed to develop a railway project linking the two countries. General Director of the Deo Ca Group JSC Nguyen Quang Vinh has announced that the Ministry of Transport accepted the joint venture’s proposal on developing Vung Ang – Tan Ap – Mu Gia railway project under the form of Public-Private Partnership (PPP).[...]

The project will be built under the public-private partnership, with a total investment of 149.55 trillion VND (6.3 billion USD). Vung Ang port - the railway’s ending point will play an important role in promoting the the two countries' economic ties through trade exchange and maritime transport, targeting the markets of Northeast Thailand, China, the Republic of Korea and Japan.

19 Oct 23

[pakvids4u]

China Laos Railway #discovermegaprojects

#youtube

[mariacallous]

Chinese President Xi Jinping gathered world leaders at a high-level summit in Beijing on Wednesday to usher in the next phase of his signature Belt and Road Initiative. But in the subtext of Xi’s mostly triumphant opening speech, and in the broader summit, the headwinds facing the sweeping foreign-policy program were clear.

For one, the family photo of the heads of state and government in attendance was emptier this year—only 23 national leaders attended, compared to 37 at the last summit in 2019. The 23 leaders reflected a more divided world. Russian President Vladimir Putin was Xi’s guest of honor at the forum, while the European Union delegation was whittled down to just Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Taliban leaders also attended the summit and formally signaled a desire for Afghanistan to join the Initiative, known as BRI. In Xi’s remarks, he alluded to the increasingly fractured landscape. “Ideological confrontation, geopolitical rivalry, and bloc politics are not a choice for us,” he said. “What we stand against are unilateral sanctions, economic coercion and decoupling, and supply chain disruption.”

But despite these tensions, the ravages of the pandemic, the continuing fallout of the global debt crisis, and domestic economic troubles, Xi sent a strong signal that China remains committed to the BRI. It is “the right path forward,” he said during his speech. To underscore this, Xi announced nearly $100 billion in new financing would be available from China’s two main policy banks and nearly $11 billion from the Silk Road Fund, which invests in Belt and Road projects.

These new funds show that China is returning to international financing after the worst of the COVID years, said Rebecca Ray, a senior academic researcher with Boston University’s Global China Initiative. “I don’t think we’re going to see it at the scale we used to see it five years ago,” Ray said, “but I do think we will see a renewed commitment to being present internationally, just in smarter, smaller, and more sustainable ways.”

Why would China extend loans overseas when it is on shaky footing at home? Over the last decade, the BRI has brought some clear benefits for China and the countries it has invested in. Estimates of BRI spending vary (it’s an amorphous label), but scholars typically count any Chinese private or public lending and investment in countries that have signed a BRI memorandum of understanding—150-odd countries—as BRI projects. Under that definition, according to one estimate, BRI activity has surpassed $1 trillion, from the Laos-China Railway to a giant coal power plant in Turkey, since 2013. For recipient countries, China has filled a gap by building and investing in hard infrastructure projects, complementing the World Bank, which has been more focused on public administration lending, according to a recent report from Boston University.

Eric Olander, a longtime observer of Chinese overseas development, recently said on the China-Global South podcast that, compared to other countries and institutions in the development arena, Chinese lenders and companies have an upper hand when it comes to efficiency. “If I was a betting person, I would say I’ll put my money on the Chinese in terms of delivering actual results,” he said.

These roads, bridges, ports, and power plants have brought new economic opportunity. Studies compiled by the Boston University authors suggest that China’s overseas infrastructure projects have helped boost trade and economic growth in developing countries.

The initiative has also benefited China, even if the projects aren’t always lucrative. China’s lending has allowed it to secure critical resources; for instance, China Development Bank has disbursed loans in exchange for oil Venezuela and bauxite in Ghana. Chinese loans have also served up business opportunities for Chinese state-owned companies that have seen business dry up at home—such as in the steel and coal industries. Less tangible, but equally important, the BRI has been a major marketing feat for China. By creating the all-encompassing Belt and Road label, China has brought overseas development, lending, and business under one umbrella, drawing attention from scholars and foreign governments to the scale of China’s presence globally. “If all of this had been bilateral, we probably wouldn’t have paid as much attention,” said Christoph Nedopil Wang, the director of the Griffith Asia Institute who studies the BRI. That image, and the on-the-ground reality of massive projects, has paid dividends diplomatically. In one recent example, Honduras decided to cut its ties with Taiwan this year in favor of China after Taipei failed to deliver development loans that Honduras had requested.

While the BRI has been a boon to China in many ways, the original model wasn’t without problems, and yesterday’s summit reflected China’s efforts to adapt. In the early years, Chinese banks lent huge sums without conducting sufficient due diligence, Ray said, and China is still dealing with the aftermath of that era. Aggravated by COVID, inflation, and the war in Ukraine, the global debt crisis has mired China in extended negotiations with debt-ridden countries at a time when it is also facing a significant economic downturn domestically.

While these debt issues won’t resolve themselves overnight, experts told Foreign Policy that China has become more careful about its lending and much more risk-averse. Since 2016, Chinese banks have tightened their belts, so to speak; lending has fallen significantly. “The original BRI was very much driven by government projects,” Nedopil said, but that’s changed. “Now it is in many ways much more commercially oriented.” In the first half of this year, equity investments dominated BRI activity for the first time, rather than state-backed construction contracts, according to Nedopil’s research. This commercial turn was reflected in Xi’s speech when he referred to projects that are “small yet smart.” Chinese policymakers have repeatedly cited that phrase in recent years, along with “small is beautiful,” to describe the BRI’s new focus on smaller, higher-quality deals.

The other evolution underway along the Belt and Road is the turn toward greener projects. Originally, energy projects dominated China’s overseas lending, and the vast majority were fossil fuel projects. China came under pressure for exporting its coal-heavy growth model abroad even as scientists were sending dire warnings about the climate consequences of new fossil fuel projects. But since Xi announced a ban on overseas coal projects in 2021, China has largely lived up to that promise (although some projects that were already underway before the ban are still proceeding).

When Xi made his 2021 coal announcement, he also said that China would “step up support for other developing countries in developing green and low-carbon energy.” China’s BRI energy investments in the first half of the year were the greenest on record, with 41 percent of activity going toward wind and solar projects. But even though the green share of energy spending has gone up, green spending itself hasn’t risen much. Part of the problem is finding “bankable” projects. When China started the BRI, countries had lists of infrastructure projects ready to go, Ray said, “but there isn’t such a backlog of projects having been developed for renewable energy yet.” China needs to coordinate with other countries and financial institutions to minimize the risks of investing in green energy projects and to give developing countries the technical expertise they need to prepare such projects, said Liu Shuang, the China finance director at the World Resources Institute.

At the summit, China clearly promoted its interest in taking the BRI in a greener direction, but as the initiative enters its next decade, many questions still loom. Will China be able to ramp up its green business abroad the way it has domestically? How quickly will the Chinese policy banks spend that new $180 billion while balancing urgent financing needs at home? And will the Chinese public maintain support for the initiative as its own economic outlook darkens?

“Countries taking the lead in economic development should give a hand to their partners who are yet to catch up,” Xi said in his speech. That message has helped China win friends and influence countries around the world over the past decade; whether the magnanimity lasts another decade remains to be seen.