China opens joint airfield in Laos with eyes on its military role

BANGKOK -- China's new airfield in Laos is a work in progress, with satellite imagery showing many areas where construction appeared to be ongoing even as it was officially opened at a September ceremony. The airport jointly run with Laos is China's first military facility abroad focused on air power and the latest project in Beijing's efforts to project force beyond its borders, which includes a base in Djibouti, the Ream naval facility in Cambodia, the rapid militarization and expansion of islands in the South China sea and a growing carrier fleet.Neighbors of Laos, a poor and landlocked Southeast Asian nation of about 8 million people, and defense experts are now keeping a close eye on the airport, less for what it currently is, but what it might become.Like the Ream navy base in Cambodia, the Ban Keun airport, which is about 50 kilometers (31 miles) north of the Laotian capital Vientiane and the Thai border, doesn't “radically alter any balance of power or give China much ability to project force toward the Strait of Malacca that it doesn't already have,” said Greg Poling, director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studie...