China promises Laos more in move to expand influence
China promises Laos more in move to expand influence
VIENTIANE (AFP): Chinese President Jiang Zemin promised Laos more economic assistance on Sunday as he sought to consolidate Beijing's growing influence here with a first-ever state visit.
Officials declined to put a figure on the new package for China's impoverished southern neighbor and gave few details of what it would comprise.
But it is the latest addition to a growing volume of Chinese aid and investments here as Beijing moves to expand its influence in a country long dominated by communist rival Hanoi.
"The Chinese side is going to provide assistance to the Lao side within its capacity," foreign ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao told reporters after Jiang's talks with Lao leaders. "I know the figure, but unfortunately I have not been authorized to tell you the number."
Zhu said the package would include a new hospital and increased assistance in the agriculture and forestry sectors but gave few other details.
Lao officials credit Beijing with saving the economy from the currency freefall and spiraling inflation that followed the regional economic crisis of 1997-8.
When inflation soared towards 200 percent last year, Beijing provided a package of interest-free loans and export guarantees that helped stabilize the Lao kip and brought inflation down to some 30 percent.
But the mounting economic leverage of China here has not yet succeeded in supplanting Vietnam's longstanding position as Laos's main political and security ally, diplomats say.
Laos remains bound to Vietnam by a 25-year Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation which it signed in 1977 and diplomats say that it is still Hanoi that the communist authorities here turn to in times of dire need.
When rebels from the Hmong minority launched a major dry- season offensive in the northern mountains earlier this year, leaving the Lao army reeling, Vientiane secured the intervention of Vietnamese combat troops for the first time since the 1980s, they said.
Beijing's new diplomatic push here has not gone unnoticed by Hanoi -- Jiang arrived hot on the heels of Vietnamese Foreign Minister Nguen Dy Nien who flew in for a gathering of Asian ministers Thursday.
Nien joined Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh and ministers from Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand in launching a new Ganges-Mekong Cooperation grouping Friday which analysts saw as an effort to further engage New Delhi in the region as a counterbalance to Beijing.
Zhu insisted China had no objection to Laos developing its relations with any other country. "China is ... glad to see that Laos is increasing its contacts and exchanges with other countries," he said.
Lao leaders had even told Jiang that his visit had "helped Laos to develop its contacts with other parts of the world."
Zhu expressed outrage at the suggestion by some analysts that mounting divisions within the Lao regime between pro-Beijing and pro-Hanoi factions were responsible for a mystery seven-month-old bombing campaign which has wounded more than 40 people.
"I don't think that such finger-pointing at China is suitable," he said. "If observers want to think that way, I have no comment on it."
Security remained tight for Jiang's visit after the latest bombing wounded five people at the airport Thursday, according to an official toll.
Armed police blocked off the main avenue along the back of the presidential palace as well as streets around the city center hotel where other members of the Chinese delegation were staying, an AFP correspondent saw.
But Zhu insisted that controlling unrest remained one of the big achievements of the communist authorities here. "Laos has successfully maintained social stability," the Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said.