IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/h/spr/sprchp/978-3-031-08526-0_9.html
   My bibliography  Save this book chapter

Consolidating Lao-ness: China in Laos in the Age of the BRI

In: New Nationalisms and China's Belt and Road Initiative

Author

Listed:
  • Phill Wilcox

    (Bielefeld University)

Abstract

The rising presence of China in Laos is a very visible and potent force of change throughout the country. Until recently, this was consolidated largely in areas along the Lao-China border but is now visible throughout the country and particularly in Lao cities. This is particularly so since China embarked on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which has brought China closer to Laos, metaphorically and literally. This chapter argues that the rising presence of China in Laos has also entrenched a sense of Lao-ness. Laos is one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the world, which has existed in its current form only since 1975 and has a weak sense of national consciousness. This chapter contends that the issue of China in Laos is a significant and rare driver of national unity across the Lao population. This is something on which many Lao people have opinions and/or concerns and produces a sense of we-ness or togetherness as citizens of Laos amongst an otherwise disparate population.

Suggested Citation

  • Phill Wilcox, 2022. "Consolidating Lao-ness: China in Laos in the Age of the BRI," Springer Books, in: Julien Rajaoson & R. Mireille Manga Edimo (ed.), New Nationalisms and China's Belt and Road Initiative, chapter 0, pages 117-128, Springer.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-031-08526-0_9
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-08526-0_9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    China; Laos; BRI; Nationalism;
    All these keywords.

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-031-08526-0_9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.