China Expands Military Reach With First Overseas Air Base in Laos, Analysts Say
China's opening of a joint flight training and support center in Laos marks what analysts call its first overseas air force facility and signals that Beijing's foreign military footprint is likely to expand.
The Joint Flight Training and Support Center at Ban Keun airfield, north of the Laotian capital Vientiane, was inaugurated this week. The two communist governments say it is intended to train Laotian air force pilots. China's defense ministry said the site will be maintained for normal operations by both sides and does not target any third party.
Analysts see a broader message. Joshua Kurlantzick, a Southeast Asia expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, called the facility the first air force base China has abroad. He told AFP that more are likely to follow, both in the region and in other countries friendly to Beijing, as China experiments with how to run an air base beyond its borders. China is not building one base in Laos and stopping, he said.
A widening military map
Beijing has long sought to increase its influence across the Asia-Pacific, competing with Washington and its allies over vital shipping lanes and undersea resource exploration, including in the disputed South China Sea. Under President Xi Jinping, the world's second-largest economy has pushed to modernize its military, increasing defense spending and pressure on Taiwan, which Beijing claims.
Until now, China's installations abroad have been primarily naval. Its first overseas base opened in 2017 in Djibouti, an East African nation strategically positioned near the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. That site has been expanded to include a sophisticated signals intelligence facility, prompting France and the United States to consider moving their own Djibouti bases to avoid Chinese intercepts, according to Kurlantzick.
China has also funded upgrades to Cambodia's Ream naval base, located on the Gulf of Thailand. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet and a Chinese military delegation inaugurated a joint logistics and training center there last year. Washington says the base, which was originally built partly with U.S. funding, could give Beijing a strategic position near the South China Sea. Two Chinese anti-submarine corvettes have docked at its port for long stretches, though U.S. and Japanese vessels have also made port calls since the base was revamped.
Training today, presence tomorrow?
Security researcher Collin Koh said China, Laos's largest creditor, is trying to show it can extend itself through defense diplomacy, at least with amenable countries. Training Laotian pilots would require China to place military assets in Laos, whether modest transport aircraft or modern fighter jets. From training, then you have a Chinese military presence, Koh said.
By contrast, the Laos center will likely be used exclusively by the Laotian and Chinese militaries, Koh said. Ban Keun could serve as a convenient stopover for China's air force, and Chinese personnel may be stationed there, he added. We cannot discount the deployment of combat assets in the area in the name of training the Laotian air force, he said.
Neither government has released details about the personnel or military hardware to be based at the site.
Watching for signs of buildup
China spends about a third of what the United States spends on its military, according to the SIPRI Military Expenditure Database, and its foreign military footprint remains far smaller than that of the United States, which operates several hundred bases worldwide.
The U.S. Defense Department said last year that Beijing had likely considered establishing military facilities in around 20 countries, mostly in Africa and Asia — not including Laos. The United States and regional partners such as Vietnam and Thailand will be watching closely for signs of a military buildup.
Asia military specialist Carl Thayer warned against alarmism, noting that the Ban Keun site can currently support only light aircraft and military trainers. It is unclear whether any Chinese military presence in Laos would be permanent or well-equipped, he said. You have China's advancement, he added, but it is not a crisis at the moment. It is not Djibouti, it is not Ream, but it marks a change.
What Laos gets
For underdeveloped Laos, the new joint facility offers military training and equipment, financial incentives and even stronger ties with Beijing, analysts say. The benefit for Laos is it keeps China happy, Kurlantzick said.
The opening may not transform the regional balance on its own. But it adds another marker of China's growing willingness to project military influence abroad — and a reminder that its next foothold may not look like a traditional base at all.