Sept 30 (Reuters) - China’s latest expansion of its overseas military footprint was carved from a patch of farmland in Laos over the past year, satellite imagery showed, as analysts said the new support centre could deepen Beijing's presence in Southeast Asia.
The China-Laos Joint Support and Training Center and the China-Laos Friendship Aviation Academy are now operational at an airport in Ban Keun, some 50 km (31 miles) north of the Lao capital Vientiane, Beijing's Ministry of National Defence said on Tuesday.
"The fact that this is a joint support and training centre suggests (China's People's Liberation Army) could be seeking persistent access to a logistics hub that can support forces rotating through Laos, perhaps with a small forward support element," said Rachel Vandenbrink, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
Some records indicate the area was once used by the United States during its war in Laos and neighbouring Vietnam and Cambodia in the 1960s and 1970s. But commercial satellite imagery reviewed by Reuters shows the new construction goes far beyond the rough dirt strip visible until last year.
Work began on the new airfield in late 2025, according to the satellite imagery. As of early this month work was ongoing. In place of green fields, a large paved runway and a parallel taxiway and apron were visible, along with a number of new buildings.
The Laos Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to questions, and China's statement did not provide details of what personnel, equipment or facilities would be based at the airport.
The facility will be used for training air force pilots and was "not directed against any third party," the Chinese defence ministry said.
China operates another joint training and support centre at Cambodia's Ream naval base on the Gulf of Thailand, and a logistics base in Djibouti. Cambodia says no Chinese personnel or warships are based permanently at Ream.
"Unlike Ream Naval Base, this military logistics base in Laos is more ostensibly similar to the one in Djibouti," Collin Koh, a security scholar at Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, wrote in a post on the social media platform X. "It may not be wrong to conclude this is the first full-fledged PLA overseas base in Southeast Asia."
DEEPER TIES
Laos, an impoverished one-party state ruled by the Lao People's Revolutionary Party, has a long and complex history with its fellow communist neighbours in China and Vietnam.
Its air force is small and operates a handful of aircraft designed by China and Russia.
Lao troops have typically needed to travel to Vietnam, Russia, and China for advanced training, but now some can be trained at home, said a diplomat from a Southeast Asian country who spoke on condition of anonymity.
China has been expanding its military presence across the region, the diplomat added, citing a joint munitions factory in Indonesia.
Laos has carried out joint military exercises with China, including one aimed at humanitarian response this month. In June, Lao President Thongloun Sisoulith visited Beijing for meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who called for a strategic dialogue on a number of issues including national defence.
The United States, which operates an expansive network of its own overseas bases, has watched Chinese moves with suspicion. Last year the Pentagon issued an annual report that listed 22 countries where Beijing had plans for military facilities, though Laos was not among them.
Thailand, a U.S. treaty ally that shares a long border with Laos, considers itself a close partner of both Laos and China and sees it as Vientiane's sovereign right to decide whether to grant permission for a Chinese base, said Rear Admiral Surasant Kongsiri, Thailand's Ministry of Defence spokesperson.
"Nevertheless, Thailand will continue to closely monitor developments and how the matter proceeds, particularly with regard to building mutual trust," he added.
Regional military attaches and analysts have long said China lacks an adequate network of military bases given its ongoing military modernisation and perceived need to project power to compete with the US.
Vandenbrink said it was unclear what military power China could project from Laos that it could not already do from its own southern province of Yunnan.
"At Ban Keun, the more immediate significance may be China's ability to establish a persistent military presence and deepen its institutional relationship with the Lao armed forces," she said.
EXPANDING PRESENCE
China opened its Djibouti base in 2017 and has been gradually expanding its presence with extensive ship berthing and surveillance capabilities. The Pentagon has previously estimated it held 400 Marines.
Though extensive, the facility is surrounded by bases from other militaries, including Japan and the US.
Beyond Djibouti and Cambodia, China also has three island bases — complete with military-grade runways 3 km long — on Fiery Cross, Mischief and Subi reefs in the Spratly islands of the disputed South China Sea.
Developed since 2014, the facilities now contain wharves, extensive surveillance and air defence installations as well as housing.
Military attaches say the bases have allowed China to significantly expand its naval, coast guard and fishing militia deployments deep into the maritime heart of Southeast Asia. So far, however, it has yet to base jet fighters permanently in the Spratlys, possibly due to the harsh maritime environment.
Reuters in August and last month reported fresh work on what are expected to be extensive new bases in the Paracel archipelago further north, which is also claimed by Vietnam.
(Reporting by Poppy McPherson and Josh Smith in Bangkok and Greg Torode in Hong Kong; Additional reporting by Panu Wongcha-um in Bangkok, Mei Mei Chu and Liz Lee in Beijing; Writing by Josh Smith; Editing by Kate Mayberry)
