BEIJING/BANGKOK - A China-Laos center that opened last week near Vientiane to train Laotian air force pilots has sparked speculation among observers that it could be used as an overseas Chinese military base.
Beijing said the facility, launched on Sept. 29 at Ban Keun Airport about 50 kilometers north of the Laotian capital, is "not directed against any third party" and "contributes to enhancing practical military cooperation as well as promoting regional peace and stability."
Collin Koh, a security scholar at Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said in an X post on Sept. 29 that the new center in Laos is a "military logistics base" and similar to a Chinese military facility in Djibouti in East Africa.
"It may not be wrong to conclude this is the first full-fledged PLA overseas base in Southeast Asia," Koh said, referring to the Chinese military's official name, the People's Liberation Army.
Satellite imagery reviewed by Reuters has shown that construction work at the Laotian airport began in late 2025 and that the airfield, carved out from a patch of farmland, is now equipped with a large paved runway, a parallel taxiway, apron and a number of new buildings.
Ban Keun Airport was built by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War but is believed to have remained unused until China apparently carried out a major renovation, according to diplomatic sources.
When Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks with his Laotian counterpart Thongloun Sisoulith in Beijing in June, the Chinese leader proposed deeper law enforcement and security cooperation through the establishment of a "three-plus-three" strategic dialogue mechanism involving diplomacy, defense and public security.
Laos, a one-party communist state with a population of some 7.87 million, has been bolstering ties with neighboring China through initiatives including the Belt and Road infrastructure program. A railway connecting the two countries also opened in 2021.
In April last year, China also opened a joint training center with Cambodia, helping an expansion project at the country's Ream Naval Base with direct access to the Gulf of Thailand. Chinese navy vessels continue to visit the base.
