This is the fifth in a series of articles that looks at China’s borders. As China has grown in the last 30 years, so have the often complicated relationships it has with its many varied neighbors. In this article, we take a look at Laos.

By Andy Scott

VIENTIANE, Laos, Jan. 23 – The Lao call them Jin, and since the late 1800s when groups of marauding Chinese on horseback called Haw Jin first arrived, they have been coming into Laos in search of fortune.

Southeast Asia has long had Chinese immigrants, and from Thailand and Singapore to Indonesia and the Philippines, many of the region’s wealthiest and most powerful families trace their ancestry back to the mainland. Former Thai Prime Minster Thaksin Shinawatra and former Philippine President Corazon Aquino are just two example of this. While nationalism has hindered many of Chinese descent in countries like Malaysia and Indonesia from taking office, they long ago became the de facto merchants and bankers of the region.

Today, a new wave of Chinese immigrants is flooding south. Far from the rich and powerful families that preceded them, these Chinese come from the country’s interior, a location that has missed much of the economic transformation of China’s eastern coast. These cooks, laborers, merchants and tourists are leaving behind their economically depressed regions, often for destinations even poorer. Continue reading →

This is the fourth in a series of articles that looks at China’s borders. As China has grown in the last 30 years, so have the often complicated relationships it has with its many varied neighbors. In this article, we take a look at Laos.

By Andy Scott

VIENTIANE, Laos, Jan. 17 – Trade between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations has boomed in the past 15 years, growing more than 20 percent a year and reaching US$202.5 billion in 2007. The two sides are each other’s fourth-largest trading partners. When completed, the China-ASEAN FTA will be the world’s largest, encompassing around 1.7 billion consumers and with total trade estimated at US$1.2 trillion.

Much of that trade is dependent on a modern highway system throughout the region, but so far, the dream of a connected Southeast Asia is still just that. The infrastructure has yet to catch up with hard economic reality.

To see the challenge set out, one only needs to board a bus in Kunming, bound for the border. At the first gas station south of Kunming, trucks and buses wait to fill their tanks for the journey. The road, four divided lanes of limited-access black asphalt, cuts through mountains and across valleys, at one moment soaring almost above the clouds, the next in a deep ravine. The Kunming-Jinghong Highway is as much a testament to China’s rise as the Three Gorges Damn or the city of Shenzhen. Continue reading →

This is the third in a series of articles that looks at China’s borders. As China has grown in the last 30 years, so have the often complicated relationships it has with its many varied neighbors. In this article, we take a look at Mongolia.

By Joyce Roque

Jan. 8 – Through much of its history, Mongolia had been subject to the whims of its two giant neighbors. A country of vast, grassy steppes spanning 1,564,100 sq. km and wedged between Russia to its north and China to the south, Mongolia was home toGenghis Khan, the great Mongol warrior who unified the country’s many tribes and conquered much of Asia in the 12th century. The Mongolian Empire reached as far west as Egypt and but following the death of Kublai Khan, it went into sharp decline and China and Russia began to reassert their influence over the land-locked country. China successfully invaded Mongolia the Ming Dynasty and following World War II, Mongolia became a vassal of “big brother” Soviet Russia as its 16th satellite republic.

Today, Mongolia’s neighbors are again playing a vital role in the present and future of the country. Russia is the country’s top importer while China dominates its export market, accounting for 71.8 percent of all exports. Continue reading →