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BANGKOK — China has opened a foreign air force support center and is training pilots in Communist Laos — the latest thrust south by Beijing’s military, which is already training the armed forces of other Southeast Asian nations.
The location China chose in Laos was the CIA’s former “secret war” Lima Site 44, an isolated airstrip that played a key role in U.S. covert operations in Laos during the Vietnam War era more than 50 years ago.
The China-Laos Joint Support and Training Center reportedly does not include a Chinese garrison or exclusive use rights and “is not directed against any third party,” according to the Chinese Defense Ministry.
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Chinese engineers laid fresh concrete over Lima Site 44’s rustic, red-dirt airstrip during the past year to create a functioning airport with an expanded, durable runway and parallel taxiway and apron.
The new airport is in Ban Keun town, near the narrow Nam Ngum River, in hilly, sparsely populated terrain, 27 miles north of the Laotian capital, Vientiane.
The China-Laos Center began operating at the site Thursday from a newly built three-story headquarters featuring dozens of air-conditioned rooms, rooftop lookout platforms, telecommunications equipment and the flags of both nations.
Laotian Defense Minister Khamlieng Outhakaysone, Chinese People’s Liberation Army officials and representatives of the China-Laos Friendship Aviation Academy inaugurated the jointly operated center.
“The center deepens practical exchanges between the two militaries, upgrading from simple equipment assistance to long-term integrated cooperation in talent training, joint exercises and equipment support,” China’s government-controlled Global Times reported.
It could also help maintain stability across the Indochina Peninsula and the Mekong River region by enabling both sides to conduct joint search-and-rescue, border control, and disaster relief aviation drills. “The center could help Laos build a systematic talent training system for pilots, ground crew and flight personnel, reducing its reliance on overseas training,” a Chinese military expert told the state-run Global Times.
Laos has a tiny air force ill-equipped for warfare, analysts say.
The Laotian People’s Liberation Army Air Force operates a fleet of fewer than 40 older Chinese and Russian aircraft, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported, “mainly transport helicopters and light jet trainers, with no modern fighter jets in service.”
The renovated airstrip reportedly can support only light transport and trainer planes.
Laos has good relations with all its bordering neighbors — China, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam — but some analysts have suggested that China’s influence in Laos’ military is a pushback against Vietnam’s decades of involvement in running the Laotian government.
China has also been training Cambodia’s air, sea and land forces in annual bilateral Golden Dragon exercises for several years.
In Thailand, China trained the army, marine corps, air force and even an aerobatic team to create colored smoke trails portraying Thailand’s red, white and blue flag.
Chinese and Thai jet fighters trained for “joint air defense and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief” during air force exercises in Thailand in August.
A separate Blue Strike series of naval exercises by China and Thailand focuses on counterterrorism and disaster relief, joint maritime assaults, sniper fire, deep scuba dives and open-water survival.
Myanmar, which is geographically larger than Laos, has also engaged with China in low-key “maritime security exercises.”
The junta running Myanmar seized power in a 2021 coup and relies on Chinese aircraft, drones, military technology and training against pro-democracy and separatist insurgents.
Beijing hopes a China-Myanmar Economic Corridor will give China’s landlocked Yunnan province a southern route across Myanmar to the Bay of Bengal.
That would enable China to skip a longer southern route through the Strait of Malacca when importing oil from the Middle East.
China’s military relations with Vietnam, meanwhile, completely flipped during the past 47 years.
In 1979, China invaded northern Vietnam but withdrew after three weeks in a widely perceived defeat — its supply lines stretched and its forces facing stiff resistance from Vietnamese militia and border troops.
Today, the two communist countries conduct joint army training along their mountainous border and also joint maritime exercises.
The 40th joint naval patrol in the Gulf of Tonkin over two days in March included anti-piracy assaults with artillery and machine guns, search-and-rescue drills and intelligence sharing.
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