Laos: On the Borders of the Empire

We investigate China's rising influence in Laos and the potentially disastrous consequences for the local population.

Mandarin is the language of choice among its residents and on its street signs and advertising hoardings; clocks are set to Beijing time in homes, stores and even municipal buildings; and the Yuan is by far and away the most common currency.

Any overseas visitors dropping in to Ton Pheung could be excused for thinking themselves in China - albeit a slightly raunchy theme-park version with an unusual preponderance of massage parlours and nightclubs along its streets.

But Ton Pheung is actually in the far northwest of communist Laos - on the border with China, but still in name, if increasingly not in reality, a sovereign district of the Lao People's Democratic Republic.