China’s air force seems to have found its first foothold in mainland Southeast Asia, in Beijing’s new outpost in Laos. The base at Ban Keun, located about 65 kilometres north of the capital Vientiane and just 40 kilometres from the nearest border with Thailand, was once a Vietnam-era CIA airfield.
It was jointly developed by China and Pakistan and is exported to other militaries. Singapore-based security analysts Collin Koh and Alexander Neill, as well as Vantor specialists, said the planes appeared to be Hongdu JL-8 aircraft, which both the Chinese and Lao air forces operate. The two-seater aircraft, also known as the K-8, extensively serves both training purposes and light attack capabilities.
The China-Laos joint training facility began operations last month, according to an announcement from China’s Defence Ministry. The base is “designed to help Laos strengthen the training and development of its air force pilots and will be jointly maintained by both sides,” the ministry statement said. Laos currently has four of the planes, according to the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies’ annual assessment of the world’s militaries. Koh, a scholar at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, described the Laotian planes as being of “questionable serviceability”.
Rachel Vandenbrink, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, told Reuters that the selection of Ban Keun for a facility that the People’s Liberation Army could access “is likely more about a target of opportunity than filling an obvious operational need. “Laos does have some geostrategic value as an accessible foothold in mainland Southeast Asia, given its shared border with China and infrastructure links, including (its) railway,” Vandenbrink said. “It looks like the airfield has been engineered to accommodate a runway extension, allowing larger aircraft to operate,” he said. During the US war against communist forces in Laos in the 1970s, Ban Keun was an airfield known as “Lima Site 44” used by Air America, an airline discreetly owned by the Central Intelligence Agency, according to records shared with Reuters by Ryan Wolfson-Ford, a Southeast Asia specialist at the Library of Congress. China’s defence ministry said the facilities would help Laos train and develop its air force pilots and would be jointly maintained by the two countries. Earlier reporting noted: China’s defence ministry said the facilities were “not directed against any third party and are conducive to further strengthening practical cooperation between the two militaries and maintaining regional peace and stability. Earlier reporting noted: Its transformation into a Chinese military facility carries historical significance, although analysts cited in the report said it does not indicate a major shift in the US-China military balance.
Earlier reporting noted: The outpost comprises the China-Laos Joint Support and Training Center at Ban Keun Airport and the China-Laos Friendship Aviation Academy.
