Proyek Tiongkok-Laos Railway

Ancaman Debt-Trap Diplomacy Tiongkok Bagi Laos

Authors

  • Gidion Martins Daud
  • Tulus Yuniasih

Keywords:

Belt and Road Initiative, China-Laos Railway, debt-trap diplomacy, structural power, China, Lao

Abstract

This research discusses the potential debt-trap as a threat for Lao PDR, within China's diplomacy in their development cooperation for China-Lao Railway. The discourse of China's debt-trap diplomacy has been analyzed among international relations scholars, especially its relevancy with her Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) framework. China's cooperation projects with countries worldwide under BRI are seen as containing debt-trap character due to its funding scheme that is considered as unsustainable debt. This leads the debtor to experience payment difficulties and thus compromise her strategic national assets as collateral. Therefore, this qualitative research aims to describe the China-Lao Railway project as one of the development projects under the cooperation between two countries, to explain the characteristic of China's debt-trap diplomacy, and mainly focuses to analyze the potential threat coming from this project viewed as potential debt-trap diplomacy. This research uses debt-trap diplomacy concept and structural power theory in analyzing the secondary data. The result shows that TLR creates and strengthens China's structural power over Lao PDR in finance, transportation, and welfare. Especially in the financial aspect, the established structural power potentially builds unsustainable debt for Lao PDR.

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Published

2022-01-06

How to Cite

Daud, G. M., & Yuniasih, T. (2022). Proyek Tiongkok-Laos Railway: Ancaman Debt-Trap Diplomacy Tiongkok Bagi Laos. Balcony, 5(2), 147–164. Retrieved from https://jom.fisip.budiluhur.ac.id/index.php/balcony/article/view/257

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