Chinese Development in Late-Socialist Laos

Negotiating Debt and Desire

Phill Wilcox

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English

Routledge
16 October 2025

Regional studies; Development studies; Anthropology; International relations; Political economy

Series: Routledge Research on Asian Development

This book uses the case of Chinese development in Laos to ask what development is and why it happens as it does.

Development may seem self-evidently positive, but it is fraught with different agendas and seemingly competing visions of what so-called developing countries should become and how they should get there. As a country soon to graduate from Least Developed Country status as defined by the United Nations, Laos is a rich case study for considering the shifting drivers and priorities for development. This book considers how the rapid arrival of China has brought visions of development which converge and contest what has gone before, and how these inform individual and collective aspirations on the ground in Laos. This book starts by situating China’s Belt and Road Initiative and development priorities, before going on to consider what the rise of China in Laos really means for agendas of change and for individual aspirations. This book concludes that China is changing ideas of future making and visions of what a developed society looks like, but not yet altering a long-standing preoccupation with the very notion of development itself. Based on many years of original on the ground research in Laos, this book moves beyond macro scholarship on China’s influence to provide a nuanced picture of what Global China means and what development, aspiration, and future building mean in a changing Laos.

It will be a thought-provoking read for researchers across the fields of global development and Asian studies.

By: Phill Wilcox
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
Weight: 500g
ISBN: 9781041080657
ISBN 10: 1041080654
Series: Routledge Research on Asian Development
Pages: 156
Publication Date: 16 October 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Preface Map 0.1: Map of LaosMap 0.2: Map of the Laos-China Railway in Laos showing the route with the major stations Part One: The inevitability and allure of development Chapter 1: Introduction: development as (a) given Chapter 2: “Development is roads”, infrastructures, desires, and debts Part Two: Land and (im)mobility Chapter 3: Development means change: ambivalent (and inevitable) encounters with China Chapter 4: Express train to the good life: all aboard the Laos-China Railway Part Three: Aspiring (with) China Chapter 5: Making aspirations move: future building in a changing Laos Chapter 6: “They cannot buy the land, but they will own the land”: coming to terms with China in Laos Conclusion Chapter 7: Conclusion: future building: possibility, pragmatism, and price

Phill Wilcox is Research Associate in Social Anthropology at the Faculty of Sociology, Bielefeld University, Germany.

Reviews for Chinese Development in Late-Socialist Laos: Negotiating Debt and Desire

“Ostensibly, this is a book about Laos and China. But it is more than this. Phill Wilcox has written a book about the idea of development, and how it has colonised the space of Laos, the minds of its inhabitants, and the actions of its government. She does this from the ground up, as she puts it, and with China as the key agent of contemporary change. Importantly, Wilcox addresses the question of what the rise of China in the world means for low-income countries like Laos, and she does this with verve. This book represents an engaging and important addition to the literature.” Jonathan Rigg FBA, Professor of Human Geography, University of Bristol, UK