Like, it is considered one of the AES but you virtually never hear anything about it. Last I checked they were busy industrialising the country but that was it.
Monthly Review had an article on Laos a couple months ago: https://monthlyreview.org/2025/04/01/lao-socialism-with-buddhist-characteristics/
Really cool article. Sri lanka has a similar history with Buddhism serving an anti-imperialist role in fostering a national identity distinct from the (in this case, british) colonizers, who tried to impose christianity on them and openly attacked the monasteries for refusing to submit.
Good to know that Marxism and Buddhism can mix, and that buddhism doesn’t have to serve a reactionary role. The heritage of the bhikkhu by Walpola Rahula, one of the most important Buddhist monks of the 20th century, has a good history of the history of Sri Lankan Buddhist nationalism.
Malnutrition has been a big problem there for a while. Not in like a “communism no food” kinda way but in like it’s an actual problem that the government is trying to address. Not sure what progress they’ve made on it really but if anyone has info on recent developments I’d be interested to read it
They got bombed to hell by the US during the Vietnam war, and still have unexploded bombs everywhere. Luckily Vietnam won that war because if they hadnt Laos would have been next to be invaded I’m sure.
Since they are over there next to China, and Vietnam and a member of ASEAN it would be hard for the US to try, and intervene there without China stepping in. So no need for the US to bother doing much propaganda about them. (Or any really). Which explains why most people in the west probably don’t even know they exist, or if they do that they’re communist.
Last i heard they were working with China to industrialize, and cooperating on agricultural development. They export lots of cash crops to China. They also built the 6B$ Laos-China railway a few years ago which has helped a lot in getting them more connected to the world. A lot of people there are very poor. So hopefully with closer ties to China they can be lifted out of that within a decade or so. Nothing too flashy going on, but they’re on the path to better conditions. Let’s hope they can keep it up, and nobody tries to mess with them.
You will likely never hear from an actual Laotian, nobody there speaks English, I believe it’s one of the least English proficient places on earth. And on online forums like this, all you’ll get are history lessons and economic speculation from outsiders, unfortunately. No clue how things are on the ground there.
nobody there speaks English
Based
Laos foreign minister just visited Russian foreign minister to commemorate their 65 years of diplomatic ties
I was actually curious if Russia had diplomatic relations with Laos, I hope it get stronger in a good way, alongside China of course.
One recent article I read was about how Vietnamese and Chinese businesses have being coming to into Laos to set up plantations to export China and causing it to become one of the country with the highest deforestation rate.
This site compile articles on Laos both original and from other new sources if you want to read (including RFA
)“Please live in abject poverty amongst the trees to protect us first world countries from global warming!” is the impression I get from these kinds of articles.
