What happens when you fail to pay back loans to western companies? "oh no worries, we'll just write it off and you keep all your assets"?

This handwringing on stuff like this is fairly transparent.

The success story is Laos, a shit tier landlocked country with no development prospects has defied all sense, roughly parallelling trajectory per capita GDP growth with booming Vietnam next door, who has the option of replicating maritime export led growth. There's no reason Laos should be doing better than Cambodia unless prudently aligning with PRC interests.

Laos' only short/medium term potential on her own is digging rocks or low end labour. But with PRC assistance, Laos can also become trail transit hub linking region and become energy exporter (battery of IndoChina) by having the privilege/permission as first downstream Mekong country that can harness left over hydropower, using infra PRC built. And obviously serving as PRC proxy or ceding sovereignty of control over said power network to allow PRC to influnece region via electricity and water. For landlocked Laos, that's about as, in PRC parlance, "win-win" as it gets.

Yes, Chinese workers but work still gets done. This isn't a developed nation, perhaps if the west is willing to do business your comment and sentiment has validity but sitting at Chinese workers and Chinese debt us better than sitting at a distance and pitying those poor people and occasionally tossing charity their way.

Perhaps instead of criticizing China you should criticize the west for not besting China? Why isn't europe doing this, afterall they are the final destination of the belt road and they get a ton of stuff from China and can benefit to trade with the rest of asia? IMF and worldbank also hold a ton of debt on developing countries. I mean, I like to think I am the last person to support the CCP but bullshit is bullshit!

> employ imported Chinese workers

Isn't what you quoted contradicted this? Jua is not a Chinese name.

It's a Chinese invasion in slow motion. The same as Africa.

One day, these people will wake up and realise that they're second class citizens in someone else's country.

Forget about failing to pay loans. If the place is financially successful and lots of Chinese have interests there, the CCP will just declare it's Chinese.

Straight from the Russia playbook.