On 10 February, Global Times, the popular offshoot of People’s Daily, published an article purportedly from a Korean newspaper, Hankuk Kyonggi. The article claims that there are now 800 thousand Chinese (Zhongguoren) in Laos and quotes Korean entrepreneurs who complain that despite all their efforts at obtaining contracts such as for hydropower stations, and attribute the sucess of Chinese companies to the successful diplomacy of the Chinese government.
Korean companies in Laos and Cambodia have been heavily involved in real estate development and have obtained a large land concession for a golf course outside Luang Prabang. Although many Lao NGO activists I spoke to describe the methods of Korean companies as similar to their Chinese counterparts, these have not aroused the ccontroversy that Chinese projects have.
