Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Communist China's Policy Toward Laos: A Case Study, 1954-67

1972; American Oriental Society; Volume: 92; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/600041

2169-2289

Alan P. L. Liu, Chae-jin Lee,

Cambodian History and Society

This diversity of ethnic, linguistic, and religious backgrounds, coupled with the virtual absence of modern mass communication media, makes national unity extremely difficult.It is questionable indeed whether Laos, even in the most favorable external circumstances, can constitute a viable and independent political system.Under the constitutional monarchy the King, who resides in the royal capital of Luang Prabang, reigns with the assistance of the 12-member King's Council, but he seldom rules the country.The Prime Minister, appointed by the King with the approval of the popularly elected National Assembly, leads the Council of Ministers at the administrative capital of Vientiane.Nevertheless a small group of French-educated aristocrats, bureaucrats, merchants, and military officers has effectively monopolized Laos' political life for many years. 3 A considerable gap in social prestige and political orientation separates the urbanized elite from the populace in general.This separation is reinforced by weak national consciousness, poor communication systems, and lack of education in rural areas.The limitations on social mobility and political recruitment serve to perpetuate the elitist nature of Laos' political processes and to intensify the sense of alienation among ethnic minorities.The exclusive ruling group, however, is divided into competitive factions mainly along the lines of princely families and vague ideological inclinations.For the past two decades instability caused by factional struggles has marked Laos' politics.Political parties are also based upon personal loyalties and factional differences with the possible exception of the Neo Lao Haksat, a political wing of the Pathet Lao movement, which has attempted to transcend factionalism and to establish a mass party.The long history of Laos is full of tragedies of internal strife and external aggression.An independent Laos was first set up in 1353, under the name of Lan Xang or Lan Ch'ang (Land of a Million Elephants).In the seventeenth century, however, it disintegrated into three principalities-Luang Prabang, Vientiane, and Champassak.Early historical experiences of Laos make it abundantly clear that the requirements for an independent and unified Laos are (1) the presence of an energetic and powerful ruler who can secure the allegiance of centrifugal social forces and (2) the existence of international checks and balances which can permit the political freedom of Laos.viii The expansion of French colonial power into Asia gradually brought these Lao principalities under its control in the later nineteenth century; first, France installed a vice-consulate at Luang Prabang after the 1885 agreement with Siam (Thailand), which had maintained de facto control over Laos since early nineteenth century; second, Laos became a French protectorate according to the 1893 Franco-Siamese treaty, which was concluded under the threat of French power.The French colonial policy, which was carried out by the Resident Superieur in Vientiane, did not recognize the economic and political potential of Laos, which consequently remained the least exploited country of Indo-China.Under this alien domination King Sisavang Vong of Luang Prabang could nominally unify the other principalities and provinces, but obviously without independent power of his own. 4 During and after the Second World War Laos experienced a series of instances of foreign interference; Japanese invasion (March-August, 1945), Nationalist Chinese occupation (late 1945), and French reoccupation (1946).The resumed French colonial authority was immediately challenged politically and militarily by the Lao Issara (Free Laos) movement under the leadership of Princes (and brothers) Phetsarath, Souvanna Phouma, and Souphanouvong.The mounting pressures of nationalism and decolonization in post-war Asia compelled France to take measures for granting Laos its full independence and sovereignty: first, King Sisavang Vong obtained domestic political autonomy for Laos in August, 1946; second, he gained an independent status within the French Union in the General Franco-Laotian Convention of July, 1949.Satisfied with this French concession, the moderate Lao Issara leaders headed by Souvanna Phouma dissolved their government-in-exile in Bangkok in October, 1949, and returned to Vientiane one month later.But Prince Souphanouvong, inspired by Ho Chi Minh's revolutionary ideals and assisted by Viet Minh cadres in Laos, refused to join the moderate nationalists; instead, he organized a "national resistance government" in August, 1950, and launched the Pathet Lao movement with the blessings of Vietnamese and Chinese Communists.Into these historical circumstances was injected the highly unsettling influence of the world-wide cold-war conflict.The strategic and symbolic significance of Laos in cold-war politics ix stems mainly from the geopolitical fact that it shares a long and unstable borderline with six countries in the Southeast Asian Peninsula: 263 miles with China's southwestern province of Yunnan, 818 miles with North Vietnam, 277 miles with Cambodia, 146 miles with Burma, 301 miles with South Vietnam, and 1,090 miles with Thailand, including over 500 miles along the Mekong River.As its primary routes of access to the outside world are by way of Bangkok, Saigon, Hanoi, and Phnom Penh, Laos' very survival depends upon political developments in its immediate neighbors.The Sino-Laotian frontier, demarcated at the end of nineteenth century, runs through rugged mountains and forests where a number of uncontrolled ethnic minorities-such as Chinese-influenced Meo and Yao-straddle the boundary.Apropos of the frontier problem we may note that Liu Pei-hua's controversial Brief History of Modern China, published in Peking in 1952, included Laos, together with Vietnam, Cambodia, Burma, Malaya, and Korea, in the "Chinese territories taken by the imperialists in the Old Democratic Revolutionary Era (1840-1919) .