China Opens Rare Joint Military Air Facility in Laos, Satellite Images Reveal Scale

China has opened a joint military support and training centre at an airfield in northern Laos, Beijing’s defence ministry announced this week, in a rare expansion of the country’s overseas military footprint, according to Reuters.

The China-Laos Joint Support and Training Center and the China-Laos Friendship Aviation Academy began operations at Ban Keun airport, roughly 50 kilometres north of the Lao capital Vientiane, the ministry said in a statement. It described the facilities as intended to help Laos train its air force pilots, adding that they are “not directed against any third party.”

Beijing offered no details of what personnel, equipment or facilities would be based at the airport, and the Laos foreign ministry did not respond to requests for comment, Reuters reported.

Satellite imagery reviewed by Reuters shows the site was carved from farmland over the past year, with work beginning in late 2025. In place of green fields now stand a large paved runway, a parallel taxiway, an apron and several new buildings, according to the agency’s analysis.

The Institute for the Study of War, in its October 2 China update, described the facility as the first People’s Liberation Army overseas base focused on air power, following naval facilities in Djibouti, opened in 2017, and Cambodia’s Ream naval base. It said the base’s runways extend to roughly 6,562 feet, suitable for People’s Liberation Army Air Force flights.

Rachel Vandenbrink, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, told Reuters the facility could signal the People’s Liberation Army seeking persistent access to a logistics hub that supports forces rotating through Laos.

The opening was attended by Lao Defence Minister Khamlieng Outhakaysone alongside a Chinese military delegation, according to Focus News, which cited AFP. Some records indicate the area was once used by the United States during its war in Laos in the 1960s and 1970s, Reuters reported.

Sources

• Reuters — “China carves new military presence in Southeast Asian neighbour”
• Reuters — “China opens rare joint military support centre in Laos”
• Institute for the Study of War — “China & Taiwan Update, October 2, 2026”