In the shadowy war between Laotian government forces and Communist Pathet Lao guerrillas, China has so far stayed clear of the actual fighting. Peking, however, has launched a different sort of invasion against its diminutive neighbor to the south—one that may prove to be every bit as troublesome. Last year some 3,000 Chinese road builders moved across the border of China's Yunnan province into northern Laos. By the time the monsoon rains began last spring, the Chinese had pushed a gravel-topped all-weather road 55 miles south as far as Muong Sai, a...
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