The poor, small Southeast Asian country of Laos is set to cede majority control of its electric grid to a Chinese company, as it struggles to stave off a potential debt default, people with direct knowledge of the agreement said. The deal comes at a time when critics accuse Beijing of “debt trap diplomacy” to gain strategic advantage in countries struggling to repay loans taken out under President Xi Jinping’s global “Belt and Road” infrastructure initiative. China is Laos’s biggest creditor, and the deal will bind the landlocked, mountainous country of seven million people closer to its giant neighbour.
