China’s Belt and Road Initiative has resulted in debt traps for a number of countries. Laos may have just joined the list with the opening of the China-Laos railway on Dec. 3. Countries such as Kenya and Ethiopia are already struggling to repay China’s Belt and Road loans, while Laos, a landlocked country, still has great expectations for the Beijing-initiated railway project, hoping that it will energize its agriculture-based economy. It used to take 2-3 days for goods to be transported from Vientiane, the capital of Laos, to Kunming, China. Now with the 643-mile railway in service, it takes less than 24 hours. For passenger trains, with speeds up to 100 miles per hour, it takes only three hours to travel from Vientiane to the China-Laos border, and arrive in Kunming within 12 hours, according to China’s state media Xinhua News. Unlike other Southeast Asian countries, Laos is a relatively …