BY ADITTA KITTIKHOUN
Editor in Chief of the Laotian Times, Laos
My impressions of China have been shaped gradually, through different visits and different stages of my professional life. I have seen China as a young professional trying to navigate Shanghai with limited language and limited technology. I have seen China through the lens of diplomacy, accompanying official visits and observing how the country presents itself to the world. I have also seen China as a media entrepreneur, attending regional forums and witnessing how technology, tourism, infrastructure, and cultural preservation are increasingly woven together.
Each visit revealed a different China. Together, they have shaped my impression of China’s role in global governance not only as a rising power but as a country that challenges the world to think differently about development.
From the perspective of Laos, China is not a distant global power. It is a neighbor, a development partner, a cultural presence, and an increasingly important force in our region’s economic and technological future. For countries like ours, China’s rise is not an abstract geopolitical story. It is visible in roads, railways, trade, tourism, digital platforms, and the everyday movement of people and ideas.
This is why the conversation about China and global governance matters deeply to the Global South. For many developing countries, global governance has often felt like something designed elsewhere and judged by standards set elsewhere. China’s emergence has changed that conversation. It has introduced a different vocabulary: connectivity, infrastructure, shared development, civilizational exchange, and modernization according to national conditions.
These ideas are especially relevant for Laos. As a landlocked country, Laos has long understood the importance of connectivity. Development is not only about policies within our borders. It is also about whether we are connected to markets, technology, capital, information, and opportunity beyond them. The Laos-China Railway is one of the most visible examples of this new era. It represents more than transportation. It represents a shift in imagination: from Laos as landlocked to Laos as potentially land-linked.
But infrastructure alone does not define global governance. Governance is also about how countries manage change, balance development with stability, protect culture while embracing modernity, and communicate their stories to the world. China’s development has been rapid, but not purely economic. It has also involved long-term planning, technological adaptation, institutional discipline, and a strong emphasis on national identity.
As a journalist, I find this especially important. China’s story is often told through large numbers: GDP growth, trade volume, infrastructure spending, population size, technological advancement. These figures matter, but they do not fully explain the human, cultural, and political meaning of China’s transformation. Journalism has a role in translating scale into understanding. It must help audiences see not only what is being built, but why it matters and how it changes relationships between countries and peoples.
For journalists from the Global South, this responsibility is even more important. We live in countries that are often spoken about, but not always listened to. Our societies are frequently framed through poverty, vulnerability, dependency, or geopolitical competition. Yet our countries are also places of agency, adaptation, and ambition. We are not merely the stage on which great powers compete. We are participants in shaping our own futures.
This is why media cooperation among Global South countries is valuable. It allows us to exchange perspectives without always passing through traditional centers of global media power. It gives journalists from Asia, Africa, Latin America, and other regions the chance to compare experiences directly: how we report development, cover technology, understand modernization, and protect cultural identity in a rapidly changing world.
My first impression of China and global governance is that China asks the world to broaden its imagination. It challenges the idea that modernization has only one path. This does not mean that every country should copy China. Rather, it means that countries should have the right to search for development models rooted in their own histories,cultures, institutions, and national conditions.
For smaller countries, this is an important idea. Connectivity is not only physical, but intellectual and narrative. Countries are connected by railways and roads, but also by stories, media, education, and mutual understanding. The Global South does not only need infrastructure. It also needs the confidence to describe its own realities and imagine its own futures.
At the same time, this creates important questions for journalists. How do we report on development without becoming promotional? How do we engage with global initiatives while maintaining professional independence? How do we understand another country’s achievements without losing sight of complexity?
These are the questions I hope to explore at the 2026 Belt and Road Journalists Forum. For Laos, participation is an opportunity to listen, learn, and contribute. Our country may be small, but our position is important. Laos sits at the heart of mainland Southeast Asia, connected historically and geographically to China and the wider region.
As I prepare to join this year’s forum, I come with curiosity, respect, and questions. China’s role in the world cannot be understood only through the lens of power. It must also be understood through development, culture, history, technology, and the aspirations of countries seeking a more connected and balanced global order.
For journalists, that is a story worth studying carefully.
Perhaps the future of global governance will not be imagined by one part of the world alone, but by many societies learning to see themselves, and one another, differently.
*The views and opinions expressed in the articles are solely those of the individual authors and do not reflect the position of the Secretariat of the Belt and Road Journalist Network.