By: Tanuja Baura, Research Analyst, GSDN
The world is entering a new decade, and one of the hot topic scholars discuss around the world is the future of China and its relations with other countries. Within the last twenty years, it considerably increased its influence in Cambodia beginning with the sphere of Foreign Direct Investment and military cooperation.
At least since the 13th century, relations between Cambodia and China have existed. Diplomatic ties between the two nations were however established as far back as July 19, 1958. From the immediate aftermath of the Cold War until now, China’s geopolitical interest in Cambodia has undergone almost dramatic turns. It still has a lot of influence, partly because it is close to the Chinese minority in Cambodia and the major government officials as well as the late King Norodom Sihanouk. There is usually at regular intervals high level consultations between the two countries. China has provided significant bilateral aid, and economic links have since continued to expand.
The two nations upgraded the bilateral relation to a comprehensive partnership of cooperation in 2006 and then further upgraded to a comprehensive strategic partnership in 2010 In April 2019, the two nations also signed an “Action Plan 2019-2023 on Building China-Cambodia Community of Shared Future”. Two countries agreed to implement 31 activities in five fields- political, security, economic, people-to-people contacts, and multilateral cooperation- based on action plan. However, the development agenda might have overshadowed their relations. Since the introduction of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in late 2013, China has increasingly become influential within the realm of Cambodia, in which development agenda is used as a primary tool.
Nowadays, the involvement of China in Cambodia is more than just economic influence. China’s interest also aims at seeking Beijing’s visions of international acceptance of China’s alternative, and sometimes competing, governance models, above the status quo, in the contemporary global order, which Cambodia is likely to be a recipient as well as a supporter.
Since the era of Xi Jinping as the President since 2013, China’s foreign policy has confidently been moving toward a more assertive role in international affairs. In its competitive game with the US, China also took efforts to present itself as a benevolent power both in the international and regional arenas. China has incrementally utilized economic statecraft and discursive power to engage other nations, especially in the Global South, by offering alternative concepts and structures for international relations. In Southeast Asia, Beijing found Phnom Penh to be a strong ally in receiving the benefits of and promoting normative and discursive powers.
The relations between China Cambodia can be categorized in two major periods: historical and contemporary. The historical period dates back to the formation of the Kingdom of Cambodia and functioned until the close of the 1950s. The beginning of the historical period is associated with the King Norodom Sihanouk’s quest for a neutral foreign policy following Cambodia’s independence from French control in 1953. However, in the early 1960s, when the Vietnam War had begun to extend into Cambodia, Sihanouk looked for support against U.S. and Western encroachments and aligned the country more with China, which had previously been passive.
As early as 1958, China was among the first countries to recognize Cambodia and provided active assistance to the regime of Sihanouk. Their friendship took on special significance is the King’s deposition in 1970 in a coup that was sponsored by the US. After the coup, China went on to provide aid to Sihanouk who had gone into exile and later allied with the Khmer Rouge instigating the civil war that engulfed Cambodia in 1975.
Ironically, China persevered as one of the supporters of the Khmer Rouge regime (1975-1979) which was the height of genocidal killings in the history of the country and even helped China traced the world map back to those brutal years. In 1979, the year after the Soviet-backed Vietnamese forces invaded Cambodia, drove out the Khmer Rouge and put in place a puppet government, China aided the anti-Vietnamese forces, further deepening their grip in Cambodia. According to some historians, the first organized embassy to travel to India, Thailand, and China was sent by the Khmer Empire around the eighth or ninth century AB.
Political and Diplomatic Relations
In recent years, Cambodia has also drifted closer to China politically. Under the rule of Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has ruled the country since 1985, Cambodia has adopted an eastern facing policy at the expense of western powers ignoring to mention the primary western democratic nations. Hun Sen’s government has, on many occasions, sought the intervention of foreign powers like China whenever there is a crisis more so when the relation between the government and the western countries has deteriorated.
For example, the country’s fall into the hands of international critics waged against its deteriorating level of democracy, flagrant violation of human rights and oppression of the political opponents brought China to come into the fray. In the year 2017 for example, Cambodia dissolves its main opposition party, the Cambodian National Rescue Party, the CNRP and crushes the independent journalists. The west notably the US and EU responded by sanctioning and cutting aid to the country. Contrarily, Chinese aid increased, with Hun Sen often lauding this aspect of China, its respect for non-interference in the internal politics of other countries.
This close political relationship was further forged in 2010 when the two countries proclaimed their bilateral relations as the ‘Comprehensive Strategic Partnership of Cooperation.’ Since this date, high level meetings of Chinese and Cambodian leaders have become commonplace with an influx of Chinese leaders to Phnom Penh.
Relations between China, Cambodia and the Role of ASEAN
Cambodia is intricately related to the patterns of international relations in the Asia-Pacific region concerning geopolitics, which is especially true in the case of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Cambodia has often been seasoned to act on various regional settlements including the South China Sea disputes to the cardinal determent position of East Asia on behalf of China.
Because of this, difficult relations have existed between Cambodia and the rest of the ASEAN members, in- particular with Vietnam and the Philippines more conciliating claims over the contested water regions, due to Cambodian opposition on various ASEAN propositions. This behaviour was the most notable in the assertion of Cambodia’s unengaged position as the ASEAN chair in 2012 in which it blocked a joint statement that sought to censure China regarding the South China Sea. Similar statements and behaviours were repeated the next years proving more firmly Cambodia’s pro-Beijing stance regarding region’s main power’s geopolitics.
Concerns in the US and the West
The growing relations of China and Cambodia have also elicited an uneasiness on the part of the Western powers especially the United States. There are reports that the United States has voiced its concern over the possibility of the establishment of military structures by Chinese authorities in Cambodia, especially at the Ream Naval Base located at the southern coast of Cambodia. Even if a number of officials from Cambodia and China claim the reports are baseless, aerial photos and news outlets have alleged that the Chinese have embarked on the renovation of the facilities located within the base.
Conceivably, the establishment of Chinese military installation in Cambodia will alter the dynamics within the region as China will have access to vital trade routes in the South China Sea. This scenario is bound to aggravate the current tension escalation with the China and the United States of America given that America sees South East Asia as a stronghold in the Indo-Pacific region.
Cambodia’s Role in Advancing China’s Global Initiatives
At present, the presence of China in Cambodia is not only limited to the economic engagements. Rather, it points to aspirations from Beijing to gain international sympathy for its methods of global governance and other ideas that may exist apart from the current world order with Cambodia being one potential supporter. China regards Cambodia as a strategic beleaguered area in South East so as to contain the empire; its relations with South China Sea claimants are not that cordial. Under Xi Jinping, who assumed office in 2013, there has been a clear turn in China’s foreign policy that made the country much more active in the world. In the contest with the US, for example, China has been eager to project itself as a benevolent empire both in an international context and in a regional one.
Engagement with other nations, especially the southern hemisphere nations, has been graduated to the use of economic statecraft as well as discursive power for presenting other ways and means of conducting international relations. In Southeast Asia, Beijing discovered that Phnom Penh was a beneficial partner in both reaping the offers from and enhancing China’s normative and discursive powers. This resulted to ‘ironclad friendship’ to be hailed by Cambodia making it a reliable partner for china on issues of paramount importance to the country.
While neighbouring Southeast Asian states continue to have a rather ambivalent and cautious stance about China’s initiatives, it is Cambodia that has pioneered support to many Chinese related global initiatives including the recent Global Security Initiative, the Global Development Initiative as well as the Global Civilization Initiative. These are all initiatives aimed at helping China further assert its power on the global stage and not least become the primary shaper of the international order.
Conclusion
To summarize, in present times, the Cambodia-China relationship is more than a simple economic partnership; it can be considered a multi-dimensional partnership. This is an alliance forged out of history and advancing state interests, which has made it an essential part of China’s global ambitions.
From Cambodia’s perspective, such a partnership has some advantages; there is economic growth, improvement of infrastructure, and assistance in political sphere especially when the West is critical. Hence, Cambodia aids in the advancement of China’s aspirations in that region, especially in the sensitive zones such as the South China Sea and is also considered a team player in China’s quest to counter the prevailing systems of governance in all regions around the world.
