Officially, China is helping Cambodia to expand its naval base in Ream, the country’s biggest naval base. On Wednesday (June 8), officials from both countries attended a groundbreaking ceremony for the expansion of the port. When completed in 2 years, the port will include a maintenance workshop, two piers, a dry dock, slipway, and sand dredging for bigger ships to dock.

 

Unofficially, however, the Ream Naval Base could be the Chinese second overseas military base in the world (its first naval facility is in the East African country of Djibouti set up in 2017), and China’s first outpost in the Indo-Pacific region. Located strategically near the southern tip of Cambodia close to the South China Sea, clearly the base would serve as a vital military asset for Beijing.

 

Despite denials from China and Cambodia, it’s hard to believe the upgrade of Ream isn’t for the use of the Chinese Navy at all. After all, the expansion and modernization of the base is funded by Beijing. There’s no such thing as a free lunch and China is definitely not a charity house. They probably deny it, for now, because Cambodia’s constitution prohibits foreign military facilities.

The Cambodian defence minister, Tea Banh, has played down the significance of the renovation of Ream Naval Base on the Gulf of Thailand, saying it was very small and “won’t pose a threat to anyone, anywhere”. Likewise, the Cambodian Embassy in Washington called it baseless accusation that the country has permitted foreign military bases on Cambodian soil.

 

On the other hand, China’s ambassador to Cambodia, Wang Wentian, said – “It is not targeted at any third party, and will be conducive to even closer practical cooperation between the two militaries, better fulfilment of international obligations and provision of international public goods”. However, at the same time, he said that China and Cambodia have become iron-clad brothers.

 

It’s an open secret that China has been seeking a military base in Cambodia as part of its “string of pearls” grand strategy in the region. As early as 2019, the Wall Street Journal reported that China had signed a secret agreement to allow its military to use a Cambodian  base for 30 years – with automatic renewals every 10 years. Of course, the report was rubbished as “fake news” by Cambodia.

According to the old draft proposal, China would build two new piers – one for Chinese use, one for Cambodian – at the 190-acre Ream Naval Base. Dredging would be done so that the base can host larger Chinese warships. China’s personnel will be allowed to carry weapons and Cambodian passports, while Cambodians must get Chinese permission to enter the 62-acre Chinese section of Ream.

 

Everything started after the U.S.-Cambodia bad blood began in 2010, just 3 years after the U.S. Congress lifted its prohibition on assistance to the Cambodian government. In 2010, Washington suspended the delivery of military vehicles following Phnom Penh’s deportation of Uighur asylum seekers. Beijing saw the opportunity and stepped in to provide 257 trucks and 50,000 uniforms.

 

America was actually terribly upset after China’s state-controlled Union Development Group secured in 2008 a 99-year lease on Dara Sakor, a huge territory that includes 20% of Cambodia’s coastline. Just 40 miles northwest of Ream, the Chinese development of the 2-mile-long runway at Dara is so massive that it could be used for Boeing 747s and Airbus A380s.

Essentially, China’s long-range bombers and other military transports and aircrafts can also use it. Crucially, from Dara Sakor, Chinese military would be able to strike U.S. military interests in Vietnam and Singapore as well as other targets in the Southeast Asia. In November 2018, the diplomatic frictions between PM Hun Sen and U.S. Vice President Michael Pence went from bad to worse.

 

Cambodia wanted the U.S. facilities at Ream to be “relocated” elsewhere to make way for China. Not only Washington tried to persuade Phnom Penh to reverse its decision, it also had lobbied Cambodia not to allow China’s military to use the large new airport built at Dara Sakor. The best part was that two facilities at Ream were actually built with U.S. funding.

 

Despite America’s aggressive lobbying, including an offer to pay for the renovation of Ream Naval Base, Cambodia had instead demolished a U.S.-Australia-funded headquarters building in 2020. It did not even bother to reply to the Pentagon’s request for an explanation why it rejected an offer to repair or renovate American-built boat maintenance facilities at Ream.

The U.S. was so mad that Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman was sent to Cambodia 2021 to seek clarification. However, she arrogantly lectured Cambodia about its human rights record, and declared that a Chinese military base in Cambodia would undermine its sovereignty, threaten regional security, and negatively impact U.S.-Cambodia relations.

 

Less than two weeks later, the U.S. embassy complained it had been denied full access to inspect the Ream base. America then retaliated with sanctions against some Cambodian leaders, including the Chief of Navy. By then, all hell broke loose and the damage has been done. Washington realized that it had lost, and Cambodia has selected Beijing to develop the military base.

 

But the U.S. was not going down without a fight. It accused the Cambodian government of “secretly” allowing Ream Naval Base to be built for the “exclusive” use of the Chinese Navy. It has also condemned the lack of transparency about China’s involvement in the facility. Essentially, Washington’s arrogance was the reason they lost Ream and Dara Sakor to China.

It was hilarious that the U.S. has accused Cambodia of breaching its constitution by allowing China to establish a military outpost in the country, when the U.S. itself wanted to do the same thing. And it certainly screams hypocrisy after the U.S. warned that the Chinese military presence in Cambodia would disturb regional peace and stability, when the same U.S. has over 800 military bases around the globe.

 

Exactly why China cannot have two military bases, but the U.S. can have more than 800 military bases? Did the U.S. practise transparency before it established those 800 foreign military bases? Unless it’s an admission that America is fast losing its status as the world’s military superpower, it should not be overly terrified of the Chinese presence in Cambodia.

 

In truth, like Saudi Arabia, relations between Cambodia and the U.S. have gone sour as Washington has been constantly criticizing the authoritarian leadership of Prime Minister Hun Sen. You can’t keep slamming the government over the lack of human rights and at the same time expect it to obey your orders. Besides, Beijing has splashed billions of dollars in infrastructure loans in Cambodia.

However, the paranoia displayed by the U.S. over the involvement of China in the upgrade of Ream Naval Base also suggests that the Americans are more worried about maintaining its own dominance rather than the rising of the Chinese influence. Since the World War 2, the U.S. had never seen any serious competition – not even the former Soviet Union – till the emergence of China.

 

The extreme fear of losing to China saw former President Donald Trump started trade war, followed by tech war, with Beijing. The anti-Chinese sentiment was so bad that it has even transformed into anti-Asian violence and racism within the United States itself after Trump, in an attempt to cover-up his mishandling of Covid-19 pandemic, took the easy way out by blaming the Chinese.

 

But after “Sleepy Joe” took over the White House, instead of engaging in diplomacy. The U.S. president decided to double down and fight with every country that does not kowtow to the U.S. and refuses to subscribe to the American version of democracy. So, the genius Joe Biden provoked Ukraine to fight with Russia and is trying to use Taiwan to start a similar proxy war with China.

In the same breath, Washington tries to block all Chinese economic activities and private investment in Cambodia. Every engagement between China and Cambodia is being viewed suspiciously. Anything that Cambodia does with China is being seen by the U.S. as harmful, so much so that Washington had to lecture Phnom Penh about national interest, sovereignty and regional security.

 

Washington was worried that Beijing’s involvement in the Ream Naval Base would further cement China’s grip on a country, leading to increasing challenges Washington would face for economic and military influence across the developing world. The U.S. knew Cambodia isn’t the only country that China is pursuing military facilities to support its naval, ground and air force projection.

 

Besides Cambodia, China has been looking at Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Kenya, Tanzania and the United Arab Emirates to establish a global network which could both interfere with U.S. military operations and support offensive operations. There was concern that ground station technology for a BeiDou Navigation Satellite System could be stationed in Cambodia.

The homegrown Chinese navigation network, completed in June 2020 and was designed to rival the GPS run by the U.S. Air Force, is said to be more powerful – and risky – because it is a two-way communication system. Formally initiated in 1994, the BeiDou project has raised serious security concerns as it can track users and even used in cyberattacks.

 

However, the U.S. has no one to blame but itself in forcing China to aggressively establish military base in Cambodia and elsewhere to protect its own interest. Biden administration has deliberately created AUKUS, the latest trilateral military alliance between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, in order to threaten and undermine China.

 

At the same time, the U.S. has encouraged the QUAD Alliance, a military pact comprising the U.S., Australia, Japan and India, to cripple the Chinese rising influence. The real objective of QUAD was revealed in a 2019 speech by the then-US Secretary of State – Michael Pompeo – who described the group’s role as “ensuring that China retains only its proper place in the world”.

So, not only the U.S. used the “Five Eyes”, an intelligence-sharing arrangement among a group of five English speaking countries – U.S., Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Great Britain – to attack China and its Huawei technology, it also mobilized “QUAD Alliance” and even created a new military alliance called “AUKUS” to control China by chaining the red dragon.

 

Australia, the United States’ “deputy sheriff” in the Asia-Pacific region, has described reports China is secretly building a naval facility in Cambodia as “concerning”. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said – “This is concerning. We are in regular contact with the Cambodian government and we have been consistently assured that no foreign military will be granted exclusive access.”

 

Perhaps Canberra can explain why Cambodia cannot grant access to foreign military like China, but countries like Singapore, Philippines and Thailand can grant access to American military forces. It doesn’t make sense that the Chinese presence in Cambodia would undermine its sovereignty and threaten regional security, while American presence would instead bring prosperity and stability.

With Western powers ganging up against Beijing, do you expect the Chinese to bend over, let its military capability deteriorates and pretend China is another colony of the West? More importantly, who gives the U.S. and Australia the power to dictate what the Kingdom of Cambodia can or cannot do? It was the U.S. hostility against authoritarian countries that China-Cambodia is working together today.

 

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June 10th, 2022 by financetwitter

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