HIH 01

HEAV CHIHORN

As Partnership with China Grows, So Too

Concerns
PHNOM PENH
Cambodia has become increasingly reliant on China for aid. But critics warn that financial
support from China is not well tracked and likely means the country has undue influence
over the government, and that could mean more trouble down the road as Cambodia looks
toward greater development of its own.
Chinas financial help, which improves Cambodian infrastructure, military and other
sectors, has long been a concern of rights groups and the opposition, who warn that such
aid means China can influence Cambodian policy.
China meanwhile is looking for natural resources, cheap labor, opportunities for markets
and investments. China has played a major role in the garment sector, where it has access
to cheap labor and land concessions, as well as development projects across the country.
Cambodian National Rescue Party lawmaker Son Chhay says China is typically the one
who benefits from its relationship with Cambodia. Weve never seen that being aligned
with China has helped Cambodias economy, he said. Only exploitation, land grabbing,
logging, dams that affect the environment, and construction that has no quality.
Cambodia continues to strengthen its ties with China. In November, Prime Minister Hun
Sen attended a summit there, where China pledged more aid to help develop the
economyabout $500 million per year.
Government spokesman Phay Siphan said China helps Cambodia develop, and thats what
Cambodia is looking for.
China has helped Cambodia with security, too. In 2013, Beijing provided 1,000 weapons
and 50,000 rounds of ammunition, a donation that followed the delivery of 26 Chinese
trucks and 30,000 uniforms, as well as the sale of a dozen military helicopters worth some
$200 million. Cambodia will have to pay that off over time.
In May this year, China offered $33 million in concession loans and a donation of $112
million. Hun Sen later said the money was for the construction of a stadium, to host the
2023 Southeast Asian Games.
At the Apec Summit in November, China offered $40 billion to establish its Silk Road fund,
which will help Asean countries with development and trade cooperation.

John Ciorciari, a public policy professor at the University of Michigan, says the
Cambodian-Chinese partnership continues to grow closer, economically and politically, for
relatively low costs.
China provides investment and occasional political backing, helping Cambodias leaders
grow the economy in a way that bolsters the position of the incumbent CPP, he said in an
email. In exchange, China seeks easy access to resources and labor and periodic
diplomatic support.
In 2012 then-President Hu Jintao met with Hun Sen ahead of an Asean Summit that
Cambodia was hosting. After pledges of increased bilateral trade from China and a $70
million loan package, Cambodia derailed an Asean initiative to push harder in talks over
the South China Sea.
Ciorciari says that kind of relationship has brought economic growth to Cambodia, but at
a risk to the countrys independence and a risk to Asean unity.
If China tries to use its leverage in Cambodia to that effect, diplomatic tension in the
region will rise, and it is not clear that either China or Asean would gain from a
polarization of Southeast Asia, he said.
And much of the benefit isnt to the country as a whole, he said, but rather to the
Cambodian elite.
The relationship has spurred economic activity in Cambodia, but it also helps Cambodias
leaders resist international pressure to reform and to put greater priority on issues such as
environmental protection and human rights, he said. On balance, it has done more for
Cambodian elites than for ordinary people.
Meanwhile, Cambodias relationship with China has been less rocky than with the US,
which in 2009 canceled the shipment of 200 military trucks after Cambodia deported
Uighur asylum-seekers to China. (Fourteen deals between China and Cambodia followed
worth some $1 billionfollowed by delivery of Chinese-made military vehicles and
uniforms.)
The following year, then-US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned against too much
dependence on China.
You dont want to get too dependent on anyone country, Clinton told a group of
Cambodian students on a visit to Phnom Penh in November that year. There are
important issues that Cambodia must raise with China," she said, pointing to a string of
Chinese dams along the Mekong River that were a potential threat to the regions ecology.
Those dams have continued to be a concern, including in Cambodia 19 hydropower dams
and coal plants linked to Chinese investment. That could provide power to 70 percent of

Cambodian households by 2025, but it could also wreak havoc on fishing populations and
the lives of people living near the dams.
Phay Siphan said Cambodia is gaining from its relationship with China, while retaining its
independence. Those who raise this do not understand, and those are aims to attack the
livelihood of Cambodia, he said. He denied that Cambodia works for Chinas interests.
Still, many political observers warn caution.
Ou Virak, chairman of the board for the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, says
Cambodia must avoid becoming manipulated by China, which is growing in power across
the region.
The CPP is moving toward China, he said, while the opposition party doesnt know
what policy it has.
Asean, which is working toward even greater economic integration late next year, can be
threatened by Chinas bilateral relationships with Southeast Asian nations, he said. If
China grabs one of the Asean countries in the region, Asean will be locked, he said. In
the past, China relied on Burma, but after Burma changed direction, toward the West, only
Cambodia is left to be Chinas puppet.
Son Chhay said he worries that Phnom Penhs debts to Beijing pave the way for big
benefits to China in the futurewithout much concern for sustainable development in
Cambodia.
What is bad is that Cambodia is borrowing money from China to develop the country,
without transparency, he said. Whats more, the borrowed money usually goes to pay for
projects undertaken by Chinese companies, which then affect the environment.
Dam construction leads to deforestation, he said, and the sale of expensive electricity back
to Cambodia, which contradicts the contribution to the countrys development.
Other observers say the relationship is unlikely to change. Henri Lecard, a historian and
scholar, said Cambodia and China get along, since the two are functioning one-party
states.
There are good outcomes, too. The Ministry of Tourism says Chinese are now the No. 2
visitors to the country, behind the Vietnamese. Of 4.2 million visitors to Cambodia last
year, more than 460,000 were Chinese.

Vocabulary
So too concerns

Rescue

Increasingly

Lawmaker

Reliant

Typically

Well tracked

Aligned

Likely

Exploitation

Undue

Influence

Help
Improves
Infrastructure
Long been
Meanwhile

Played a major role

Access

Concessions

As well as

Across the country

Land grabbing

Logging

Dams

Affect

Construction

Strengthen

Ties

Attended

Summit

Pledged

Ammunition

Donation

Pay that off over time

On balance

Ordinary

Host

Rocky

Fund

Shipment

Relatively low

Deported

Occasional

Asylum-seekers

Backing
Bolsters

Incumbent

In exchange

Periodic

Packages

Derailed

Leverage

Polarization

But rather
Spurred
Resist

Ecology

Hydropower

Plants

Households

Aims

Denied

Board

Manipulated

Integration

Grabs

Locked

Puppet

Sustainable

Transparency

Contradicts

Contribution

Get along