A Cambodian worker puts up Chinese national flags on the street in Phnom Penh April 7, 2006. China's Prime Minister Wen Jiabao will arrive in Cambodia on Friday for a two-day official visit. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea PHNOM PENH, April 7 (Reuters) - Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visits Cambodia on Friday for talks with Prime Minister Hun Sen, an increasingly close friend in a region where Beijing is looking for strategic military toe-holds. Even though Hun Sen spent much of his military and political life fighting the Beijing-backed Khmer Rouge, he has worked hard in recent years to build Chinese ties as a counterweight to Vietnam, which lies between them, analysts say.
The improved relationship also works well for Beijing.
Besides millions of dollars in road-building, telecoms and other development aid in the last few years, China gave impoverished Cambodia six naval patrol boats in September -- ostensibly to help combat drug and human trafficking.
However, analysts said it was also a signal of Beijing's desire to negotiate friendly deep sea ports as part of its widening strategic ambitions in southeast Asia, its main fuel gateway.
Sihanoukville, Cambodia's only such port, lies within reach of the eastern end of the Strait of Malacca, as well as the energy-rich but disputed Spratly Islands off the coast of southern Vietnam in the South China Sea.
Near the other end of the Strait, which carries a quarter of global trade and nearly all oil imports for Japan, South Korea and China, Beijing is already thought to be negotiating naval access with the military junta in Myanmar.
"It's working the turf to establish a Chinese presence," said Carl Thayer of the University of New South Wales in Canberra. "It's a broadening out from the political and economic and cultural and scientific dimensions to the military.
"The larger strategic picture is China is going to become increasingly dependent on importation of Persian Gulf oil, and it has a larger and larger stake as its economy grows in making sure the sea lanes are secure," he said.
Besides signing deals on health, telecoms, crime-fighting and firetrucks, Wen will attend a ground-breaking ceremony for a new Council of Ministers building -- to replace the dilapidated concrete edifice now serving as the seat of government.
He and Hun Sen will also sign an agreement for Chinese help in preserving the famed 800-year-old Angkor Wat temples, now a major overseas destination for Chinese tourists.
It is not known whether the pair will discuss the up-coming trial of Pol Pot's former Khmer Rogue henchmen for the genocide of the 1970s, in which an estimated 1.7 million people were executed or died of starvation, torture, disease or overwork.
After long delays, the trial is expected to start next year. In revealing the extent of China's support for Pol Pot, it is likely to drag Beijing's name through the mud -- one of reasons rival Japan has committed so much money to it, analysts say.
"China has applied some pressure concerning this issue, but I don't know if they would like to make obstacles for the Khmer Rouge tribunal," said Thun Saray, head of human rights group ADHOC.
Wen, who has been on a six day swing through the South Pacific, is due to leave Cambodia on Saturday.
1 comment:
Either Hun Sen is trying to juggle between his advisor - VIETNAM and the main financial backer and old friend of Cambodia - CHINA, or he is playing with fire by being too friendly with CHINA as VN is not very impressed with his behaviour. One day HS's luck will run out and Cambodia will be in chaos again as VN will be searching for a new "clever" leader and good follower like HS to recite everything what VN orders.
God helps Cambodia but cannot be done if the democrats are fighting each other.
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