Cambodia Becomes China’s New Ownership Ground

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China is making good use of Cambodia in every which way. Earlier it was bringing down the US build facilities without notifying or discussing the same with Washington. Then it was constructing Chinese facilities on the same structures. It seems China is expanding its reach and the Cambodian PM had nothing to say but that they had a right to protect their own turf without having to give an explanation to Washington.

 Now, it seems, Cambodia is being used as a vaccine storage facility by China too. Strangely, almost all of the vaccines used to date in Cambodia are Chinese (Sinovac and Sinopharm). Political analysts believe there are political, diplomatic and financial reasons behind this decision.Indeed, it isn’t wrong to say that vaccine diplomacy has been aptly given free rein in the kingdom of Cambodia. Washington has had an eye on Cambodia ever since it razed the US facility at its Ream Naval Base. There are reasons that it feels that Prime Minister Hun Sen has sought to position in China’s orbit. 

Maritime and airport facilities were recently granted to Peking by Phnom Penh. All this happened at a time when regional tensions over the South China Sea have been continuing to grow. This isn’t good news for neighbouring countries that are not all interested to be a part of the Chinese big game of ownership.

Cambodian PM has been able to win brownie points with other poorer nations that could not afford their own vaccines. Mr. Hun Sen sent off free vaccines to Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar. What is also worth noting is that Sen has forced its population in an autocratic manner to use the Chinese vaccine, favoring its donor.

 There was no room for personal choice or individual preference. Hun Sen has made vaccination obligatory for everyone. Civil servants, and public and private-sector employees who are not vaccinated by a certain date will be fired. Children and adolescents between 12 and 18 also had to be vaccinated. Then the age threshold was lowered to six, with the threat of these young children otherwise being thrown out of school. That was done as a warning for the parents, who are not allowed to have an opinion on the risks imposed on their children.

Vaccine effectiveness has been a huge problem, something the PM has chosen to ignore.

Cambodia has achieved an impressive rate of vaccination against Covid-19. In mid-November, almost 79% of the population had been fully vaccinated with two doses, putting the country among Asia’s leaders. Only Singapore has done better with a full vaccination rate of 82.7%. South Korea, Malaysia and Japan are behind on 77.2%, 76.6% and 75.2% respectively.

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