politicodiary

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 posit...

Construction at Ream Naval Base at Cambodia’s Gulf of Thailand coast is in full swing, satellite imagery shows. As a part of a China-backed redevelopment plan, this is China’s strategic move into expanding its military prowess at sea. Over August and September 2021, three new buildings have been constructed, while several areas have been cleared off foliage. A road has also been put under development. Surprisingly, the activity comes amid concern by the United States over China’s growing activity at the base. It is worth noting that a US-built facility was razed in 2019-2020.   While this happened, simultaneously, there were indications of changes at the Ream in 2019 itself. A detailed report by an American media house had revealed this with a fact that indeed China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy had signed a secret deal with Cambodia granting it future access to the base. However, Cambodia refuted the report. In October 2020 it then emerged that a building constru...