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The US Thinks Cambodia’s Largest Resort Could Be a Chinese Military Base

The United States’ strained relationship with Cambodia may also be fueling this suspicion.
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Photo via Flickr user Chuck Moravec

In 2008, Cambodia granted a huge chunk of its select real estate—around 45,000 hectares in Koh Kong province and 20 percent of its coastline—to Chinese private company Union Development Group in the hopes of creating a real estate project so ambitious that it hasn’t been done in Southeast Asia before.

The project, named Dara Sakor, is planned to have an airport with a capacity of ten million passengers a year, a deep-sea naval port built for cruise ships, high-speed railways to Cambodia’s tourist destinations, and, to tie it all, a luxury resort paired with golf courses and casinos.

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If you think that sounds too good to be true, you’re not alone. Skeptics, particularly officials from the United States, are suspecting that the China-backed project is serving another purpose: hosting the Chinese military.

“What makes the US and others nervous is that Cambodia’s government appears to be intentionally and even naively digging itself into greater and greater dependency on China, with the result that Cambodia could become the centre of Chinese military and economic interests in Southeast Asia,” Paul Chambers, a regional analyst at Naresuan University told This Week In Asia.

For the first half of 2018, almost half of Cambodia’s external debt is owed to China. The country is also specifically targeting Chinese tourists under its “China Ready” strategy. While it initially aimed for 2 million Chinese tourists by 2020, it has already surpassed that number by 2018. Now, a third of Cambodia’s tourists come from China.

But, as Bloomberg reported during their visit to Dara Sakor this month, nothing suspicious stood out. Aside from the luxury resort, which was completed in 2014, the majority of the area is still covered in dirt. The airport, which critics say can accommodate China’s air force, is set to be operational in 2020.

The Cambodian government repeatedly insisted that no Chinese military base will be built on the site. A representative of Union Development Group told Bloomberg: “We noticed that the Cambodian government has responded to this issue, and dismissed the speculation of building a military base there. We have nothing further to add.”

Because of the area’s strategic location and the project’s ambitious scope, controversy for China may be inevitable, according to South China Morning Post. The supposed military base could tilt China’s dispute with other Southeast Asian countries in their favor.

Perhaps suspicions from the US is fueled by its failing relationship with Cambodia. Earlier this year, Cambodia’s Minister of Defense Tea Banh withdrew from the Pentagon’s offer to upgrade their naval assets. To add insult to injury, Cambodia has decided to host China’s military assets in the same base.

Under Donald Trump’s administration, the country’s increasingly strained relationship with some of its allies has given space for China and Russia to establish new diplomatic ties. Whether or not Dara Sakor is a Chinese military base isn’t apparent, but Cambodia’s pivot towards China and away from the US is becoming increasingly clear.