Chinese dictator Xi Jinping made an “charm offensive” this week, visiting Malaysia, Vietnam and Cambodia to prop up economic alliances in the middle of China’s commercial war with the United States.
Xi told the Cambodians to “resist protectionism,” which is fun given how strongly China’s markets are manipulated against foreign companies. The Cambodians told XI to give them money, not advice.
“We expect more cooperation, even in the development of infrastructure,” said the spokesman of the Ministry of Finance Cambodia, Meas Soksensen, before the arrival of Xis. The Cambodians seem to have what they expected, as Chinese officials signed An agreement of billions of dollars in Phnom Penh in Thorsday.
Soksensan referred specifically to FUNAN CEADO CANAL PROJECTA company that does not progress at this time, and could have a very bad idea to start.
The 110 mile channel is intended to link the Mekong River, near the capital of Cambodia of Phnom Penh, with the Gulf of Thailand. The goal is to make Cambodia less dependent on Vietnam ports for shipping.
The channel became a symbol of Cambodian pride, and its close relationship with China, which became deeper as the western world brought sanctions Against Cambodia for human rights violations, including forced labor and human trafficking.
The opening ceremony of the Funan Ceiling Canal was timed To coincide with the former Cambodian prime minister of his birthday, turning the event into a nationalist vacation and celebration of the regime. His Sen ruled Cambodia for 38 years and guided the channel agreement with China until he completed before delivering the reins to his son, his Manet, in 2023.
Each media in Cambodia was obliged To televise every moment of the inauguration ceremony in August 2024 and write editorials without breath about the magnificence of the project. His Sen threatened legal actions against any media organization that would not use the full name of the channel when discussing it: the word “roof”, an honorary that denotes the force in the battle that their senes use for themselves, should always be used when talking about the channel.
As expected, the channel plan was not welcome by the Vietnamese, but the objections to the project go beyond protecting the port industry of Vietnam. Vietnam is deeply concerned that the channel and its associated prey will drain the water from the Mekong delta, potentially damaging its indispensable rice farms.
Cambodia skipped the consultations that could have provided a clear image of the impact of the channel on the Vietnam water supply, but the center of Stimson published A report in May 2024 that warned that the channel has “the potential to divert the water from the Mekong basin to coastal estuaries in Cambodia outside the Mekong basin.”
The government of its Sen to promote the irrigation benefits of the channel without mentioning that these benefits could come at the expense of Vietnamese farmers. The channel could also move up to 1.5 million Cambodian farmers living along its projected route.
Finance of the Funan Raveo channel are even darker than the water that could divert. The first stages of the project were quickly completed under the auspices of the Belt and Road initiative of China (BRI), but it is not clear how much financing will provide actular China.
The government of his Sen occasionally boasted that he could finance almost the entire project alone, but those jacts were impossible to accredit and their possible stop doing them. At the end of 2023, the Cambodian government said that the Cambodian Companies would cover 51 percent of the cost and, therefore, would have the majority property of the channel, while the rest would come from the Chinese Corporation Road and Bridge (CRBC). CRBC was supposed to transfer its 49 percent owned from the Cambodia channel in 50 years, after recovering its investment.
A convincing estimation of profitability for the channel and the time published for construction was very little reluctant, so the notion of China paid desaits that half of the cost of $ 1.7 billion and hares happily. Shaares. Shaares.
Some observers believe It is possible that China asks for the entire bill for the project, enrolling some of the Cambodian corporations to create the illusion of 51 percent property for the host country.
In addition to presenting the long -awaited contract for the channel, China “praised” the visit of Cambodia Duration XI to maintain the “principle of a China” by deportation An unleashed number or Taiwanese citizens to China this week. The Taiwanese were arrested by operating phones and fraud centers on the Internet.
Arizona State University Polishing Sophal said he New York Times (NYT) on Friday that the visit of XI to Cambodia and other weeks of the nations of Southeast Asia was “Classical Geopolitical Theater”.
“As the United States scale its footprint in Cambodia, China enters not only to fill the void, but to show itself as the reliable and durable partner,” Ear said.