WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Cambodia has demolished a U.S.-built facility on the country’s largest naval base, according to images published by an American think tank on Friday, amid increasing concern in Washington about China’s access to military bases in the nation.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) published images which it said showed that the Cambodian government last month demolished a building that the United States had built at Ream Naval Base.

Last year the Pentagon had asked Cambodia to explain why it turned down an offer to repair the base, saying the decision had raised speculation of possible plans for hosting China’s military.

 

The Pentagon on Friday said it was concerned about reports that the U.S.-funded Cambodian Navy tactical headquarters facility had been demolished and had asked the Cambodian government for an explanation.

“We have concerns that razing the facility may be tied to Cambodia government plans for hosting People’s Republic of China (PRC) military assets and personnel at Ream Naval Base,” the Pentagon said in a statement.

The Cambodian embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 

The Cambodian government has denied reports that China had reached a secret deal with Cambodia to let it place forces at the base, saying that hosting foreign forces would be against Cambodia’s constitution.

The base is southeast of the port city of Sihanoukville, center of a Chinese-led casino boom and a Chinese-run Special Economic Zone.

Cambodia is one of China’s closest allies in Southeast Asia and has received billions of dollars of Chinese aid as well as political backing for authoritarian Prime Minister Hun Sen in the face of Western criticism.

Cambodia has been wary of superpower rivalry since being devastated by fighting between U.S. and Chinese proxy forces in the 1970s that culminated in the Khmer Rouge genocide.

Reporting by Idrees Ali; Editing by Daniel Wallis

 

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Cambodia seems to be all but a vassal state of China now. I'm sure the gov't is trying to find a way around the constitution so they can openly allow what they've been covertly allowing for years now.
Everyone knows that Cambodia signed a "secret" deal to allow the Chinese to lease that naval base. 

And almost everyone knows that the Chinese built "airport" an hour's drive to the North of that base is really an "air base" with runways far longer than needed for even the largest commercial jets (i.e. loaded 747 cargo jets) but just the right length for Chinese bombers.

And that recent deal where Hun Sen "donated" 300 Chinese built military trucks to the police and army, which were actually a part of another deal. (It seems the Chinese gave Cambodia the trucks and then the PM claimed that he was donating them, without explaining why (or how) he was suddenly in the possession of 300 new military vehicles.)

I wonder how long it will be before the first Chinese Air Force jets/bombers start making "hospitality" visits to that "airport" and certain ships start docking in the naval port on "semi-permanent" visits.

And of course they aren't going to want a US built command facility on that base, which, for all they know, is tied directly in to the Pentagon and possibly bugged to the hilt. Better to just demolish it entirely and let the Chinese build a new one. (That ties directly to Beijing and will probably be also bugged to the hilt.)

50 minutes ago, Kerryd said:

 

Thx for the info, no thx for the bias ...

1 hour ago, Kerryd said:

Cambodia seems to be all but a vassal state of China now.

In the same way Guam is already a vassal state to the US.......so what?

Edited October 5, 20205 yr by UncleMhee

1 hour ago, UncleMhee said:

In the same way Guam is already a vassal state to the US.......so what?

No, not in the same way as Guam.

Guam is a legal part of the US soverneighty as much as any American is a citizen of the US.

Read history please.

www.dewittguam.com/an-independent-territory-guams-american-history/

 

 

Edited October 5, 20205 yr by Srikcir
ms

2 hours ago, UncleMhee said:

In the same way Guam is already a vassal state to the US.......so what?

The new Hawaii ...

This hardly comes as a surprise. It would be cleaner if Cambodia just became another province of the PRC. Oh, scratch that, then Chinese couldn't go there to gamble anymore.

With Laos heavily under Beijing's influence, China now have a nice land corridor through South-East Asia.

We are living in changing times. 

9 minutes ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

We are living in changing times

 

Make that challenging times.

3 hours ago, UncleMhee said:

In the same way Guam is already a vassal state to the US.......so what?

A poor comparison. The people of Guam are US citizens and there is a movement there to leave their status as a US Territory. Research before offering apples andvoranfes.

24 minutes ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

We are living in changing times. 

Indeed we are! not all bad news though? the WEF announced that due to the "global reset" they will now take on more responsibility, good of them and totally unprecedented 

At what point will we envy the "freedom" the Chinese people enjoy 

well, china is much "closer", than USA... which has no business there

8 hours ago, Jack Mountain said:

Thx for the info, no thx for the bias ...

Too bad, mighta' learned something had ye' been listening.

Hail Emperor Xi Jinping!

Bad news for Vietnam already in dispute with China . Now China can say “got your back” and mean it 

Ream Naval Base will is pretty close to Thailand so the subs can be repaired there instead of all the way back to China.

14 hours ago, Benmart said:

A poor comparison. The people of Guam are US citizens and there is a movement there to leave their status as a US Territory. Research before offering apples andvoranfes.

And, as an aside, Guam citizens may not vote in the US Presidential Elections. 

Well if Cambodia gets taken over entirely by China, will their ctitsens have to become

bilingual?  I wonder how their international tourism  restart is doing, anybody gone

over there from Thailand yet? Looks like interesting times ahead.

Geezer

23 minutes ago, Stargrazer9889 said:

Well if Cambodia gets taken over entirely by China, will their ctitsens have to become

bilingual?  I wonder how their international tourism  restart is doing, anybody gone

over there from Thailand yet? Looks like interesting times ahead.

Geezer

As far as I know there's no tourist or ordinary VISA available for Cambodia at the moment.

On 10/5/2020 at 8:51 AM, Srikcir said:

No, not in the same way as Guam.

Guam is a legal part of the US soverneighty as much as any American is a citizen of the US.

Read history please.

www.dewittguam.com/an-independent-territory-guams-american-history/

 

 

What a sick joke.  Look at Peurto Rico and the unrepaired hurricane damage..,a vassal state is closer to the truth.  The US has mnor military bases worldwide than any other country and seeks nothing less than world domination.  Vietnam was fought under false pretenses (Gulf of Tonkin) as well as Iraq from Bushh the Butcher.  Flag waving hatriots are a joke.