China expanding Cambodia naval base, satellite images show

New images reveal the rapid expansion of a Chinese military installation in Cambodia which both countries deny is part of a new security pact.

China is conducting large-scale construction at a naval base in Cambodia with a weapons storage and barracks and a nearby airfield which is longer than at the capital’s international airport.

Shocking satellite images released on Wednesday by the Washington-based Centre for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) shows construction at the Ream Naval Base in Sihanoukville on the Gulf of Thailand, giving Beijing a new southern flank in its South China Sea expansion.

Both Cambodia and China have consistently denied as ‘fake news’ intelligence reports they had in 2019 signed a 30-year military pact for one-third of the navy base to be declared for China’s exclusive use in exchange for millions in infrastructure aid dollars.

Construction at Ream Naval Base amid concerns that the new facilities are being built to facilitate a Chinese military presence in Cambodia. Satellite imagery: Maxar Technologies and Planet Labs

The satellite imagery shows in August and September this year three new buildings have been established as well as a road and clearing at the back of a Vietnam-funded hospital with another road to a large cleared area which has been fenced off since 2019 and is understood to be for a Chinese People Liberation Army (navy) headquarters.

Two previously US-funded buildings had also been demolished and the area cleared to make way for a dug channel.

US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman raised concerns about the rapid construction at Ream during her June 1 visit to Phnom Penh.

Several other changes occurred on the base during August and September. The northern section of coast alongside the new buildings has been cleared of foliage.

Both US and Australian Defence analysts have raised disquiet about the rapid expansion, on top of artificial reefs and military bases China is building in the South China Sea.

The government of Phnom Penh has conceded China construction crews were assisting in dredging the harbour and expanding facilities at the navy base as well as helping expand a nearby runway at Dara Sakor but Defence Minister Tea Banh denied it was part of any military pact with China, rather just a neighbour nation assisting “with no string attached”.

The guided-missile frigate Hengyang (Hull 568) and the guided-missile destroyer Wuhan (Hull 169) attached to a destroyer flotilla with the navy under the PLA Southern Theater Command steam alongside with each other during a maritime manoeuvre operation in waters of the South China Sea.

The non-profit CSIS organisation said it was releasing the imagery as part of its Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative which has extensively reported on China’s push into the region as part of a co-ordinated expansion network to gain “dual use” port footholds not just in Cambodia but also Myanmar and Sri Lanka.

There are also now mobile “projections”.

The Commanding Officer of HMAS Parramatta, Commander Anita Nemarich, waves at USS America during officer of the watch manoeuvres in the South China Sea. Picture: Department of Defence

“China’s deployment of radar, anti-ship and anti-air missile platforms, and combat aircraft to its outposts in the South China Sea has greatly expanded its ability to project power in waters far from its own coast,” the CSIS concluded.

“This feature illustrates how these three capabilities are fundamentally linked, and how China’s aircraft carriers can take advantage of them to comfortably conduct operations at greater distances.”

A PLA navy fleet including the aircraft carrier Liaoning, submarines, vessels and fighter jets take part in a review in the South China Sea. Picture: Getty

There is a realistic possibility Cambodian facilities would be used to monitor movements along the entire South East Asian coastline including the strategic Malacca Strait.

Amphibious armoured vehicles attached to a brigade of the PLA navy Marine Corps make their way to the beachhead during a maritime amphibious assault training in the west of south China's Guangdong Province. Picture: PLA

According to a report of the alleged military pact, Chinese and Cambodian governments agreed to a lease arrangement where PLA soldiers would be granted Cambodian passports to move freely between the nations with a barracks and semi-permanent docking of Chinese warships.

The base would be jointly shared between the nations but the Chinese third would have its own security controlled perimeter.

China already provides Cambodia with almost half the country’s arms purchases

US officials were invited to the naval base by Cambodia to allay any fears but were denied access to sections deemed to be in China’s control.