China to upgrade Ream naval Base in Cambodia

Officials in Washington have said for years that Beijing plans to establish a naval outpost in the Southeast Asian country.

Tea Banh, left, and Wang Wentian at the Ream naval base on Wednesday. Picture: AFP

China will help Cambodia expand and upgrade a naval base, heightening concerns US officials have expressed for years that Beijing plans to establish a maritime outpost there.

The comments came at a ceremony on Wednesday marking the start of new China-funded construction at Ream Naval Base that was attended by senior Cambodian military and defence officials as well as Chinese ambassador Wang Wentain.

Over two years, Chinese firms and military technical experts will build and renovate a maintenance workshop, slipway and dry dock, warehouse, two new piers, and electrical, water and sewage infrastructure, said General Chau Phirun, director-general of the Cambodian Defence Ministry’s material and technical services department.

The upgrades will be funded by a Chinese grant, said Cambodian Defence Minister Tea Banh, who didn’t specify the grant’s size. General Tea Banh said the project was aimed at modernising Cambodia’s military and strengthening its capabilities, and denied the facility would be used by Chinese forces as a naval base.

The project “doesn’t serve any interests which are a threat to neighbouring countries or in the region”, General Chau said.

The nature and extent of China’s involvement have long been shrouded in secrecy. The Wall Street Journal revealed in 2019 that Beijing had signed a clandestine agreement allowing its armed forces to exclusively use a part of Ream Naval Base, which is located on Cambodia’s southern coast facing the Gulf of Thailand. US and allied officials said at the time that the site – while stopping short of being a full-scale Chinese base – would give Beijing its first dedicated naval staging facility in Southeast Asia.

It would serve as Beijing’s second overseas naval outpost after the People’s Liberation Army started operating a “support base” in the east African nation of Djibouti in 2017. Experts say Chinese forces would be able to use the Cambodian facility to further assert Beijing’s expansive territorial and maritime claims in the South China Sea. Beijing is seeking to establish more military and dual-use facilities around the world, in line with Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s ambitions to turn China into a first-rate military power capable of projecting force over greater distances and going toe to toe with Western rivals.

China’s activities at the Cambodian base have troubled the US for many years, but Washington has little leverage over Cambodia. Phnom Penh has close ties with China, and Cambodian officials resent the US’s focus on human rights and governance issues.

Prime Minister Hun Sen and his deputy have said in recent meetings with US and Australian officials that their country’s constitution doesn’t allow a foreign military base on its soil. Officials repeated those denials after The Washington Post reported this week that China is secretly building a naval facility in Cambodia and both sides are trying to conceal the operation.

At Wednesday’s ceremony, Mr Wang spoke glowingly of Beijing’s ties with Phnom Penh and fired thinly veiled barbs at Washington. A day earlier, he joined General Tea Banh for a swim in the waters off the coast of Cambodia’s Sihanoukville province.

The Wall Street Journal