China’s Increasing Military Interference In Cambodia
China’s increasing military interference in Cambodia, will China sink it like Sri Lanka.
China intends to spread its influence around the world. Far away from its borders, it has found a willing ally in Cambodia’s authoritarian prime minister, Hun Sen.
Simultaneously, a regular shipment of weapons and military equipment from China to Cambodia has raised concerns about a possible Chinese military presence at Cambodia’s naval base.
According to a news agency report, in fact, recent satellite images have given startling indications that the naval base is being prepared for the HQ-9 surface-to-air missile (SAM).
Such a possibility was first raised by Tom Shugart, Adjunct Senior Fellow of the Defense Program at the Center for a New American Security.
Shugart noted that a road along the eastern edge of the Riem Naval Base now has several paved pads or expenses cut by forest, which is evident in a satellite image from June 2022
According to Tom Shugart, the road’s design, with several 10-12 meter-deep stands, resembles an installation that the PLA built in 2016 to protect the Yalong Naval Base on Hainan Island.
It should be noted that China has deployed HQ-9 SAMs to its military installations on Woody Island in Paracels and three other reefs in the Spratly Islands (Fiery Cross Reef, Subi Reef, and Mischief Reef) in the South China Sea.
China’s increasing military interference: The new road at Reem Naval Base with its distinctive extension is adjacent to a group of land cleared in 2019, the purpose of which is still unknown.
The road is reportedly in an area reserved for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) inside the complex. The road was constructed at the same time as other buildings in the suspected ‘Chinese’ area.
Highlighting the evidence from satellite images, Shugart asked whether China was actually building a SAM launcher placement on a foreign base located in a country that claimed no such base was under construction, and which claimed continues to do.
US officials were invited to Riem Naval Base by Cambodia’s Defense Minister T Ban in June 2021, although they were not allowed full access to the site.
