“CAMBODIA is a thin piece of ham between two fat pieces of bread,” says a former Cambodian minister, as he stirs a glass of iced coffee. To Cambodia’s west is Thailand, which has more than four times as many people; the two countries have a dormant but unsettled border dispute. To the east is Vietnam, nearly six times as populous, which invaded Cambodia in 1979 and occupied it for ten years. So Cambodia has done what small countries always do: it has found a protector.
As long ago as 2006 Hun Sen, Cambodia’s prime minister, declared China his country’s “most trustworthy friend”. China’s past three presidents have all visited Cambodia, offering lavish aid and investment. The current one, Xi Jinping, declared Mr Hun Sen “an ironclad friend”. China is Cambodia’s biggest source of foreign direct investment by far: in 2015 it contributed a greater share to the total than all other countries combined (see chart). Cambodia has continued to accept Chinese largesse with glee, even as most of the rest of South-East Asia grows ever warier of its giant neighbour to the north (Laos, an even thinner slice of ham just north of Cambodia, is an...Continue reading
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