Trump’s Tariffs Risk Pushing Cambodia Further into China’s Embrace
A massive canal highlights Beijing’s deep investment in Cambodia just as the US is pulling back, leaving the Southeast Asian nation with less room to balance ties.
People hold portraits of China's President Xi Jinping and Cambodia's King Norodom Sihamoni during a welcome ceremony in Phnom Penh, on April 17.
Photographer: Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP/Getty Images
Along the Mekong River just outside Phnom Penh, Men Moeun and his neighbors live on land set aside for a massive China-backed infrastructure plan that could transform Cambodia’s economy, with some planting corn on the vacant fields to get by.
Now excitement is growing in their village after Chinese President Xi Jinping’s government agreed to move forward with the $1.2 billion Funan Techo Canal during his visit to Cambodia last week. The 152-kilometer (94-mile) waterway would link Cambodia’s manufacturing belt with the Gulf of Thailand, easing the path for exports from one of the region’s poorest economies and providing new jobs and opportunities for people living along the route.