Entering ChinaOn January 28, the WeChat public account of the Chinese Embassy in Cambodia published an article “Coming to Discuss the Cambodian Canal Project? Is China-Cambodia relations over? Nonsense! The full text is as follows:
Recently, many domestic and foreign media have focused on Cambodia’s Funan Dezo Canal project, and some have publicized that China will no longer provide support to Cambodia, and the canal project will be yellow, and the iron-clad friendship between China and Cambodia will be impacted. This is really serious nonsense.
The author has consulted the official website, and the Chinese side has made it clear that it is willing to assist the Cambodian side in actively exploring the idea of a comprehensive water conservancy project (referring to the Funan Dezo Canal project). According to Cambodian media reports, Chinese authorities went to Cambodia at the end of last year to discuss the canal project. Such a huge and complex project, of course, requires solid research and repeated argumentation before it can be launched. The author can’t help but think that the first canal since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the Pinglu Canal, was approved by the State Council in 2019 to promote the research and demonstration of the Pinglu Canal, and after careful and comprehensive research, the project will be completed in 2022. Cambodia’s Funan Dezo Canal also needs to be carefully studied and demonstrated. We believe that more positive information will be released, and we will wait and see.
As for the impact on China-Cambodia relations? It’s even more illusory. The traditional friendship between China and Cambodia has been created and carefully cultivated by Chairman Mao Zedong, Premier Zhou Enlai and other Chinese leaders of the older generation and Prince Sihanouk, and has become a precious wealth shared by the two peoples. (Prince Sihanouk’s poem). In 2019, China and Cambodia reached a consensus on building a China-Cambodia community with a shared future, and Cambodia became the first country in the world to sign an action plan to build a community with a shared future with China.
The building of a China-Cambodia community with a shared future has brought tangible benefits to the people of the two countries. China has been Cambodia’s largest source of foreign investment and largest trading partner for many years. In January 2022, the China-Cambodia Free Trade Agreement entered into force, which is the first bilateral free trade arrangement in Cambodia’s history. Both sides have acceded to the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). The above-mentioned free trade arrangements have achieved zero tariffs on more than 90% of products under tariff lines, driving the bilateral trade volume between China and Cambodia to reach US$15.1 billion in 2024, a year-on-year increase of 23.8%. Cambodian bananas, mangoes, and longans are increasingly appearing in the “vegetable basket” of the Chinese people.
Last year, the Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone, a landmark project of China-Cambodia Belt and Road cooperation, completed an import and export trade volume of US$4 billion, accounting for nearly 8% of Cambodia’s national import and export trade. Up to now, the SEZ has attracted 200 enterprises to settle in, creating 32,000 jobs for the local area, and the industrial output value of the SEZ has contributed more than 50% to the local economy, becoming the “engine” of local development and the “golden rice bowl” of the people, and playing a positive role in maintaining the stability of the regional production and supply chain.
The Phnom Penh-Sihanoukville Expressway, built by Chinese enterprises, was officially opened to traffic in October 2022, shortening the driving time from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville from more than 5 hours to 2 hours, helping the Cambodian people realize their “highway dream”. In Cambodia, China has assisted in the construction of nearly 4,000 kilometers of roads, more than 10 bridges across rivers, water conservancy projects with a total irrigation area of about 420,000 hectares, and the erection of more than 8,000 kilometers of Cambodia’s national power grid and rural power transmission and transformation lines. According to Cambodian media reports, China once again provided additional assistance to Cambodia’s infrastructure last year. Cambodian leaders have publicly stated on many occasions that “if you don’t rely on China, who else can you rely on?”
There are also people on the Internet who deliberately peddle an argument that Cambodia has “turned back” under the increased temptation of the United States. even threw out a lot of videos and pictures that were faked by AI technology to smear Cambodian leaders. This is even more nonsense. In 2020, then Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen braved the wind and snow to visit China at the most difficult time in China’s fight against the epidemic, and expressed the essence of the China-Cambodia community with a shared future, which is “seeing the truth in adversity”. In December last year, Hun Sen, chairman of the People’s Party and chairman of the Senate, told Chinese leaders during his visit to China, “China is Cambodia’s most trusted friend.” Friendship with China is a firm political consensus of the Cambodian people, and there will be no change in the Cambodian leadership due to the intergenerational succession. ”
As Hun Sen’s eldest son, as early as the beginning of his tenure, Hun Manet promised to inherit the foreign policy of the Cambodian People’s Party, and repeatedly reaffirmed that Cambodia and China are iron-clad friends and will be committed to promoting friendly relations between Cambodia and China. It is true that Hong Manet has a background in the United States, but at the critical moment, who is Cambodia’s most reliable and reliable “true friend”, I believe he can still carry it clearly.
A Cambodian proverb says, “Trust is like a tree”. The friendship between China and Cambodia is like a thriving tree, thanks to the fact that the leaders of the two countries have personally created and carefully watered it, benefited from the high degree of compatibility of the development strategies of the two countries and the high degree of complementarity of economic development, and rooted in the common culture, affinity and common ideas of the two peoples, it will surely be able to withstand the test of time and the changes in the international situation and bear fruitful fruits.
Those false news that smear China-Cambodia cooperation and friendly relations between the two countries are not worth refuting in the face of facts. It is believed that a more “iron” China-Cambodia friendship will make these rumors self-defeating.
