Chapter I: Introduction
1. Background Information
After the end of World War II, the interdependence among sovereign states began to emerge all over the globe. States started to cooperate with one another in terms of politics, economics, and security in order to promote the prosperity and peace of their territories. Particularly, The Kingdom of Cambodia, one of the countries that suffered from experience of colonialism, has strengthened the international relation with one of the superpowers known as the People’s Republic of China. Thus, analyzing about the politics, economics, and security between both countries is the significant implication of Sino-Cambodia relation.
2. Research Questions
This paper aims to explain the aspects behind the …show more content…
After enjoying the political stability in the region for almost twenty years, Cambodia faced threat from both internal and external factors. From 1970s until 1990s, Cambodia had been through one of the darkest time from the military coup to genocide. After the political unrest in Cambodia in 1997, China once restored the relation with it brother, Cambodia. Later, both countries became best friends in the region. Politically, there are 2 major factors that bring Sino-Cambodia Relations close together. The most significant factor is that China was the first country to recognize the change of the regime after strongman Hun Sen came to power in 1997. On the other hand, China did not condemn on human rights and freedom of speech like other states did, but also she introduced the “non-interference policy” and offered the aids in military worth of $2.8 million (Jeldres, 2003) . On top of that, after political instability in Cambodia, China tried to exploit the natural resources that are considered as mutual benefits for both friends. The second reason is the relation between two countries that show the positive outcome by the visitation of President Jiang Zemin on November 2000, defense Minister Chi Haotian on February 2001, chairman of the standing committee Li Peng on May 2001, and Prime Minister Zhu Rongji on November 2002 (Kosal, 2009) . During …show more content…
There are many reasons behind this relation. Firstly, China concerned about its security because of the Sino-Vietnamese relation in 1978 after the Sino-Soviet split up. In China’s point of view, she thought that she is facing 2 hostile powers on both its northern and southern borders (Knight, Heazle, 2011). Furthermore, within the expansionism of the Soviet Union in Indochina, Cambodian and Laos would fall under the control of Vietnam, alliance of USSR, and this would pose a security threat to China. In this particularly case, China started to support the Khmer Rouge by providing a thousand of technicians to help Khmer Rouge’s revolution in order to contain the sphere of Soviet influence. Secondly, the geopolitical consequence enables China to support Cambodia (Im, 2015). Specifically, Cambodia’s unique geographical location helps China to strengthen its security in Southeast Asia because it is located in the center of mainland Southeast Asia (Heng, 2012). Among other pearls in the “strings of pearls”, Cambodia is regarded as the most important one that makes China funding the innovation of docking facilities at Ream and the port of Sihaknouk province (Heng, 2012). Accessing to these ports provides China a great base for inserting power into the Gulf of Thailand and the Straits of Malacca; this makes China to counterbalance the influence of
1. Background Information
After the end of World War II, the interdependence among sovereign states began to emerge all over the globe. States started to cooperate with one another in terms of politics, economics, and security in order to promote the prosperity and peace of their territories. Particularly, The Kingdom of Cambodia, one of the countries that suffered from experience of colonialism, has strengthened the international relation with one of the superpowers known as the People’s Republic of China. Thus, analyzing about the politics, economics, and security between both countries is the significant implication of Sino-Cambodia relation.
2. Research Questions
This paper aims to explain the aspects behind the …show more content…
After enjoying the political stability in the region for almost twenty years, Cambodia faced threat from both internal and external factors. From 1970s until 1990s, Cambodia had been through one of the darkest time from the military coup to genocide. After the political unrest in Cambodia in 1997, China once restored the relation with it brother, Cambodia. Later, both countries became best friends in the region. Politically, there are 2 major factors that bring Sino-Cambodia Relations close together. The most significant factor is that China was the first country to recognize the change of the regime after strongman Hun Sen came to power in 1997. On the other hand, China did not condemn on human rights and freedom of speech like other states did, but also she introduced the “non-interference policy” and offered the aids in military worth of $2.8 million (Jeldres, 2003) . On top of that, after political instability in Cambodia, China tried to exploit the natural resources that are considered as mutual benefits for both friends. The second reason is the relation between two countries that show the positive outcome by the visitation of President Jiang Zemin on November 2000, defense Minister Chi Haotian on February 2001, chairman of the standing committee Li Peng on May 2001, and Prime Minister Zhu Rongji on November 2002 (Kosal, 2009) . During …show more content…
There are many reasons behind this relation. Firstly, China concerned about its security because of the Sino-Vietnamese relation in 1978 after the Sino-Soviet split up. In China’s point of view, she thought that she is facing 2 hostile powers on both its northern and southern borders (Knight, Heazle, 2011). Furthermore, within the expansionism of the Soviet Union in Indochina, Cambodian and Laos would fall under the control of Vietnam, alliance of USSR, and this would pose a security threat to China. In this particularly case, China started to support the Khmer Rouge by providing a thousand of technicians to help Khmer Rouge’s revolution in order to contain the sphere of Soviet influence. Secondly, the geopolitical consequence enables China to support Cambodia (Im, 2015). Specifically, Cambodia’s unique geographical location helps China to strengthen its security in Southeast Asia because it is located in the center of mainland Southeast Asia (Heng, 2012). Among other pearls in the “strings of pearls”, Cambodia is regarded as the most important one that makes China funding the innovation of docking facilities at Ream and the port of Sihaknouk province (Heng, 2012). Accessing to these ports provides China a great base for inserting power into the Gulf of Thailand and the Straits of Malacca; this makes China to counterbalance the influence of