Charm offensive: U.S.-China rivalry plays out in Cambodian capital

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BANGKOK — The U.S. and China are taking turns wooing Cambodia’s West Point-educated prime minister with guns, money and security assurances, but the Chinese appear to be scoring most of the rewards in the geopolitical tug-of-war.

In a case study of the fierce rivalry for friends and influence across the region, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin arrived in Phnom Penh on Tuesday for talks just after China’s massive military exercise with the Cambodian army. Washington has watched with concern in recent years as Cambodia deepens its economic and security ties with Beijing.

During his one-day stop, Mr. Austin met with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet and Defense Minister Tea Seiha. He added the trip after a Singapore defense forum, where he met with his Chinese counterpart, Adm. Dong Jun.

The English-speaking, Western-educated Hun Manet, son of longtime Cambodian strongman Hun Sen, was the first Cambodian cadet to graduate from West Point in 1999, 24 years after Mr. Austin graduated in 1975.

That may have smoothed the way for their talks, which likely included Beijing’s military advances in Cambodia amid the smoldering rivalry along the Gulf of Thailand, which is used by the Chinese navy and the U.S. 7th Fleet’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. The U.S. has also expressed concern about Cambodia’s human rights record and plans by Phnom Penh and Beijing to dig a canal from the Mekong River to the Gulf of Thailand. Those concerns will likely be muted as the U.S. woos the new Cambodian leader.

“Yes, the U.S.-China rivalry has extended to the Gulf of Thailand,” said Arizona State University associate professor Sophal Ear, who has studied Cambodian politics extensively. Beijing has made inroads even though “Thailand’s military relationship with the U.S. is built on decades of established alliances, joint exercises and strategic partnerships,” Sophal Ear said.

Hun Manet’s rise was engineered by his authoritarian father, who consistently welcomed China’s increase in Cambodia’s economic, diplomatic and military affairs. Mr. Austin, who was set to travel to France for D-Day commemoration ceremonies later this week, also met in Phnom Penh with Hun Sen, now president of the Cambodian Senate.

The latest military exercise with Beijing marked a milestone, analysts of the relationship said.

China’s Golden Dragon military exercises in Cambodia from May 16-30 were “the first since Hun Manet became prime minister, indicating that he is continuing to expand his father’s embrace of China,” said Craig Etcheson, an author and researcher about Cambodia.

In a stunning display during the exercises, China let loose its robot dogs of war. Shooting machine guns were mounted on the backs of the mechanized canines. China’s People’s Liberation Army Southern Theater Command led the exercises, guiding Beijing’s closest ally in Southeast Asia, the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces.

Joint drills maneuvered through Cambodia’s central Kampong Chhnang province at a training base with forests and mountains and in the Gulf of Thailand off Cambodia’s coastal Preah Sihanouk province.

Golden Dragon included “more than 1,300 Cambodian troops, more than 700 Chinese troops, three large warships, and 11 Cambodian warships,” said Cambodian Maj. Gen. Thong Solimo. Maneuvers also involved two helicopters and nearly 70 armored vehicles and tanks, accompanied by the weaponized robot dogs, which sparked a flurry of interest on social media.

Chinese forces led live-fire exercises and anti-terrorism and rescue operations.

Phnom Penh agreed to host Beijing’s first Golden Dragon in 2016 after canceling U.S.-Cambodian Angkor Sentinel military exercises. Much of the Chinese weaponry and equipment arrived by sea, unloaded at Cambodia’s Sihanoukville Port along the gulf.

“We can definitely say that the U.S.-China rivalry has spread to the Gulf of Thailand,” said Paul Chambers, a Naresuan University lecturer on security and politics in Thailand and Cambodia.

He pointed to Cambodia’s Ream Naval Base, which received Chinese financing to expand along the gulf.

Ream can be used by Chinese and some international shipping, but Washington fears Cambodia will eventually allow Chinese warships to establish a base there. That would heighten tensions in the Gulf of Thailand, which opens to the hotly disputed South China Sea.

“With China able to use Ream for its naval military vessels, and Dara Sakor [a private airfield in Cambodia leased to Chinese] for its air force, Cambodia has become a key geopolitical chess piece of Beijing in Southeast Asia,” Mr. Chambers said in an interview.

Thailand conducts annual large-scale military exercises with the Pentagon and routinely allows the U.S. Navy to dock at facilities along the shallow Gulf of Thailand. In April, the nuclear-powered Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, armed with missile launchers, docked at Thailand’s Laem Chabang port near Bangkok, a routine that began in 2018 in the U.S. 7th Fleet’s area.

“We are here to make sure we are ready to respond to any crisis in the area,” Rear Adm. Christopher Alexander, commander of Carrier Strike Group 9, said after docking.

“We are here to deter aggression,” he said. He was accompanied by the USS Theodore Roosevelt’s more than 80 warplanes, including anti-submarine aircraft, strike fighters and planes equipped with electronic countermeasures.

The robot dogs of war

China’s low-slung, flat-backed robot dogs were a big hit during the joint military exercises.

In online photographs and videos posted by participants, grinning Chinese and Cambodian uniformed troops cluster around a robot dog with a heavy black machine gun bolted to its flat back. A Chinese officer holds a CD-sized, black box with two short, protruding antennas resembling a Wi-Fi router and remotely controls the robot.

When the crouching machine slowly stands up, several Cambodian officers back away, laughing nervously until it achieves a four-legged standing canine position. Video from one robot dog’s front camera shows the robot dog maneuvering through a makeshift maze of green netting and scaffolding.

The lettering on the robot dog’s gray surface identifies it as “B1 Unitree.” Unitree Robotics is “a Chinese start-up that has been developing its own line of robot dogs since 2016,” reported Cyberguy.com, a site for computer news.

Futurism, a New York-based website reporting technological developments, described the “terrifying gun-toting robodogs” as “a dystopian vision of what the future of warfare could look like.”

“Last year, the Pentagon announced that the U.S. Army is considering arming remote-controlled robot dogs with state-of-the-art rifles as part of its plan to ‘explore the realm of the possible’ in the future of combat,” Futurism reported. “A U.S.-based military contractor called Ghost Robotics has already showed off such a robot dog, outfitted with a long-distance rifle.”

China’s deadly mechanical dogs performing in Cambodia intrigued analysts.

“While the display of robotic dogs is more a demonstration of technological capability than a direct threat, it does signify China’s advancements in military technology,” Sophal Ear said in an interview. “The U.S. should take note of these developments as part of the broader context of China’s growing military capabilities and innovation in unmanned systems and AI-driven warfare technologies.”

Beijing’s military exercises with Phnom Penh mean “increased military presence and surveillance, potential flash points for conflict, and a heightened state of alert among regional nations. This rivalry could also impact regional trade routes and economic stability,” Sophal Ear said.

China’s expanding influence in Cambodia may protect Phnom Penh from Washington and other critics.

“China has become the Cambodian regime’s guarantee against interference from the West’s insistence on compliance with international law and a measure of respect for human rights,” said Rich Garella, an American former press secretary for Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy.

“The regime is sacrificing its sovereignty and becoming a vassal state of China, as it was for centuries in the past,” Mr. Garella said in an interview.