Standing up among

How do you interpret Cambodia’s relationship with China? China has been very generous to Cambodia from a foreign aid perspective, I think, some estimates have been $2 billion or more, investment wise it has been $6 billion to $8 billion. Of course, these numbers are always rather murky, there is no clear source where you can find this data. The impact of Chinese aid and investment is, of course, a big influence in a country as small as Cambodia. What they’re able to do is get Cambodia to agree to support their policy. You saw it in 2012 essentially, with Cambodia Chairmanship of ASEAN, the resulting outcome of no joint communique and then in November when US President Obama visited, it was claimed that ASEAN had agreed not to internationalise the South China Sea. That money [Chinese aid and investment in Cambodia] was well spent for a country like China – they got what they wanted out of the arrangement They get to build things here and invest in infrastructure as well as companies like Shukaku, the company backed by China. The problem with Chinese involvement here is they go straight to the government. They don’t talk to people. So when you don’t talk to the people, you get the problem that people don’t want things to happen but the government say that is fine. When Samdech Ouv [King Father] was alive, he was asked by John Foster Dulles, the secretary of state of the United States, his majesty, are you pro-China or pro-America? And he said I am pro-Cambodia. And that is what we should be. We should be supporting whatever is in Cambodia’s interests.