On this picture launched by Agence Kampuchea Press (AKP), Chinese language President Xi Jinping critiques the Royal Palce honorary guards as he’s accompanied by Cambodian Senate President Hun Sen, proper, throughout a send-off ceremony at Phnom Penh Worldwide Airport in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Friday, April 18, 2025. (AKP through AP)
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Chinese language President Xi Jinping capped a three-nation Southeast Asia tour in Cambodia on Friday. The tour promoted Beijing’s reliability because the area faces financial uncertainty because of US President Donald Trump’s tariff proposals.
China has been strongly rising its affect within the area over the previous decade, largely by exercising its substantial financial leverage.
Beijing is now presenting itself as a supply of stability and certainty as Trump’s tariffs threaten the area’s export-oriented economies. Their largest market is usually america.
Cambodia faces among the many highest reciprocal tariff charges proposed by Washington. Along with Trump’s common 10-percent tariff, it faces the specter of a 49-percent tariff on exports to the US as soon as his 90-day pause expires.
For the opposite nations visited by Xi, Vietnam ‘s tariff could be 46 % and Malaysia ‘s 24 %.
Xi’s journey gained impression from response to US tariff proposals
“The timing of the go to is very auspicious for China, falling simply within the wake of the announcement of Trump’s tariffs which have triggered managed consternation in Cambodia and Vietnam … and upset in Malaysia,” Astrid Norén-Nilsson, a senior lecturer within the Research of Modern South-East Asia at Sweden’s Lund College, stated in an e mail interview on Thursday.
“Xi Jinping can now perform the tour outfitted with the ethical authority and goodwill of a singularly fixed good friend and dependable buying and selling accomplice.”
In Vietnam and Malaysia, Xi emphasised strengthening ties, notably in commerce and funding. He underscored the necessity to oppose unilateralism and protectionism and uphold the multilateral buying and selling system.
A abstract of the go to issued Friday by Cambodia’s International Affairs Ministry barely talked about the commerce disaster, focusing as an alternative on bilateral relations. Nevertheless, China’s state Xinhua information company stated Xi had mentioned the identical commerce points as on his earlier stops.
Cambodia-China relations already on a agency footing
“This milestone go to not solely reaffirmed the unwavering dedication to the ironclad friendship between Cambodia and China, but additionally additional strengthened and deepened the Complete Strategic Partnership and win-win cooperation between the 2 international locations,” stated the Cambodian assertion.
Throughout his keep, Xi was granted a royal viewers by King Norodom Sihamoni. He held conferences with Prime Minister Hun Manet and Senate President Hun Sen, who’s Hun Manet’s father and predecessor as prime minister.
The go to was Xi’s first to Cambodia since 2016.
Xi and Hun Manet additionally presided over the signing of 37 paperwork. These lined funding, commerce, schooling, finance, data, youth work, agriculture, well being, water sources, tourism, girls’s affairs and different topics.
Particulars of the largest deal had been introduced Friday, the signing of a public-private partnership contract to fund Cambodia’s bold $1.156 billion Funan Techo Canal undertaking. This was launched final yr however work stopped quickly after groundbreaking.
The 151-kilometer-long canal would hyperlink a department of the Mekong River to a port on the Gulf of Thailand.
China has been Cambodia’s largest buying and selling accomplice for 13 consecutive years. Two-way commerce in 2024 reached $17.83 billion, although enormously in China’s favor.
Additionally, China has been Cambodia’s largest supply of overseas funding for 13 consecutive years. It was additionally a serious support donor and its greatest creditor.
China’s place on local weather and support contrasts with US
Referring to social and growth points, the International Ministry’s assertion implicitly made a distinction to positions held by america. It stated that “either side acknowledged the worldwide menace posed by local weather change and dedicated to strengthening environmental safety (and) advancing clear power collaboration.”
It additionally talked about China’s assist in coping with Cambodia’s downside of clearing land mines left over from armed conflicts a long time in the past, and cooperation within the well being sector.
The Trump administration’s overseas support cuts have affected these and different sectors.
The assertion additionally declared that “either side agreed to additional strengthen the cooperation mechanism between the armed forces of the 2 international locations.”
Beijing helped fund an enlargement of the Ream Naval Base on Cambodia’s southern coast. This raised worries it may turn into a strategic outpost for the Chinese language navy within the Gulf of Thailand.
The assertion didn’t point out the bottom problem. Cambodia has repeatedly denied any settlement granting China particular privileges or the institution of a overseas army base.
Cambodia has acknowledged that warships from all pleasant international locations are welcome to dock at its new pier, supplied they adjust to sure situations.
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Japan introduced on Tuesday that two of its minesweepers will go to the Ream base this weekend within the first overseas navy go to because the enlargement undertaking was accomplished.
