The Chinese invasion in Cambodia

The Chinese invasion in Cambodia

I am writing about the “Chinese invasion” (Chinese presence and economic influence in Cambodia). I have chosen to write about this because I lived in Sihanoukville for 7 months where the Chinese invasion is happening so rapidly that even I witnessed it in my short time there. However, before I write about my first-hand experiences I need to explain why and how this invasion has happened. The main reason for the invasion is due to how unstable Cambodia is and has always been. Instability creates vulnerability and therefore opportunity for invasion from certain countries with very specific objectives and deters generalised, healthy investment from others.

To begin with it is important to understand the extent that this invasion has occurred:

· In Sihanoukville Chinese casino owners have taken advantage of the non-existent gambling regulation and lax money-laundering laws, by the end of 2018 there will be more than 70 casinos.

· $4.2bn worth of power plants and offshore oil operations all owned by Chinese companies.

· There are estimations that Chinese make up 20% of Sihanoukville’s population.

· Of the $1.3bn invested in Sihanoukville over the past year, $1.1bn has come from China.

· A four-lane highway is being built by a Chinese construction company to connect Sihanoukville to Cambodia’s capital along with a larger international airport.

· Two massive investment projects consisting of a 360 sq km land concession for $3.8bn along with a 430 sq km concession for a $1bn investment by Heng Fu Sugar, one of China’s largest sugar producers. (The combined size of these two projects is larger than Phnom Penh).

· A tax-free economic zone has also led to 100-plus factories being built by Chinese and a further 200 mainly Chinese companies - producing consumer goods and garments – will be part of its ongoing expansion which will destroy Cambodia’s domestic garment making factories.

· Of the total number of foreign arrivals in 2017, nearly 120,000 were Chinese – an increase of 126% year-on-year.

· 70% of the land in Battambang is Chinese owned.

· Between 2013 and 2017, China invested $5.3bn in the country, more money than the Cambodian government invested its self.

What I saw – “Chinese only” shops, Chinese advertisement, Chinese owned hotels, hairdressers, guesthouses, travel agents, a floor of Don Bosco’s own Gelato in the centre was bought by a Chinese man whilst we were there, Inter-racial children, a whole street bought up by the Chinese causing all the Khmer restaurants and shops to shut and casinos being built everywhere (see inserted photos on page 6).

An intertwined combination of politics, economics, culture and human emotion has enabled this invasion to occur so easily in Cambodia. To explain this, it is important to understand how all of these factors have influenced each other. To be able to do this an observation of Cambodia’s past and present global and internal situation must first occur. Arguably the most important factor to analyse is to do this is, Cambodia’s political situation in the past and present.

Politics is a huge factor in influencing whether a country is stable and therefore vulnerable or not. Cambodia has never had a long period of political stability. There has been a constant battle for power dating right back to the 9th century where powerful religious leaders of Hindu tribes fought for power against Buddhist tribes. When maritime trade was discovered due to the Mekong, Thai and Vietnamese were soon battling against each other for control of it causing Cambodians to suffer at their expense. Not long after this France had colonised the country. Unlike India where England improved their infrastructure immensely (albeit among many negative things this colonisation of India did create) transportation was indeed improved hugely. The French colonisation brought little benefits to the country. France was very eager to colonise Vietnam using Cambodia (its neighbouring country) as a way in. With the focus on Vietnam production of infrastructure was left to a minimum. Due to this groups of persons in Cambodia, unhappy with the lack of benefits provided by their rulers and heavily influenced by Karl Marx’s ideologies, started to create, “gorilla” groups. One in particular was named the, “Khmer Issarks”. This small group quickly got momentum working with South Vietnam and Laos to seize power from the French. Soon the Issarks became the “Khmer People’s Revolutionary party”. This party was renowned for being an anti-American, anti-royalist democratic party. Although originally full of steam it soon became clear that their plans for the country were unsure. It was soon weakened by the King who played on his populations love for the Royals by instructing a referendum on whether they wanted the King to rule or the Khmer People’s Revolutionary party. The vote was heavily for the King causing the party to crumble. While this was commencing, many young Khmer had left to study in North Vietnam Ha Noi about communism and revolution. On their return they had brainwashed many Khmer people from the North east of the country who were the poorest and least educated and therefore the easiest to influence. The leader a man named Pol Pot who had studied Karl Marx and communism in Paris. He was already a member of the previous Khmer people’s revolutionary party but had remained a relatively quiet member. However, with the weakening of the party he took his chance to take control. In 1971 the Khmer Rouge coup d’etat started which led to the unjust murder of a quarter of the population. The civil war lasted 4 years and in the eyes of capitalist economists, stepped the country back hundreds of years. After the Khmer Rouge were overthrown by the Vietnamese most filtered back into society however a lot filtrated back into government. Without a means of democracy after having such an authoritarian government the notion of good, experienced stable governance was not an option. Corruption has been easy with the government only looking after its own family. Complete fear of the people in power has meant that those who were heavily involved with the Khmer Rouge have still managed to keep their power over the country. Other parties have tried and failed to due being exiled leaving Cambodia with essentially only one party. The rest of the parties which have been allowed to remain are also family members of Hun Sen.

Understanding Cambodia’s political history, it is easy to see how unstable it has been. Decades of political instability has led to several problems in the country which has caused it to be extremely vulnerable to influence by other countries - currently China. With leaders of the country constantly battling for power, neglection of key areas which leads to human freedom and economic success (again in the eyes of capitalism) has been able to occur. For example, education Amartya Sen argued in his book, “Development as Freedom” 1999, that education gives people the opportunity of freedom. However, it is clear to see that the level of education provided by the government would be categorised as a, “negative freedom”. In many of the poorest areas essentially everywhere but the three main cities, Sihanoukville, Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, the students are taught only the most basic level of education of Khmer, Maths and only a little science. With only a basic level of education they do not have the freedom to access many jobs, understand their political situation and whether it is oppressive or not, travel and live a healthy life style. (I saw Don Bosoc’s dentist for one month take a tooth out from a student every day). Negative freedom of education has trapped most of the population in a poverty cycle. They are poor and need money, without an access to education it is hard for them to see the negative effect that the Chinese invasion will likely bring to them in the future but only see the present money provided by the Chinese as a positive and beneficial factor to their individual lives. The Chinese have had access to a high level of education and therefore have positive freedoms. They are good at business and understand how to make deals which most benefits themselves. This means they able to easily exploit the Khmer people.

Furthermore, a lack of focus on the population by the leaders has meant there is a lack of economic opportunities e.g. jobs. Without this and a combination of basic education, entrepreneurship and bootstrap businesses starting up in the country by has stumped. Without this, the majority of the population at 67% are still employed in primary industries, few in secondary industry and the rest in service provision of tourism. This leaves the country in stage one of the, “Clark Fisher” model. Therefore, investment from China mostly providing jobs in the secondary and tertiary industries has provided a wealthier alternative for Khmer people. Cambodian workers on Chinese construction sites earn three times what they used to on local projects. It is difficult to argue against someone who is handing you more money than you have ever had before.

A long history of communism has meant that well-known TNC’S have not been allowed to invest in the country and many have also been deterred from investing. Such as McDonalds who provides 1 million jobs in the USA alone and has franchises in 80% of countries. Therefore, jobs in the tertiary sector with a guaranteed minimum wage from them is minimal. However, China a previously communist country and not part of the west (even though now having adopted many western characteristics) has been able to gain favour with the Khmer government. Not only are they an Asian country they also do not carry the same costly standards that western investors expect. Furthermore, big investment projects often come with strings attached by western companies or organisations such as the World bank. These can come in the form of high interest rates on the loans which have led to third world countries being heavily indebted to richer western countries. China is not part of the IMF or the World bank, much of the big investment projects have not come with strings attached making it a better investment choice for Cambodia than the western investments.

Another major reason why China has been able to so easily invade the country is due to the corruption of the government. During the Khmer Rouge, China funded the army by providing them with arms. After the war when many of the Khmer Rouge filtered back into the government, these close ties with China remained. Gifts given by Mr Fun to Mr Hun Sen have meant Mr Fun has managed to make contracts that no other investor has been allowed to do before. For example, after the gift of 220 motorbikes to Mr Hun Sen’s bodyguard unit, a 3,000-strong private army equipped with armoured personnel carriers, missile launchers and Chinese-made machine guns. Mr Fun was given a 99-year contract to transform the coastal region including some of the national park into a tourist area.

A few foreign personnel that I spoke to who now live and work in Cambodia have suggested the idea the reason why it has been so easy for Chinese businessmen and women to buy the land off Khmer people is because of Buddhist influence. For example, Buddhism promotes the ideology of focusing on the present moment and not thinking about the future or the past. Therefore, leading to the swift decisions of the Khmer people to accept the money offered to them by the Chinese now and not think about the effects that it will have on them or their children in the future. I am not sure I agree with this entirely as I did not hear once any of my students or the people I worked with talk about the present moment. However, it is a plausible theory.

Human emotion has also affected China’s ability to access the country. The Khmer Rouge devastated and terrified Khmer people. Every person that I manged to talk to about the Chinese invasion and the corruption of politics said how although they are angry and upset by this and their government, they will not do much to stop it as they are too scared of either them or their family being hurt or even killed.

Why has China chosen to invest in Cambodia?

China is a huge global superpower with investments in most countries throughout the world. In its effort to maintain its status and global presence it is investing in continuously more and more countries. Through this it is able to gain control of large areas of the world a term which is called neo-colonialism. Cambodia is a desirable country for many reasons: it has a weaker currency therefore meaning that investors can get more for their money and have a higher spending power, It is a coastal country giving access to the Asian ocean trading routes through the Mekong, it is has lax laws and a very small civil service meaning important areas like, “town planning” are non-existent therefore planning permission is not accounted for, casinos are illegal in Vietnam and Thailand, the cost of living in china is becoming increasingly more expensive causing many to move out into other areas of the world, many Chinese already live in Cambodia, it is close to China and there is a direct plane to Hong Kong.

Effects on local people in Sihanoukville

There are obvious negative effects on the people who live in Cambodia from this Chinese invasion. The most affected area is currently Sihanoukville due to the high concentration of investment. Sihanoukville has always been a relatively touristy area which meant many Khmer landowners opened up guesthouses and hotels and did well off it. However, due to such a large amount of construction work being done by the Chinese, the amount of western tourists has decreased dramatically. Despite a huge increase of Chinese tourists, profits for Khmer persons has dramatically decreased seeing as Chinese tourists prefer to stay in Chinese hotels. Therefore, many are choosing to sell their land to the Chinese who are offering a large amount of money. A combination or this and sky rocketing cost of living are forcing many Khmer people to leave this town. Rent has increased three-fold in the last few years. Not only is this causing many Khmer to be driven out of their home town but is also deepening the inequality within the country. Those Khmer who are lucky enough to have been able to afford property are able to rent it out to Chinese who pay a lot more than Khmer. Making the poor more poor and the rich richer. Rent which is, $500 per month to local residents now goes for $4,500 to Chinese visitors. The crime rate has also said to have increase. Due organised crime: there have been incidents of kidnappings as well as an increase in drink-driving accidents and prostitution - all of this is said to be linked to an influx of Chinese Mafia.

Effects on culture

It is very worrying how Khmer culture will be affected by this invasion. Due to having such a difficult political history and such external influence, Khmer culture is already very delicate. Of what is truly, “Khmer” is relatively limited with food being influenced by Vietnam and China and clothing by China and South Korea. Khmer new year is already being influenced by Thailand. Powder never used to be part of the celebration now it is a huge part. With a huge influx of Chinese and the undoubtable mix of the two populations it is worrying how possible it will be for Cambodia to keep its culture.

Effects on the economy

In terms of GDP, Cambodia’s growth has increased to 7% much of which is due to Chinese investment. Employment has moved from primary and secondary sector to the tertiary sector. However, the quaternary sector still remains non-existent.

What I think this will cause for the future

In terms of economic security in the future I believe that is likely that its GDP will continue to grow as long as the Chinese are able to comply with the Khmer people. Khmer people have a very soft nature. They do not express their emotions and believe certain things to be rude e.g. being loud and spitting is looked down upon. These mannerisms are things which the Chinese culture often lacks, “The Chinese can be very loud and rude” (Sokkheng my work college). Already there has been a small amount of protesting in Takeo province against the Chinese. Protesting and Xenophobia could lead to a decline in Chinese investment which could cause a huge set back in Cambodia’s economic growth and increase unemployment if investors pull out. It is clear to see that a sole dependence on China has continued to make this country and its future vulnerable and unstable. I believe inequality will continue to increase and the, “trickle-down” effect will be minimal if the Chinese continue to only buy and sell from each other. I think potential violence and protests will occur from the Khmer people as they become a minority in their own towns. Eventually the benefits of Chinese investment will be outweighed by the negative effects stumping economic growth leaving the country in potentially a worse situation.

Local opinions

I spoke to many Khmer people who I worked with and who I encountered in my day to day. There was an increasing amount of hate towards the Chinese. Chinese are threatening the Khmer people’s livelihood, culture and taking them away from their home town again placing them in poverty. Even I began to feel a hatred towards Chinese and I only lived there for 7 months.

Overall, the Chinese invasion in Cambodia has been caused by several factors which lead to a weak ability to refuse. Some may argue that this invasion could be a beneficial thing to the country and without this kind of extensive investment from China, Cambodia will never develop into a middle to high income country and with the high economic growth that it has recently seen this could be a validated point. For example, South Korea received a huge amount of money from the USA and managed to steam through development and it and it’s population is now reaping the benefits. However, it is also clear to see the detrimental negative effects that this invasion is also brining about. Cambodia is extremely reliant on China and therefore makes it vulnerable to economic manipulation. An already small population could soon be wiped out or cast out of its own country by the Chinese. Without a serious political change to a government that values its own population’s welfare I only see a morbid future for this beautiful country.