Thomas Miller
The Phnom Penh Post
During her first meeting with Prime Minister Hun Sen in January, 2009, after becoming the US ambassador to Cambodia, Carol Rodley recounted the premier “gushingly stating that he spends more of his time with the American ambassador than with any other members of the diplomatic community”.
But just weeks earlier, Rodley signed off on a confidential diplomatic cable that labelled 2008 Cambodia’s “Year of China”, which she said “looks to become its ‘Century of China’”.
Cables from the US embassy in Phnom Penh made public on Tuesday by anti-secrecy organisation WikiLeaks provide an inside view into US concerns that China’s growing influence in the Kingdom would fuel corruption, inhibit progress on human rights and challenge the ability of other donors to sway the government on difficult issues. “China has spared no effort this year in celebrating the 50th anniversary of bilateral relations with Cambodia,” Rodley wrote in the cable. “The list of Chinese visitors is so long that the Chinese embassy’s political and economic officers have complained to [embassy officials] that they never get any rest.”
Rodley noted that China’s pledge of US$256 million in bilateral assistance for 2009 was “the highest single donor-country contribution to Cambodia ever”, cementing China’s position as Cambodia’s largest source of foreign aid.
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