: A Chinese Naval Base in Cambodia Signals a New Era of Competition in the Asia-Pacific Region #WorldNEWS In October 2020, satellite photos showed that the Cambodian government had demolished two American-built

A Chinese Naval Base in Cambodia Signals a New Era of Competition in the Asia-Pacific Region #WorldNEWS
In October 2020, satellite photos showed that the Cambodian government had demolished two American-built facilities at the Southeast Asian nation’s Ream Naval Base—despite Washington offering to renovate them.
On June 9, China is set to break ground on a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) naval facility at the same base, according to reports first published in the Washington Post. It’s a clear sign of Beijing’s increasingly robust power projection in the Asia-Pacific as it seeks to counter a U. S. policy of containment.
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Chinese and Cambodian officials have denied that there will be a permanent PLA presence at Ream. But the Post says a Beijing official has confirmed that the Chinese military, and Chinese scientists, will use a “portion” of the base.
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The Post story chimes with a 2019 report by the Wall Street Journal that said China had signed a 30-year secret deal for its military to use Ream. U. S. diplomatic sources told TIME they believe there will be at least a semi-permanent Chinese military presence there.
“Geopolitical competition with the U. S. is increasingly becoming the main lens in which the Chinese leadership is looking at foreign policy and its international behavior more broadly,” says Helena Legarda, lead analyst for the Mercator Institute for China Studies in Berlin.

TANG CHHIN SOTHY/AFP via Getty Images Cambodian navy personnel walk on a jetty in Ream naval base in Preah Sihanouk province during a government organized media tour on July 26, 2019.
A New Era of U. S. -China Competition
China for years has been building fortifications on rocks and reefs in the disputed South China Sea, and in 2017 opened its only official overseas base in Djibouti (where the U. S. , France, Japan and Italy also have bases. )
Beijing has also opened a military outpost in Tajikistan, near the border with Afghanistan, and is reportedly building a port facility with possible military uses in the United Arab Emirates. In April, a security deal between China and the Solomon Islands was leaked online, and subsequently confirmed by Beijing, which allows China to send armed police and military personnel to the South Pacific nation in what some U. S. officials believe may be the precursor to a permanent military presence.
The establishment of a Chinese naval base in Cambodia would boost Beijing’s aspirations of becoming a true global power with a network of military facilities around the world. That, combined with the Biden administration’s vow to compete with China, risks heightened tensions in the region.