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This Week in AsiaPolitics

Cambodia’s Hun Sen wants ‘back in Beijing’s orbit’ during China visit amid balancing act with US

  • During this week’s trip to China, Hun Sen is expected to seek financial support for high-speed rail projects and ease Beijing’s concerns about US-Cambodia ties
  • Washington has often warned Cambodia over its growing military ties with Beijing and Phnom Penh’s poor human rights record

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Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen (L) linking arms with China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi (R) during a meeting at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh in August 2022. Photo: Cambodia’s government cabinet/Handout via AFP/File
Maria Siow
Apart from seeking China’s financial support for its development projects including Cambodia’s first high-speed rail project, Prime Minister Hun Sen’s visit to China this week is also aimed at securing greater support from Beijing in case of western sanctions, analysts said.
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The three-day trip – expected to begin on Thursday – is also aimed at easing China’s concerns about Cambodia’s growing ties with the United States and Japan, experts said.
Cambodia is seeking to upgrade two of its rail lines to high-speed services that will connect capital Phnom Penh with the southwestern city of Sihanoukville and the border with Thailand.
Astrid Norén-Nilsson, senior lecturer and director of studies at the Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies in Sweden’s Lund University said the success of the Sihanoukville-Phnom Penh Expressway which opened in October has shown infrastructure development “has a positive effect on the Cambodian government’s image and popularity”.

“[This] makes the projects now on the table of utmost importance to the [Cambodian] government,” Norén-Nilsson said.

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