Source: The Patriot Light | AWK Network | VIEW ORIGINAL POST ==>
When a US warship docked in Cambodia this week, it moored just a few kilometres from a base where China has built an extended new pier and two of Beijing’s own vessels have been berthed for about a year.
The United States has said the Ream naval base could grant China a strategic position in the Gulf of Thailand, near the disputed South China Sea, which Beijing claims almost in its entirety.
Washington is now looking to bolster its relationship with Cambodia, after Phnom Penh scrapped joint military exercises in 2017.
Cambodia has long been one of China’s staunchest allies in Southeast Asia, and Beijing has extended its influence over Phnom Penh in recent years.
China’s sway has taken its most concrete form at the Ream base — once partly funded by the United States — where the new jetty extends 363 metres (1,191 feet) into the Gulf of Thailand.
The two Type-056A Chinese anti-submarine corvettes — number 630, the Aba, and 631, the Tianmen — have been stationed alongside it for about 12 months, despite Cambodian leaders’ insistence that the base is not for use by any foreign power.
The jetty and the ships symbolise Beijing’s interests in…
