Thread: Chinese navy is operating out of Cambodia's Ream base: US think tank

Cambodia appears to have given the Chinese navy extended and exclusive access to its naval base in Ream despite official claims that they only arrived for training purposes, a U.S. think tank said.


Radio Free Asia first reported on the arrival of two Chinese corvettes last December, the first foreign warships allowed to dock at the new Chinese-built pier at Ream, Sihanoukville province.


The ships left the pier on January 15, 2024, only to return several days later, said the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington D.C. in a new report.


AMTI analyzed commercial satellite imagery that shows the Chinese vessels “have now maintained a consistent presence for over four months.”


“It appears that they've been based there, just as the leaked 2019 MOU [memorandum of understanding] suggested they would be,” said Greg Poling, AMTI’s director, referring to the reported controversial agreement between Cambodia and China in 2019 giving Beijing exclusive rights to part of the Ream naval base.


“This isn't just a visit or an exercise,” Poling told RFA. “Despite the Hun Sen and Hun Manet governments' denials, the PLAN [People’s Liberation Army Navy] is operating out of Ream.”


Training Cambodian navy


The AMTI report said that no other ships, including Cambodian vessels, have been seen docking at the new pier, “which was completed last year to enable larger warships to dock in Ream’s shallow waters.”


This indicates “a visible sign of privileged access for China’s military,” it said, adding that the degree of China’s access to Ream in the future will confirm whether Ream has become a Chinese naval base.

Cambodia is preparing for the upcoming annual joint exercise Golden Dragon with the Chinese military, part of which will be conducted at sea, RFA has learned. Naval commanders held a meeting in Phnom Penh on April 18 to discuss the exercise.


It is unclear whether the Chinese vessels currently at Ream would take part in Golden Dragon 2024. In last year’s iteration, the two navies conducted their first-ever joint naval drills in the waters off Sihanoukville, but with a landing ship dispatched from China.


RFA has contacted Rear Adm. Mey Dina, Ream naval base’s commander, for more clarification but has not received any reply.


When the two Chinese ships arrived in Ream in December 2023, Cambodia’s minister of defense Tea Seiha said on Facebook that it was “for training our Cambodian Navy crew.” In the following days there was indeed a training course for Cambodian navy staff at Ream, attended by Chinese officers.


However, there were no further reports on any activity of the Chinese ships in either Cambodian or Chinese media.


“We don’t know what the Chinese have been up to [at Ream] because China builds and operates it itself,” said a Cambodian analyst who wished to stay anonymous due to the sensitivity of the topic.


“What appears to be evident is that Beijing has begun to station semi-permanent warships there as a means of solidifying its military footprint across Southeast Asia,” said Paul Chambers, a political scientist at the Center of ASEAN Community Studies at Naresuan University in Thailand.


“A Chinese foothold in Cambodia offers support to other nearby Chinese military platforms in the South China Sea, Myanmar, Laos, and southern Asia,” Chambers told RFA.


‘Serious concerns’


A spokesperson from the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh said in an email to RFA that “the United States and countries in the region have consistently expressed serious concern about the intent, nature, and scope of construction at Ream naval base, as well as the role the PRC (People’s Republic of China) military is playing in this process and infuture use of the facility.”


“The Cambodian people, neighboring countries, ASEAN, and the region more broadly would benefit from transparency on PRC activities at Ream,” the embassy wrote.


There has been no immediate comment from the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh. The U.S. State Department last December said it had “serious concerns” about China’s plans for exclusive control over portions of Ream Naval Base, a claim that Cambodia has repeatedly denied.


Top officials in Phnom Penh have maintained that allowing a foreign military to be based in Cambodia would be in contradiction to the country’s constitution.

Cambodian analyst, Chhan Paul, wrote in the pro-government newspaper Khmer Times that any allegation of a Chinese military base is a “deliberate attempt to malign Cambodia.”


“Cambodia never claims that it won’t allow warships from China to dock at the Ream naval base. Cambodia openly welcomes warships from other friendly countries to dock at the base,” the independent analyst wrote, “Therefore, the mere sighting of a Chinese warship cannot be interpreted to mean anything out of the ordinary.”


Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi is to visit Cambodia from April 21 to 23 to further consolidate bilateral relations in “wide-ranging areas,” according to a press release from the Cambodian foreign ministry.


Wang Yi is scheduled to call on King Norodom Sihamoni and meet with Prime Minister Hun Manet and his father Hun Sen, who is now the president of the country’s Senate.

Chinese navy is operating out of Cambodia's Ream base: US think tank — Radio Free Asia

Not really a surprise considering Hun Sen has handed the country's keys to the chinky bastards in return for a massive cake tin.

Still re: the Chinese, recently on the news here in PH is the issue of 1500+ Chinese on student visas in PH. They enrolled in a university in Cagayan province (in north Luzon).

Over 1,500 Chinese secured student visas in Cagayan in 2023 – BI.

****
It's not a top uni in PH (in terms of ranking or reputation). The buzz here is that those "students" may have been sent to spy on some PH sites.

(We recall that pre WW2, Japan sent out intelligence officers as "businessmen" to PH to gather Intel, prior to their invasion in 1942.)

^ That is a lot of Chinese students. And how to tell if they are sent by the government as spies or students getting away from their government.

^we don't know. As long as the visa applicants submit the proper papers (endorsement from uni, etc) then they'll be granted the student visa. (As usual, money talks.)

Accdg to the spokesperson of the Bureau of Immigration, the names of the Chinese students were forwarded to the NBI (our equiv to the FBI) and another agency, NICA (National Intelligence Coordinating Agency). Since they're on student visa, they can be subject to further investigation.



*****

In the comments section of the vid, some ppl said that their visas should be cancelled & they should be deported, since they're a threat to national security.

Originally Posted by katie23

1500+ Chinese on student visas in PH

There are 100,000 Chinese foreign students in Canada.

Originally Posted by katie23

In the comments section of the vid, some ppl said that their visas should be cancelled & they should be deported, since they're a threat to national security.

I agree.

All PRC Chinks are spies for their country.

It is their duty, their responsibility and their birthright.

Every Chink issued a WP, ST visa or visit visa in the West is potentially a spy.

Only a fucking idiot could think otherwise.

Originally Posted by Seekingasylum

Every Chink issued a WP, ST visa or visit visa in the West is potentially a spy.

Only a fucking idiot could think otherwise.

Where is ​yourdaddy, anyway?

The Ream base is of course for the use of the PRC, as the high speed rail link through Thailand to Malaysia will be used by the PRC.

Belt and braces, hub and spoke, domination of the world is the end game for these ghastly commie chink fuckers.

^SA has a point there - abt PRC nationals being spies for their govt.

I remember the PRC nationals involved in the "piano gate" incident in the UK, involving pianist YouTuber Brendan Kavanagh.



******
Meanwhile in PH, another issue we have is that some PRC nationals posed as Filipinos to buy land near ports & military zones


^report is in English

Originally Posted by Seekingasylum

domination of the world is the end game for these

Thought that was the muzzies 20 years ago.

Is it gonna end up being a 5 billion muzzies Vrs 5 billion chinks Battle Royal in the year 2200?

Don’t be so fucking puerile.
The islamic states comprise myriad countries worldwide with differing socio-economic-political aims whereas PRC China is a single entity intent on a common purpose of global domination.

So..a piece of propaganda from a ...Think Tank..ends up on a propaganda channel..Radio Free Asia

Fair enough

But why has it been posted in...News ?

Originally Posted by Bonecollector

Railways are pretty fucking easy to disable and people are not of the thought that the high speed rail network is a threat to Thailand's sovereignty.

Correct

Originally Posted by Bonecollector

Imagine having a fucking Chinese aircraft carrier and a few Chinese destroyers sitting in the Gulf of Thailand.

If someone has the means and will, those ships could be ..disabled very easily also.

^Tis true but they can move and counter measure Helge. A railway can't do fuck all but expand and contract.

Originally Posted by Bonecollector

but they can move

In which case the problem is solved

Originally Posted by Bonecollector

and counter measure

Hmm

I can only quote what I have heard.

Carriers in unfriendly waters is sitting ducks. Yes, they and their support groups have defences, but bear in mind, that when the time comes, when carriers are attacked, we are no longer talking about some "pre-emptive war" against brown people.

It'll be tactical supersonic stuff and submarines close up

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Knowing, of course, the torpedoes probably haven't got any batteries in them...

Thais have numerous GT-200 Remote Substance Detectors in stock, supplied by some brits.

I think they'll bloody well know, if there are batteries or not.

A railway can be destroyed?

Who the fuck is going to destroy a pan-Thai rail route carrying a Chink mechanised division from Lao to the Mys border in less than 24 hrs should the PLA decide to do so at the outset of a military manoeuvre.
God, you idiots certainly do betray your ditch digging roots.

And Tax, you fucking senescent dribbler, the Arab ethnicity and Islamic belief is as binding as your increasingly spittle flecked rhetoric.
Christ, Sunnis and Shiites kill each other on sight, Turks are secular, Jordan supports the West against Iran, the Taliban etc loathed ISIL, it's a disparate miscellany united in conflict and as unified as Christian Germany was with Christian Britain in 1939, you silly northern spastic twat.

China is a behemoth, utterly united under commie suppression, which is pursuing a strategic role developed with one purpose since the 1990s.

The Kra canal would never be built since there is not one single economic factor supporting its construction , nor is there any logistical, commercial need as vividly demonstrated by the current Thai government’s inability to drum up finance for the construction of a road/ rail link alternative. Also, it is beyond the scope of the Thai to embark alone on such a daft project.

The Chinese support for a continuous high speed rail route from its territory to the Malacca Straits and ultimately to the Singapore Roads is not commercially based but a stitch in military time within its Belt & Road strategy. You control that waterway and you control the passage of one quarter of the world’s goods - Singapore alone bunkers annually 3 billion tonnes of shipping.

Jesus, you lot have all the perspicacity of a traffice bollard.

“China is a behemoth, utterly united under commie suppression”


speaking of having the perspicacity of a traffice bollard...

Without perspicacity I personally find Chinese fare too mild and lacking in any real flavour.

Originally Posted by Seekingasylum

The Kra canal would never be built since there is not one single economic factor supporting its construction , nor is there any logistical, commercial need as vividly demonstrated by the current Thai government’s inability to drum up finance for the construction of a road/ rail link alternative.

China is more helped by a railroad from Nong Khai to a shipping terminal at the Andaman sea, a Thai Dawei.

^^^^

Kra Canal is about China getting a true blue water navy....duh