How China rebuilt its Cambodian naval base

In 2020, something strange happened at Cambodia’s Ream military base in the Gulf of Thailand.

Cambodian authorities asked the U.S. Defense Department to renovate parts of the base, then suddenly backed out, and soon after began demolishing the American-funded buildings that were already there, some of which were built just four years ago.

Then the Chinese got to work.

Two Chinese warships have been visiting the rapidly expanding port almost daily since December. The work at Port Ream is part of a growing Chinese construction boom around the Red Sea and the South China Sea.

The presence of Chinese troops near one of the world’s most vital maritime lanes raises fundamental questions about Beijing’s ambitions. While the U.S. military base complex remains the largest in the world, a resurgent China is drawing countries like Cambodia into its sphere of influence.

“The possibility of a permanent Chinese military presence in Cambodia raises significant geopolitical concerns,” said Sophall Ear, a Cambodian-American political scientist at the Thunderbird School of International Management at Arizona State University. “It could prompt strategic adjustments in the U.S. and heighten global perceptions of Chinese militarization.”

A long visit

On December 3, 2023, Cambodia’s Defense Minister announced that two Chinese naval corvettes were visiting Koh Ream for joint military exercises. Satellite imagery confirmed that the warships had arrived two days earlier. They have remained in the vicinity since then.

The corvette was the only ship docked at Ream’s new, Chinese-built pier, which can accommodate much larger ships than any in the Cambodian fleet. Cambodia’s smaller corvettes are docked at a more modest pier to the south.

In past years, US officials and Japanese naval vessels have also attempted to visit Liam Island but have been denied full access.

“We closely monitor efforts by the People’s Republic of China to establish military bases overseas, including at Ream,” Pentagon spokesman John Supple said. “We are particularly concerned by the lack of transparency about the People’s Republic of China’s intentions and the terms of negotiations, because nations should be free to make sovereign choices that support their national interests and regional security.”

Cambodia denies any further Chinese intentions.

When U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin visited Cambodia in early June, he was told by his colleagues there that China was only helping Cambodia modernize its military but was not building bases for itself.

“Ream military base belongs to Cambodia and is not a military base of any country,” base commander Mae Dina told The New York Times. “It is not correct to say that the base is controlled by China.”

While construction on the Liam is still underway, foreign ships will not be able to dock there, May Dinah said. The only foreign ship that has been there for more than six months – a Chinese corvette – is doing so for “training only,” he said.

Power Projection

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has laid out grand vision for the country’s growing superpower, and central to his military objectives is the creation of a blue-water navy that can project Beijing’s power far from China’s coasts.

China currently boasts the world’s largest navy in terms of number of ships, and has also added aircraft carriers to its fleet.

But a Navy of this size and scope, operating thousands of miles from home, needs access to bases overseas.

China completed its first foreign base in Djibouti, in the Horn of Africa, in 2017 after years of being vague about the facilities it was building.

That same year, China put the finishing touches on an even more astonishing project in the disputed waters of the South China Sea.

State-run dredgers have scraped up coral and sand from the ocean floor to build military installations on what were once peaceful atolls known as the Spratly Islands, tiny swaths of land that an international tribunal has ruled are not Chinese territory.

The same type of state-run dredger is currently operating in Ream, where they have built a wharf and dry dock on reclaimed land, both of which are far larger than the needs of the Cambodian fleet.

Yet unlike the Spratly facilities, Ream does not appear to have space for missile launchers or fighter jet hangars, and satellite analysts say it may be planned primarily as a supply base for the Chinese navy.

“Ream is like a roulette wheel for China as it searches for a port for the blue-water navy that Xi Jinping wants,” said Gregory B. Poling, director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “I don’t think Chinese planners looked at all the possible locations around the world and said, ‘We need Ream.’ China has very few real allies and friends, so Ream is one of the few possible locations.”

Commercial hub

While dredgers worked overtime in the Spratlys, Xi stood at the White House to brush off concerns that China’s new islands – riddled with fighter jet runways, radar domes and missile silos – were intended for military purposes. Chinese officials said the islands would be tourist havens.

China’s base construction has relied on state-owned enterprises with a legal mandate to pursue national security interests to make initial inroads, a strategy Chinese officials have bluntly described as “civilian first, military second.”

Establishing a commercial base is easier in countries where China already has economic influence.

Cambodia has moved steadily closer to China in recent years, and its longtime leader, Prime Minister Hun Sen, has railed against the United States for tying aid and investment to improvements in Cambodia’s human rights record.

Cambodia is now led by Hun Sen’s son, Hun Manet, a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, who has so far shown little desire to change his father’s pro-China leanings.

Construction on the base is 80 percent complete, according to Ream commander Lt. Col. May Dinah, and military analysts expect it to be completed by the end of the year.

Not far away, a Chinese company has built a runway in a once-protected jungle long enough to park bombers — Cambodia has no such runways — and said the airfield was built mainly for Chinese vacationers.

This is reminiscent of the innocent explanations offered by China as it builds in the Spratly Islands and Djibouti, said Year, the political scientist.

“China has often downplayed or misrepresented the military nature of its overseas bases,” he said. “Although Cambodia denies it, the lack of transparency and Cambodia’s close ties with China suggest Liam may follow this familiar tactic.”