First US warship visit to Chinese-built port in Cambodia cements new drift for Phnom Penh

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — After a U.S. warship visited the Chinese-built Ream Naval Base on the south coast of Cambodia last week, analysts warn the government here should brace for a response from Beijing.

The port call by the USS Cincinnati came amid a warming of relations with Washington after a decade of sour ties that took an unwanted toll on Southeast Asia, as Phnom Penh eschewed the West and embraced Beijing, its money, its influence and did its bidding.

“China will be quietly displeased and doubtful of Cambodia’s real intentions,” Deth Sok Udom, professor of international relations at Paragon International University in Phnom Penh, said. “But they are unlikely to voice that out openly.

“That said, it would be misleading to interpret this visit as a Cambodian strategic shift toward the U.S. at the expense of its relations with China, which continues to be a significant trade partner and investor to the Kingdom,” he added.

But Thai political commentator Pravit Rojanaphruk suggested Cambodia may have pushed too far in welcoming the Cincinnati at Ream which, he said, challenged China’s regional influence, raising the prospect of diplomatic and military repercussions.

“As China regards Cambodia and Southeast Asia as its backyard, it will likely respond to the encroachment of the U.S., not just diplomatically but militarily.

“We can expect China will try to neutralize U.S. influence in Cambodia and teach Cambodia a lesson or two in the months ahead, otherwise the U.S. might do something similar with Laos, which also has a special relationship with China,” he said.

China rebuilt Ream within three years, tearing down U.S. funded facilities built by a dilapidated pier used as a supply stop. By early 2025, it boasted a 650-meter pier capable of docking warships, a 5,000-tonne dry dock, and a 1,000-tonne slipway with logistical facilities.

Satellite imaging by BlackSky noted in 2023 near-exact similarities between an angled deep-water pier at Ream and a Chinese military pier in Djibouti, capable of supporting all Chinese navy vessels including the Type 003 Fujian aircraft carrier.

The base itself covers 190 acres. But surrounding upgrades, including six-lane highways and a refurbished airport, extended its size.

“Cambodia’s receptivity to hosting China’s second overseas naval port increases Beijing’s strategic ability to project military power into the Indian Ocean,” said Craig Singleton, deputy director of the China Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, in the BlackSky report.

As China invested billions of dollars in Cambodia, Phnom Penh emerged as Beijing’s steadfast ally and proxy within the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), a bloc which the West sees as a central-convener designed to balance great power rivalry in the Indo-Pacific.

Since 2012, Cambodia was China’s designated spoiler. It inflicted delay after delay upon the Code of Conduct (CoC) designed to manage maritime disputes between ASEAN and Beijing in the South China Sea, a perennial flashpoint in global geopolitics.

China viewed the CoC as a threat, preferring a divide-and-conquer strategy through negotiating territorial disputes with the 10 members of ASEAN on an individual basis.

According to Deth Sok Udom, the position effectively undermined the U.S. vision of a free and open Indio-Pacific.

In 2017 Phnom Penh ended joint U.S.-Cambodian Angkor Sentinel military exercises and later accused the Obama administration of backing attempts by opposition politicians to oust the then-Prime Minister Hun Sen.

A crackdown on all forms of dissent in the country ensued. Three years later, Cambodia again upset ASEAN and the West, this time by negotiating with the regime in Myanmar – where China covets sustainable deposits of rare earths – after the military seized power in a coup d’etat.

Relations then struck their lowest ebb after an American military attaché was invited to inspect Ream but denied full access, and Washington imposed an arms embargo on Cambodia in late 2021.

But there were concerns. Cambodia was too much in China’s camp, and that didn’t sit well with Hun Manet, a West Point graduate who was being groomed to take over the job as prime minister from his father Hun Sen in 2023.

“The U.S. has repeatedly expressed concerns about potential Chinese operations and future use of the naval base despite Cambodia’s denial,” Deth Sok Udom said.

“Hun Manet’s educational background in the West, most likely served as a factor for strategic considerations as to how much he could shift Cambodia’s foreign policy trajectory hitherto seen as deep in China’s orbit.”

Two Chinese corvettes rotate out of Ream, but to dispel claims the port was a Chinese base, Cambodia declared Ream open to all the world’s navies. Visits by Japan, Vietnam and Russia followed, while Australian and Canadian warships docked at nearby Sihanoukville.

Still, Jennifer Parker, an Australian maritime security expert and principal of Barrier Strategic Advisory, noted: “China clearly enjoys preferential access, including through its infrastructure investment and support at the base.”

While China was rebuilding Ream, its cozy ties with Cambodia were being compromised on another front with the arrival of Chinese crime syndicates which industrialized human trafficking and scam rings and were raking in billions of illicit dollars.

The activity took hold in nearby Sihanoukville and spread to the border areas, preying on Chinese and angering Beijing, which cut its funding in 2024 amid suspicions that Cambodian business leaders were harboring the syndicates.

The following year, in early 2025, Thailand initiated a Chinese-backed cross-border crackdown which erupted into an undeclared war that required mediation by President Donald Trump, topping a tumultuous U.S.-Cambodian relationship spanning over a decade.

Cambodia nominated Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize, and a conflict resolution agreement prompted Phnom Penh to join Trump’s idea of a “Board of Peace” despite what Deth Sok Udom said was China’s preference for the country to work through “existing international bodies such as the United Nations.”

At its recent foreign ministers meeting, ASEAN announced the CoC will finally proceed . Nor will it recognize the recently Chinese-backed, stage-managed elections in Myanmar, designed to legitimize the junta’s rule amid a civil war that to date has claimed about 90,000 lives.

The port call by the USS Cincinnati strengthened the whiff of a turning point for Phnom Penh and Washington. Adm. Samuel Paparo, commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, announced the Angkor-Sentinel exercises would resume later this year or next and that the U.S. arm embargo was lifted.

“Our partnership is on a strong upward trajectory,” he told a press conference in Ream on Jan. 26 after a meeting with Hun Manet. “We hope for more opportunities to work closely together.”

“The visit demonstrates that Ream Naval Base is not exclusively a Chinese facility, nor closed to foreign naval vessels as some commentators have suggested,” analyst Parker said.

“Cambodia remains heavily dependent on China, but renewed engagement with the United States points to an attempt to introduce greater strategic balance, even if that process remains cautious and incomplete,” she added.

Gavin Greenwood, a consultant from Hong Kong-based A2 Global Risk, urged caution with the arrival of Cincinnati, a littoral combat ship (LSC) with a tarnished reputation for structural defects , at a Chinese ' intelligence outpost ’.

“The Cincinnati was actually carrying out the role it was partly intended to perform – showing the flag, maintaining a presence, sending a signal of U.S. ‘reach and resolve’ at minimal cost,” he said.

“The more revealing test of the status of US-Cambodia relations would have been had a major U.S. Navy warship visited Ream.”

柬埔寨金边——上周，一艘美国军舰访问了位于柬埔寨南部海岸、由中国建造的云壤海军基地后，分析人士警告柬埔寨政府应该做好应对北京方面回应的准备。

“辛辛那提”号巡洋舰的到访正值美金关系在经历了长达十年的紧张关系后有所回暖之际。这段紧张关系给东南亚带来了不必要的损失，因为金边拒绝西方，转而拥抱北京及其资金和影响力，并听命于北京。

“中国会暗自不满，并对柬埔寨的真实意图表示怀疑，”金边百乐国际大学国际关系学教授德索·乌东说，“但他们不太可能公开表达这种不满。”

“话虽如此，但如果将此次访问解读为柬埔寨为了亲美而牺牲与中国的关系，那就具有误导性了。中国仍然是柬埔寨王国重要的贸易伙伴和投资国。”他补充道。

但泰国政治评论员普拉维特·罗贾纳普鲁克认为，柬埔寨在迎接“辛辛那提”号巡洋舰停靠里姆一事上可能做得太过火了。他说，这挑战了中国在该地区的地位，可能会引发外交和军事上的反噬。

“由于中国将柬埔寨和东南亚视为自己的后院，它很可能会以军事手段回应美国的侵略。

他说：“我们可以预料到，未来几个月中国会试图削弱美国在柬埔寨的影响力，并给柬埔寨一个教训，否则美国可能会对老挝采取类似的做法，老挝也与中国有着特殊关系。”

中国在三年内重建了里姆港，拆除了美国资助建造的、位于一个破旧码头旁的补给站设施。到2025年初，里姆港拥有一个可停靠军舰的650米长码头、一个5000吨级的干船坞和一个配备后勤设施的1000吨级滑道。

BlackSky 的卫星图像在 2023 年发现，里姆的一个倾斜深水码头与吉布提的一个中国军用码头几乎完全相似，能够支持包括 003 型福建航空母舰在内的所有中国海军舰艇。

基地本身占地 190 英亩。但周边设施的升级改造，包括六车道高速公路和翻新的机场，扩大了基地的规模。

“柬埔寨愿意承办中国的第二个海外海军港口，这增强了北京向印度洋投射军事力量的战略能力，”保卫民主基金会中国项目副主任克雷格·辛格尔顿在BlackSky的报告中表示。

随着中国在柬埔寨投资数十亿美元，金边成为北京在东南亚国家联盟（东盟）内的坚定盟友和代理人。西方将东盟视为旨在平衡印太地区大国竞争的中心召集者。

自2012年以来，柬埔寨一直是中国的指定破坏者。它一再拖延旨在管控东盟与北京在南海（全球地缘政治中一个长期存在的冲突热点）之间海上争端的《南海行为准则》（CoC）。

中国将《东盟行为准则》视为威胁，更倾向于通过与东盟十个成员国逐一谈判解决领土争端，从而采取分而治之的策略。

据德斯·索克·乌多姆 (Deth Sok Udom) 称，这一立场实际上破坏了美国关于自由开放的印太地区的愿景。

2017 年，金边终止了美国与柬埔寨联合举行的“吴哥哨兵”军事演习，随后指责奥巴马政府支持反对派政治家试图推翻当时的首相洪森。

随后，柬埔寨对国内一切形式的异议进行了镇压。三年后，柬埔寨再次激怒了东盟和西方国家，这次是因为在军方通过政变夺取政权后，柬埔寨与缅甸政权进行了谈判——中国觊觎缅甸丰富的稀土资源。

随后，美柬关系跌至最低点。美国武官受邀视察里姆，但被拒绝完全进入，华盛顿于 2021 年底对柬埔寨实施了武器禁运。

但也有令人担忧的地方。柬埔寨与中国的联系过于紧密，这让洪玛奈感到不满。洪玛奈毕业于西点军校，原本被培养成2023年从其父洪森手中接过首相一职的接班人。

“尽管柬埔寨否认，但美国一再对中国可能在柬埔寨开展的军事行动以及未来使用该海军基地表示担忧，”德索乌东说。

“洪玛奈在西方接受的教育背景，很可能成为他能够改变柬埔寨外交政策走向的一个战略因素，此前柬埔寨一直被视为深深地依附于中国。”

两艘中国护卫舰轮换驶离里姆港，但为了消除外界对该港口是中国基地的猜测，柬埔寨宣布里姆港对世界各国海军开放。随后，日本、越南和俄罗斯的海军舰艇相继到访，而澳大利亚和加拿大的军舰则停靠在附近的西哈努克港。

不过，澳大利亚海事安全专家、Barrier Strategic Advisory 的负责人詹妮弗·帕克指出：“中国显然享有优先准入权，包括通过其在基地的基础设施投资和支持。”

在中国重建里姆的同时，中国与柬埔寨的密切关系在另一个方面受到了损害，因为中国犯罪集团的到来，使人口贩运和诈骗团伙产业化，并攫取了数十亿美元的非法收入。

该犯罪活动在附近的西哈努克城兴起，并蔓延到边境地区，以中国人为目标，激怒了北京。北京怀疑柬埔寨商界领袖窝藏犯罪集团，于 2024 年削减了对柬埔寨的资金支持。

次年，即 2025 年初，泰国在中国的支持下发起了一场跨境镇压行动，这场行动演变成一场未经宣战的战争，需要美国总统唐纳德·特朗普进行调解，这使得持续十多年的动荡的美柬关系达到了顶峰。

柬埔寨提名特朗普为诺贝尔和平奖候选人，一项冲突解决协议促使金边加入了特朗普提出的“和平委员会”构想，尽管德索·乌东表示，中国更希望柬埔寨通过“联合国等现有国际机构”开展工作。

在最近的外长会议上，东盟宣布《行为准则》将最终生效。东盟也不会承认近期由中国支持、人为操纵的缅甸选举，该选举旨在使军政府在内战中统治合法化，这场内战迄今已造成约9万人丧生。

“辛辛那提”号巡洋舰的到访，更加印证了金边和华盛顿局势即将迎来转折点的猜测。美国印太司令部司令塞缪尔·帕帕罗海军上将宣布，“吴哥哨兵”联合军演将于今年晚些时候或明年恢复，并且美国解除了对金边的武器禁运。

“我们的合作关系正处于强劲上升期，”他在1月26日与洪玛奈会面后于里姆举行的新闻发布会上表示，“我们希望有更多机会密切合作。”

“此次访问表明，云壤海军基地并非完全是中国的设施，也并非像一些评论员所说的那样禁止外国海军舰艇进入，”分析师帕克说。

她补充说：“柬埔寨仍然严重依赖中国，但与美国重新接触表明柬埔寨正试图建立更大的战略平衡，即使这一进程仍然谨慎且不完整。”

来自香港 A2 Global Risk 的顾问 Gavin Greenwood 敦促对“辛辛那提”号濒海战斗舰 (LSC) 抵达中国“情报前哨”保持谨慎，该舰因结构缺陷而声名狼藉。

他说：“辛辛那提号实际上发挥了它部分预期的作用——展示国旗，保持存在感，以最小的成本发出美国‘影响力和决心’的信号。”

“如果美国海军一艘主力军舰访问里姆，那将更能揭示美柬关系的现状。”