BANGKOK, Thailand — The U.S. and China are taking turns wooing Cambodia’s West Point-educated prime minister with guns, money and security assurances, but the Chinese so far appear to be scoring most of the rewards in the geopolitical tug-of-war.
In a case study of the fierce rivalry for friends and influence playing out across the region, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin arrived in Phnom Penh Tuesday for talks just as China’s massive military exercise with the Cambodian army was ending. Washington has watched with concern as Cambodia has deepened economic and security ties with Beijing in recent years.
Mr. Austin met Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Manet and Defense Minister Tea Seiha during his one-day stop, adding the trip after attending a Singapore defense forum where he met his Chinese counterpart, Adm. Dong Jun.
Coincidentally, the English-speaking, Western-educated Mr. Hun Manet, son of longtime Cambodian strongman Hun Sen, was the first Cambodian cadet to graduate from West Point in 1999 — 24 years after Mr. Austin graduated from there in 1975.
That may have smoothed the way for their talks, which likely included Beijing’s military advances in Cambodia amid the smoldering rivalry along the Gulf of Thailand, which is used by China’s Navy and the U.S. 7th Fleet’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. The U.S. has also expressed concern with Cambodia’s human rights record and plans by Phnom Penh and Beijing to dig a canal from the Mekong River to the Gulf of Thailand, but those concerns are likely to be muted as the U.S. woos the new Cambodian leader.
“Yes, the U.S.-China rivalry has extended to the Gulf of Thailand,” said Arizona State University associate professor Sophal Ear, who has studied Cambodian politics extensively. Beijing has made inroads despite the fact that “Thailand’s military relationship with the U.S. is built on decades of established alliances, joint exercises, and strategic partnerships,” Mr. Sophal Ear said.
Mr. Hun Manet’s rise was engineered by his authoritarian father, who consistently welcomed China’s increase in Cambodia’s economic, diplomatic, and military affairs. Mr. Austin, who was set to travel on to France for D-Day commemoration ceremonies later this week, also met with Mr. Hun Sen, now president of the Cambodian Senate, during his stop in Phnom Penh.
The latest military exercise with Beijing marked a milestone, analysts of the relationship said.
China’s May 16-30 Golden Dragon 2024 military exercises in Cambodia were “the first since Hun Manet became prime minister, indicating that he is continuing to expand his father’s embrace of China,” said Craig Etcheson, an author and researcher about Cambodian.
In a stunning display during the exercises, China let loose their robot dogs of war, shooting machine guns mounted on the backs of the mechanized canines. The 2024 exercises were led by China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Southern Theater Command guiding Beijing’s closest ally in Southeast Asia, the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces.
Joint drills maneuvered through Cambodia’s central Kampong Chahhnang province at a training base with forests and mountains, and in the Gulf of Thailand off Cambodia’s coastal Preah Sihanouk province.
Golden Dragon included “more than 1,300 Cambodian troops, more than 700 Chinese troops, three large warships, and 11 Cambodian warships,” said Cambodian Maj. Gen. Thong Solimo. Maneuvers also involved two helicopters, and nearly 70 armored vehicles and tanks, accompanied by the weaponized robot dogs, which sparked a flurry of interest on social media.
Chinese-led live-fire exercises performed anti-terrorism and rescue operations.
Phnom Penh agreed to host Beijing’s first Golden Dragon in 2016 after canceling U.S.-Cambodian Angkor Sentinel military exercises. Much of the Chinese weaponry and equipment arrived by sea, unloaded at Cambodia’s Sihanoukville Port along the gulf.
“We can definitely say that the U.S.-China rivalry has spread to the Gulf of Thailand,” said Paul Chambers, a Naresuan University lecturer on security and politics in Thailand and Cambodia.
He pointed to Cambodia’s Ream Naval Base, which received Chinese financing to expand along the gulf.
Ream can be used by Chinese and some international shipping, but Washington fears Cambodia could eventually allow Chinese warships to establish a base there, heightening tensions in the Gulf of Thailand which opens to the hotly disputed South China Sea.
“With China able to use Ream for its naval military vessels, and Dara Sakor [a private airfield in Cambodia leased to Chinese] for its air force, Cambodia has become a key geopolitical chess piece of Beijing in Southeast Asia,” Mr. Chambers said in an interview.
Thailand annually conducts large-scale military exercises with the Pentagon and routinely allows the U.S. Navy to dock at facilities along the shallow Gulf of Thailand. In April, the nuclear-powered Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, armed with missile launchers, docked at Thailand’s Laem Chabang port near Bangkok, a routine that began in 2018 in the U.S. 7th Fleet’s area.
“We are here to make sure we are ready to respond to any crisis in the area,” Carrier Strike Group Nine Commander, Rear Admiral Christopher Alexander, said after docking.
“We are here to deter aggression,” he said, accompanied by the USS Theodore Roosevelt’s more than 80 warplanes, including anti-submarine aircraft, strike fighters, and planes equipped with electronic countermeasures.
The robot dogs of war
In Cambodia meanwhile, China’s low-slung, flat-backed robot dogs became a big hit during the joint military exercises.
In online photographs and videos posted by participants, grinning Chinese and Cambodian uniformed troops cluster around a robo-dog which is armed with a heavy black machine gun bolted to its flat back. A Chinese officer holds a CD-sized, black box with two short, protruding antennae, resembling a Wi-Fi router, remotely controlling the robot.
When the crouching machine slowly stands up, several Cambodian officers back away, laughing nervously until it achieves a four-legged standing canine position. Video from one robot dog’s front camera shows the robot dog maneuvering through a makeshift maze of green netting and scaffolding.
Lettering on the robot dog’s gray surface identifies it as “B1 Unitree.” Unitree Robotics is “a Chinese start-up that has been developing its own line of robot dogs since 2016,” reported Cyberguy.com, a site for computer news.
Futurism, a New York-based website reporting technological developments, described the “terrifying gun-toting robodogs” as “a dystopian vision of what the future of warfare could look like.
“Last year, the Pentagon announced that the U.S. Army is considering arming remote-controlled robot dogs with state-of-the-art rifles as part of its plan to ‘explore the realm of the possible’ in the future of combat,” Futurism reported. “A U.S.-based military contractor called Ghost Robotics has already showed off such a robot dog, outfitted with a long-distance rifle.”
China’s deadly mechanical dogs performing in Cambodia intrigued analysts.
“While the display of robotic dogs is more a demonstration of technological capability than a direct threat, it does signify China’s advancements in military technology,” Mr. Sophal Ear said in an interview. “The U.S. should take note of these developments, as part of the broader context of China’s growing military capabilities and innovation in unmanned systems and AI-driven warfare technologies.”
Beijing’s military exercises with Phnom Penh mean “increased military presence and surveillance, potential flashpoints for conflict, and a heightened state of alert among regional nations. This rivalry could also impact regional trade routes and economic stability,” Mr. Sophal Ear said.
China’s expanding influence in Cambodia may protect Phnom Penh from Washington and other critics.
“China has become the Cambodian regime’s guarantee against interference from the West’s insistence on compliance with international law and a measure of respect for human rights,” said Rich Garella, an American former press secretary for Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy.
“The regime is sacrificing its sovereignty and becoming a vassal state of China, as it was for centuries in the past,” Mr. Garella said in an interview.