The Development of Cambodia–China Relation and Its Transition Under the OBOR Initiative

Abstract

Sino–Khmer relation has been under the spotlight since the South China Sea Arbitration and the second-time failure of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to issue a communiqué on siding with the arbitration result. The historical development and its trajectory of Sino–Khmer bilateral relations then emerge as the core discourse in understanding Cambodia’s further development. Under China’s One Belt One Road initiative, specifically the Maritime Silk Road, Cambodia has synchronized as China’s most significant regional partner through comprehensive strategic cooperation. The article reviews how Cambodia’s political and economic development have paralleled China’s grand regional economic strategy or seemed an extension of China’s domestic production chain.