Two Chinese navy ships have now spent more than four months at Ream Naval Base in Cambodia, the first and only two ships to have docked at a new pier built with Chinese funding, according to a report by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI).
The extended and exclusive access to the new pier comes after years of concerns expressed by the United States and others over a rumoured secret agreement between Beijing and Phnom Penh — always denied by Cambodia — to establish a permanent Chinese military presence at Ream.
Questions have now arisen as to “whether that presence has, in fact, been established”, said the AMTI, part of the US-based Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS), a nonprofit policy research organisation.
In full: https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/2783075/chinese-settle-in-at-cambodian-naval-base
