Cambodia still benefits from Xi's 2016 visit

Relations, cooperation between two nations strengthened in all sectors and at all levels

When President Xi Jinping arrived in Phnom Penh for a state visit to Cambodia on Oct 13, 2016, Chea Munyrith, then director of the Confucius Institute of the Royal Academy of Cambodia, remembered that the institute's teachers and students were among the welcoming crowds.

"President Xi's visit was celebrated across the country," recalled Chea, who is now president of the Cambodian Chinese Evolution Researcher Association.

During his state visit, Xi held talks with Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni and then prime minister Hun Sen, agreeing that the two countries should continue to be "highly trusted friends, loyal partners, and a community of shared future", said Chea, who has worked on the translation of the Khmer-language edition of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China.

While the two sides signed 31 cooperation documents, Xi's visit also demonstrated closer people-to-people ties.

As planning and project director of Cambodia's Civil Society Alliance Forum, Chea has been working with Chinese nongovernmental organizations for years on projects to improve people's livelihood in Cambodia's rural areas.

He cited the two countries' collaboration on poverty alleviation and healthcare such as the Cambodia-China Friendship Village Project for Poverty Alleviation, the Cambodia-China Friendship Preah Kossamak Hospital, and the China-Cambodia Love Heart Journey — a program that provides free surgery for Cambodian children with congenital heart disease.

China's support for Cambodia with advanced equipment to clear all landmines and achieve the mine-free goal by 2025 helped ease people's safety concerns, Chea added.

Cambodia is among the nations worst affected by landmines, with an estimated 4 million to 6 million mines and other unexploded munitions left behind by three decades of war and internal conflicts that ended in 1998.

Since 2018, China has helped Cambodia clear more than 100 square kilometers of minefields and about 78,000 pieces of landmines and explosive remnants of wars. This has benefited over 1.5 million Cambodian people, according to Xinhua News Agency.

Kin Phea, director-general of the International Relations Institute of Cambodia, an arm of the Royal Academy of Cambodia, said that nearly a decade since President Xi's visit to Cambodia, "the relations and cooperation between Cambodia and China have broadened and strengthened in all sectors and at all levels".

In a joint communique issued during Xi's visit, China and Cambodia agreed to raise bilateral trade to $5 billion by 2017.

In 2023, a year after the China-Cambodia free trade agreement and the Regional Economic Partnership Agreement took effect, the total imports and exports between China and Cambodia exceeded $14.82 billion, according to China's General Administration of Customs.

China has been Cambodia's biggest trading partner for 12 consecutive years. It is also the largest source of foreign direct investment for Cambodia, accounting for two-thirds of the total FDI in 2023, according to the Council for the Development of Cambodia.

Neak Chandarith, director of the Cambodia 21st Century Maritime Silk Road Research Center, said that Cambodia has been supportive of China-proposed initiatives such as the Belt and Road Initiative, because it sees the BRI as a catalyst for sustaining high economic growth.

In 2019, Cambodia became the first country to sign an action plan to build a community of shared future with China.

Last year, when China and Cambodia celebrated the 65th anniversary of diplomatic relations, the two countries agreed to deepen partnership under the "diamond hexagon "cooperation framework that focuses on six priority areas — politics, production capacity, agriculture, energy, security, and people-to-people and cultural exchanges.

The Morodok Techo National Stadium, an arena with a seating capacity of 60,000, was opened in 2021 just in time to be the main venue for the 32nd Southeast Asian Games and 12th ASEAN Para Games last year.

"Cambodia's participation in China-proposed initiatives has facilitated its integration into regional frameworks such as the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation and the ASEAN-China cooperation," Neak said, noting that this integration enhances Cambodia's regional influence and promotes economic cooperation.

With this year being designated as the China-Cambodia People-to-People Exchange Year, Um Vuty, founder and chairman of the Association of Cambodian Students in China, said he believes the younger generation will play a key role in deepening bilateral cooperation and mutual trust.

When Xi visited Cambodia in 2016, Um Vuty was pursuing a master's program at the China University of Geosciences in Beijing. Witnessing the close exchanges between Cambodia and China, he founded his association in 2017 to help young people from Cambodia study and work in China.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the association selected 95 Cambodian students who studied medicine in China to form a volunteer team to administer over 100,000 vaccines to Phnom Penh residents, including 5,000 Chinese nationals.

Um Vuty is now a government employee and also president of the Cambodia-China Youth Relations Association. "The things I learned in China have laid a solid foundation for my career and supported me in many tasks," he said.

Following President Xi's visit, "there are now more Confucius Institutes and Chinese language schools in Cambodia, so young Cambodians can learn Chinese and use it for research, communication, and even in their own businesses", Um Vuty said.

He added that he hopes to create more opportunities for Cambodian and Chinese students to communicate with each other.

Anheng Sokpheak, president of the Siem Reap-based Cambodia Chinese Tour Guide Association, said that more Chinese tourists have come to Cambodia since Xi's visit, which has contributed to the development of Cambodia's tourism industry and the local economy, and increased employment opportunities.

Before Xi's visit, China was Cambodia's second largest source of tourists after Vietnam, with around 694,712 Chinese nationals visiting the kingdom in 2015.

In 2019, before the pandemic hit global travels, China rose to the top spot with the number of Chinese visitors to Cambodia reaching 2.36 million, accounting for 35.7 percent of international tourist arrivals and generating about $1.8 billion in revenue, according to the Cambodian Ministry of Tourism.

The number of Chinese tourists to Cambodia increased 41.5 percent year-on-year in the first four months of 2024, according to the ministry, Xinhua reported.

"The cooperation in infrastructure projects such as the Phnom Penh-Sihanoukville Expressway and the Siem Reap-Angkor International Airport also helped improve transportation efficiency and support the local tourism industry," Anheng said.

"As the two countries promote cooperation in tourism, we wish to see more Chinese tourists visiting Cambodia," he said, adding that his association's more than 700 tour guides are always ready to help Chinese tourists.

In May, in a clear sign of the strengthening bilateral bond, Phnom Penh's third ring road was renamed Xi Jinping Boulevard. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said the move expressed gratitude for the historic contribution Xi has made to promoting Cambodia's development.

Chea, from the Cambodian Chinese Evolution Researcher Association, said the renaming of the road was an important milestone symbolizing the growing bilateral friendship.

Cambodia-China ties are special, unbreakable, and a "unique role model" of interstate relations that can be replicated both regionally and globally, said Kin Phea, from the Royal Academy.

The two countries' relationship will continue to grow stronger and diversify into all areas of common interest, he said, emphasizing that it will guide the "two iron brothers" toward greater achievements.