Chinese Investment and Aid in Cambodia

UC Berkeley presents a talk by Michael Sullivan on Chinese investment in Cambodia in the context of strengthening bilateral relations between the two countries.

Michael Sullivan, Acting Director, Center for Khmer Studies (Cambodia)

This talk investigates Chinese investment in Cambodia in the context of strengthening bilateral relations between the two countries. This talk suggests that Chinese investment, backed by China’s regional foreign policy goals, may create new rent-seeking opportunities for powerful political and economic networks within the Cambodian state, at the expense of the government’s reform agenda. At the same time, Chinese influence is unlikely to alter donor efforts to push the Cambodian government down the reform path. The upshot of Chinese investment and aid, for the foreseeable future, will be the further entrenchment of Cambodian state political elites and their business associates, alongside a continued government-donor dialogue that to date has failed to bring about substantive reform where it is needed most. This situation also raises a number of important questions concerning the overall long-term benefits that may or may not accrue to Cambodia from Chinese investment and aid.