Cambodia eyes more China help as Xi visits amid US tariff tensions

Cambodia is betting on more financial support from China, including for infrastructure, as President Xi Jinping visits the country on Thursday (Apr 17) at the end of a three-nation trip in Southeast Asia, a Cambodian government spokesman said.

The country, which is a major exporter of clothing and footwear to the United States, was hit with a 49 per cent "reciprocal" tariff by US President Donald Trump, one of the highest rates globally, before most duties were paused until July.

Phnom Penh is also a close partner of China, which has invested billions of dollars in projects including roads and airports, and is the country's largest creditor.

"We expect more cooperation including on infrastructure development," Meas Soksensan, spokesman for the Cambodian finance ministry, told Reuters on the eve of Xi's arrival in Phnom Penh.

He was answering a question about whether Cambodia expected Beijing to announce financial support for a 180km canal, which is the country's most ambitious infrastructure project.

In an article published on Thursday morning on Cambodian media, Xi urged Phnom Penh to oppose "hegemonism" and "protectionism", repeating messages he sent earlier this week to Vietnam and Malaysia in the first two legs of his trip.

He listed past Chinese infrastructure projects in Cambodia that benefited the local economy but mentioned no new specific project in his article.

The Cambodian government has said China would pay for the Funan Techo Canal, which would run from the Mekong River, from a site near Phnom Penh, to the coast on the Gulf of Thailand, diverting water from the fragile rice-growing Mekong Delta and reducing Cambodian shipping through Vietnamese ports.

China has so far made no public financial commitment to the project, while Phnom Penh has changed its statements on Chinese engagement from covering 100 per cent to 49 per cent of total costs, estimated at US$1.7 billion, nearly 4 per cent of Cambodia's annual gross domestic product.

Xi's visit to Cambodia is part of a long-planned trip that has been seen as a charm offensive in Southeast Asia, one of the regions hardest hit by US tariffs. He earlier visited Malaysia and Vietnam, which has expressed misgivings about the Funan Techo canal.

Beijing signed no new loans to Cambodia last year, according to official data from the Cambodian government, a marked contrast with previous years when it lent the country hundreds of millions of dollars.

The drop in funding came as China reduced overall overseas investments amid domestic economic woes and concerns over unsuccessful projects.

China and Cambodia have repeatedly said they are "ironclad" friends, despite recent tensions over scam centres in Cambodia that are often run by Chinese gangs and target Chinese nationals, either as victims or captive workers.

Before Xi's arrival, Cambodia said it had deported to China a number of "Chinese criminals", including people from Taiwan, in a move that angered Taipei.

In the article published in Cambodian media before his arrival, Xi urged Cambodia to crack down on criminal activities such as online fraud.

Earlier in April, the two countries held joint military exercises at a newly expanded naval base on the Cambodian coast, a facility the United States worries could become a Chinese military outpost.