This content was originally published by Radio Free Asia, and it is now being reprinted with permission.
Two big Chinese vessels have flown in from Cambodia’s Sihanoukville on the Gulf of Thailand on a kindness attend, joining three other vessels that are already in Cambodia.
China ‘s , defense ministry , announced the arrival of the training ship Qi Jiguang ( Hull 83 ) at Sihanoukville Autonomous Port on Sunday.
The , Cambodian navy, meanwhile, disclosed that the Qi Jiguang was accompanied by a Type 071 amphibious landing dock, the Jinggangshan ( Hull 999 ).  ,
Soldiers and staff from the two vessels are scheduled to make a courtesy call to Thai military officials during their four-day visit from May 19 to May 23 during which they will make visits to military installations and exchange contacts with Thai partners.
The Vietnamese and Chinese troops ‘ participation in the Golden Dragon exercise, which started on May 16 and continued until May 30, was not mentioned.
The exercise, which is the sixth iteration of the annual bilateral wargames and the largest to date, is already taking part in three other Chinese vessels, including two corvettes and a landing dock.
” From my memory, there were n’t that many People’s Liberation Army Navy’s vessels at any one time in the country”, said Collin Koh, a regional military analyst based in Singapore.
Powerful presence
Of the five Chinese vessels, the two corvettes have been stationed at Cambodia’s Ream naval base for nearly six months.
The two Type 071 landing docks – Jinggangshan and Qilianshan – each have a displacement of 25, 000 tons and can carry up to 800 troops, as well as 20 armored vehicles.
The 9, 000- ton Qi Jigang is one of the Chinese navy’s main training ships under the Dalian Naval Academy.
According to Koh, who is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies,” This unprecedented Chinese naval presence is going to presage a regular presence in Cambodia in the foreseeable future.”
” The Ream base surely has facilitated this greater presence”, he said.
Another analyst, Paul Chambers of the Center of ASEAN Community Studies at Naresuan University in Thailand, said that the level of Chinese- Cambodian military relations was “unprecedented” . ,
According to Chambers, who refers to the Dara Sakor resort in Koh Kong province,” And then there is a Chinese tourism resort in western Cambodia that could be easily converted into a Chinese military airfield.”
According to the analyst,” It appears that Cambodia has become a military and economic dependency of China.”
The defense ministry of Cambodia has praised the joint efforts with China that have improved both its military’s capabilities and combat skills.
The provinces of Kampong Chhnang and Sihanoukville are participating in the Golden Dragon 2024 exercise.  ,
The presence of numerous Chinese vessels this time was not” a game changer but a sign of ever-closer China-Cambodge cooperation given China’s new base there,” according to Tom Shugart, adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security in Washington.
