THLOK, TASEK CAMBODIA ¨C When Defense Minister Tea Banh addressed graduates last month at Cambodia¡¯s prestigious Army Institute, he directed his thanks to the guests who made it all possible: a group of crisply dressed officers from China¡¯s People¡¯s Liberation Army.
The institute, established in 1999 around 80 km from Phnom Penh, is part of China¡¯s rising military aid to Cambodia. Interviews with serving officers and a senior Cambodian government official shed light on how far the school¡¯s influence has grown in recent years.
Military aid, alongside arms sales and billions of dollars of investment, have strengthened China¡¯s ties with Cambodia, and analysts see it as part of a push to extend regional influence, including in the disputed South China Sea.
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