ASEAN may be forced to choose between US, China, according to Cambodia PM’s son

(L to R) Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, Malaysia’s Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha, US Vice President Mike Pence, Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Brunei Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Laos Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith pose for a group photo before the start of the 13th East Asia summit plenary session on the sidelines of the 33rd Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Singapore on November 15, 2018. (Photo by Roslan RAHMAN / AFP)

 

BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) — Southeast Asian nations may soon have to “choose sides” between the US and China in their ongoing trade war, the political heir to Cambodia’s strongman ruler Hun Sen warned Wednesday in rare public comments.

Impoverished Cambodia has become an unlikely staging ground for geopolitical influence in Asia.

In recent years it has turned into a key China ally, heading off criticism of the superpower over its claims to disputed seas in exchange for billions of dollars in investment and loans.

While China has cozied up to Cambodia, the United States and the European Union have admonished Hun Sen, the nation’s ruler for 33 years, for his increasingly authoritarian rule.

In a rare speech outside of his country, his son, Hun Many warned the US-China trade spat may create lasting divisions in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

“Perhaps one day ASEAN would have to choose between US or China,” Hun Many said in Bangkok.

“How would we see the trade war spill or expanded in other areas? Surely it will pressure individual members of ASEAN or ASEAN as a whole to choose sides.”

Hun Many (C), son of Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen and a leader of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), watches supporters during a campaign rally in Phnom Penh on July 27, 2018. – Cambodia’s strongman ruler Hun Sen hailed on July 27 the success of efforts to “eliminate traitors” at a mass rally ahead of an election without a credible opposition that will leave the country as a virtual one-party state. (Photo by TANG CHHIN Sothy / AFP)

The economic ripples of the trade spat between China and the US could destabilise global supply chain links in Southeast Asia, while a slump in Chinese spending would impact its trading partners.

Cambodia’s strongman Hun Sen has welcomed Chinese investment to pump-prime his country’s economy.

At the same time, he has accused the US of trying to foment revolution in Cambodia by supporting his critics.

Both the US and EU decried the July elections, which were held without a credible opposition and gave Hun Sen another term in power.

When asked which of the superpowers Cambodia would side with, the Australian-educated Hun Many demurred.

“At the end of the day, it depends on those who are involved to take a more responsible approach for their decisions that affects the entire world,” he said.

Earlier this week, Hun Sen swatted away concerns that Beijing will construct a naval base off the southwest coast of Cambodia, which would provide ready access to the disputed South China Sea.

Beijing claims most of the flashpoint area, infuriating the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Taiwan who all have competing claims to its islands and potentially resource-rich waters.

Hun Many, who described himself as a “proud son”, is widely believed to be in the running to one day replace his father.

His elder brother, Manit, is the head of a military intelligence unit while Manet, the oldest, was promoted in September to the chief of joint staff of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces as well as the commander of the infantry army headquarters.

But Many brushed aside the notion.

“It is way too soon to say that I am in the next generation of leaders,” he said.


© Agence France-Presse