US cables chart China's rise in Cambodia {wikileaks}

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/MG20Ae02.html

PHNOM PENH - On December 18, 2009, Cambodian police rounded up 20 ethnic Uighurs from safe houses in the capital Phnom Penh, where they had arrived earlier in the year seeking political asylum. A day later, the group, which included two infants, was driven to the airport in a bus with shades drawn over the windows and placed on a Chinese charter flight bound for an unknown location.

A day after the plane departed Phnom Penh International Airport, Chinese vice president Xi Jinping touched down to a warm welcome by Cambodian officials and was driven into the city along boulevards strung with miniature Chinese flags. During his three-day visit, the Chinese leader and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen signed 14 bilateral agreements worth an unprecedented US$1.2 billion.

The two incidents topped off a decade in which Chinese aid and


investment had been on a steady rise in Cambodia. Unlike Western aid money, which is often linked to a range of good governance reforms, cash-rich Beijing has quietly bankrolled the construction of roads, hydropower dams and other infrastructure works (many built by Chinese companies) without strings attached.

In return for this "blank check" diplomacy, Cambodia has offered rote - and cheaply bought - support for Beijing's one-China policy. The deportation of the Uighurs, wanted as "criminals" who Beijing claimed took part in deadly ethnic riots in the country's restive Xinjiang province, was the first instance in which Cambodia's loyalty was truly tested: with $1.2 billion on the line, the country's leadership was not found wanting.