22 July 2016•Update: 23 July 2016
By Julia Wallace
PHNOM PENH
The Cambodian government has taken issue with a local newspaper for reporting that the Japanese premier may have criticized the Southeast Asian country over its stance on the South China Sea dispute.
The Cambodia Daily reported last week that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan “appeared to rebuke” Cambodia’s position on the waterway during a face-to-face meeting with Prime Minister Hun Sen at the Asia-Europe Meeting.
Hun Sen took issue with that characterization, lashing out at the newspaper in a speech delivered at the opening of a new Japanese-funded water and sanitation project, the Daily reported Friday.
The Cambodian premier -- speaking in the third person -- complained the newspaper had “stated that Abe blamed Hun Sen” and beseeched the Japanese ambassador to Cambodia to issue a clarification on the issue.
“Oh God! Nobody in the world dares blame Hun Sen,” the premier said, according to the Daily.
Tensions have been rising in the region over the South China Sea, which China claims nearly all of, despite competing claims from countries including the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei and Malaysia -- all members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) regional bloc.
While the rival countries have attempted to jointly negotiate with China over its sea claims, China has refused and has counted on the support of Cambodia and Laos -- both impoverished nations that have become key allies to Beijing within the bloc -- to keep sea-related issues off the ASEAN agenda.
China is Cambodia’s largest bilateral donor, and last week announced a massive donation of more than $500 billion in aid shortly after Cambodia refused to join fellow ASEAN members in issuing a joint statement on a recent international tribunal verdict that found in favor of the Philippines.
But Japan is also a crucial ally of Cambodia and gives vast sums of money to the country, particularly for infrastructure and transport projects.
Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement after Abe’s meeting with Hun Sen saying that the Japanese premier had told his Cambodian counterpart that resolution of the dispute should be grounded in rule of law, and that further talks on the issue should be based on the arbitration decision, which Beijing has denounced.
On Friday, Phay Siphan, a spokesman at Cambodia's council of ministers, told Anadolu Agency that Hun Sen was not angry but felt “disappointed” at the insinuation that Abe had criticized him.
“What I learned from the prime minister, he said that Abe respects the Cambodian decision that we are neutral, we don’t comment on anything, because we have no interests on the South China Sea issues,” he said.
“No one took the chance to blame anyone, to accuse anyone. Good cooperation is going on."
Siphan said there would be no legal consequences for The Cambodia Daily, but that the journalists in question – whom he referred to only as “white people” – were lucky not to be deported.
“If we were in Thailand, in Vietnam, were in any other country, [they’re] going to be kicked out,” he said.
“We don’t take any action against anyone.”
The editor of the newspaper could not immediately be reached for comment by Anadolu Agency.
Siphan also rejected the charge that Cambodia had been bought off by China in exchange for the support of its stance on the sea, saying that the huge donation last week had been coincidental.
“From year to year, Cambodia submits all development plans and China chooses what it may do to help Cambodia. They don’t buy us to support anything,” he said.
Sophal Ear, an associate professor at Occidental College in Los Angeles with an interest in Cambodian affairs, told Anadolu Agency that the situation had occurred during a particularly sensitive time for Hun Sen’s government as it struggles to balance competing interests in the region.
“I think Hun Sen is peeved because it is a sensitive moment,” he said in an email. “The timing of China’s donation is obviously suspicious or incredibly coincidental. And there are very few coincidences in Cambodia.”
Sophal Ear said that although it was highly unlikely that the Japanese premier would have directly rebuked Hun Sen, his choice of words was not accidental.
“The Japanese never confront, it’s always face-saving with them. So there has to be some plausible deniability. Abe gets to say what he needs to say, and Hun Sen is able to claim those words were not directed at Cambodia’s stance toward the South China Sea.”
