Cambodia and the geopolitics of Covid-19

Author: Dylan Carlson Sirvent León

Recent news from Cambodia highlight the ways in which Covid-19 is mapping itself onto the geopolitics of the pre-pandemic world. As reported by The Phnom Penh Post and the Khmer Times, the Japanese Ambassador to Cambodia recently traveled to Phnom Penh to discuss with Cambodia’s Minister of Labour and Vocational Training ways to continue and even increase the number of trainees and skilled workers migrating to Japan from Cambodia, while taking measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19 between countries. The reaffirmation of the 2007 Cambodia-Japan Labor Cooperation Framework, which has enabled 10,000 Cambodian citizens to work in Japan, comes at a crucial time for both countries: Japan faces a battle with China for influence as struggling Southeast Asian economies, impacted by the implosions of tourist, garment and other key domestic industries triggered by Covid-19 responses, seek aid; Cambodia faces souring relationships with the European Union, its largest trading partner, over human rights abuses while at the same time the Southeast Asian country is projected, by the Asian Development Bank, to shrink by 4 percent after years of steady growth.

China and Japan both cast large shadows over Southeast Asia, especially poorer and developing countries like Cambodia. China’s incredible economic rise over the past three decades, compounded by the fact that ethnic Chinese make up one Cambodia’s largest minority groups, has pushed Cambodia to become one of China’s most reliable and eager allies in Southeast Asia. During China’s crackdown of Hong Kong protests, Cambodia was the first Southeast Asian country to back China. Japan, on the other hand, whose distinct capitalism has significantly influenced Southeast Asia’s efforts at economic development and “modernization” holds significant influence politically, as well as financially, in Cambodia. Japan is Cambodia’s largest traditional donor, providing more than $2.8 billion in official development assistance to Cambodia from 1992 to 2018. Recently, Japan provided Cambodia with $6.3 million for Phnom Penh’s Covid-19 response. As China races to finish a Covid-19 vaccine, and sends out medical officials and supplies, Japan seeks to solidify its relationships with Southeast Asian countries through investments, the inflow of migrant labor into Japan and opening up trade. As Cambodian migrants face scrutiny in Thailand, being suspected of illegal immigration and of spreading Covid-19, Japan’s commitment to Cambodia’s migrant workers is not insignificant.

Little is certain except for the fact that Covid-19 has raised the temperature of the geopolitical tensions playing out between East Asian powers like China and Japan and Southeast Asian developing countries such as Cambodia. As the European Union limits free trade with Cambodia and imposes duties on exports due to human rights abuses, China and Japan have a generational opportunity to extend and deepen their spheres of influence, all the more important now given the territorial disputes between China and Japan in the East and South China seas.

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