A Sept. 19 New York Times report has raised questions about China’s role in clashes between Thailand and Cambodia. In July, the most serious armed confrontations in a decade broke out on the border between the two countries, while China has sought to portray itself as a mediator.
However, Thai intelligence documents reviewed by the New York Times showed that Chinese Y-20 military aircraft carried shipments of rockets, artillery shells and mortars to the southwestern city of Sihanoukville in June.
The weapons were stored at a nearby naval base before being transported to the border region, the documents showed.
Senior Thai officials confirmed the intelligence reports to the New York Times, adding that the information was gathered by an intelligence network across military branches.
Cambodia has attempted to play down the report, saying the weapons shipment coincided with joint military exercises with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, despite the exercise concluding in May.
The Chinese Ministry of National Defense is yet to respond to the allegations. However, shortly after fighting broke out, Beijing arranged a meeting with Thai Acting Defense Attache Colonel Siwat Rattan-ananta at the Thai embassy in Beijing to deny any Chinese involvement.
China has become Thailand’s largest arms supplier, far surpassing the US, while at the same time providing weapons to Cambodia’s much smaller military, the report said.
Throughout this expansion in arms sales, Beijing has been fully aware of the growing tensions between Thailand and Cambodia. Most of the rockets used by Cambodian forces were of Chinese origin, Southeast Asian human rights group Fortify Rights said, based on on-the-ground research.
Far from reflecting on the role its weapons exports have played in the civilian casualties in the conflict, China is persistent in framing itself as a regional broker of peace.
The conflict has laid bare the Chinese government’s lack of principles, with its arms sales helping to add fuel to the very fire it purports to be working to put out. As Chinese-made rockets and artillery contribute to civilian deaths, it flies in the face of humanitarianism that senior Chinese military officials have used routine drills as cover to deny supplying weapons to Cambodia in the lead-up to the fighting.
China has long sought to make inroads into Southeast Asian states through arms deals, yet plays at peacemaker at the sight of conflict. That is not just diplomatic hypocrisy, but represents a threat to regional peace and the sovereignty of Southeast Asian states. After intelligence on its weapons shipment emerged, China pushed back with a smokescreen of vaguely worded denial, while Cambodian Secretary of State for Defense Rath Dararoth described the report as “misleading.”
However, civilian casualties and devastated villages are an unavoidable reality left by the Chinese-made munitions. This reality, and the exposing of the “peacemaker” as nothing more than an arms dealer, has put Beijing’s hypocrisy and betrayal on full display.
Any notion of dedication to peace or neutrality is gone with the wind.
Elliot Yao is a reviewer.
Translated by Gilda Knox Streader
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