China Signed Pact with Cambodia to Use Naval Base for Its Military: Media Report

A Cambodian naval personnel stands on a naval patrol boat during a ceremony for nine naval patrol boats that were donated by China, at the Cambodia Naval Base in Sihanoukville, some 220 kilometers south-west of Phnom Penh, on 07 November 2007. TANG CHHIN SOTHY/AFP/Getty Images

After the Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous official sources, revealed that the Chinese regime had signed a secret agreement with Cambodia to use its naval base, Phnom Penh responded with an outright denial.

The Journal first reported on July 21 that China and Cambodia signed a secret pact this past spring, in which Phnom Penh would allow Chinese armed forces to use a naval base at Ream, which strategically faces the Gulf of Thailand.