'No Cambodia left': how Chinese money is changing Sihanoukville

Guardian ^ | Tue 31 Jul 2018 01.30 EDT | Hannah Ellis-Petersen

[who_would_fardels_bear]

When on holiday in Cambodia Right Guard might actually help some now.

[SoCal Pubbie]

The Chinese have been in Cambodia for a long, long time. I had a coworker, up to about a week ago, who's family is from Cambodia. She was born here, but her older sister was born in a refugee camp in Thailand. Their father is ethnically Chinese. He worked with the French as a translator way back when. Once the Killing Fields started, he had to get out of dodge. I think a lot of the post Vietnam war killing was directed at racial minorities.

But whites are the only racists of course.

[miss marmelstein]

The Chinese seem overextended to me but what do I know about economics?

[gaijin]

Your impressions..?

[cba123]

Hi thanks I just happened to sign on, and saw your note just now.

I have not been to Sihanoukville. It is a ways out of Phnom Penh, and a bit of a chore to get there. It is to the south of Phnom Penh, on the ocean.

Sort of built up initially by the leader there, I believe.

However, China is big in Cambodia.

Do not doubt this build-up in Sihanoukville, at all.

[Zhang Fei]

I think it’s not so much that Chinese expats are particularly numerous, as Sihanoukville was a sleepy town of less than 100K before all this development happened. Even today, it’s got under 300K, the vast majority of which are Cambodians. For comparison, Cleveland has more people.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sihanoukville_(city)#Demographics

The article probably greatly exaggerates the negative impact of development. If Chinese investment in the city had a negative impact on employment and so on, the population of Sihanoukville would presumably have decreased, rather than tripled over the past decade.