In Siem Reap airport, your eyes don’t know whether to settle on the handsome vaulted ceiling or what must be the world’s most polished floor. How did Cambodia, not long ago one of the UN’s least developed countries, come to build so sleek and modern an asset in its second city? The billboards in the hall leave no doubt. Chinese investment and knowhow did this.
In other news, the US is proposing 49 per cent tariffs on Cambodia. Neighbouring Vietnam gets just the 46 per cent. Singapore, though it escapes with 10, now fears for its trade-led economic model. If south-east Asia is the frontline of the US-China contest — a contest that Donald Trump chose, having cast his predecessors as soft touches for Beijing — these tariffs could drive wavering states into the Chinese orbit, and pro-US ones to start hedging. In other words, one Maga goal (the containment of China) contradicts another (“liberation day”).
Now, let me guess: there is a clever-clever reason why, actually, this all makes total sense. There always is.