A few kilometers downstream from the river port of Phnom Penh, the Mekong unfurls across the plain a wide silver ribbon swollen by monsoon rains. There, near a narrow canal running south, a huge banner has been plastered over a grain factory. “We support the Funan Techo canal,” she proclaims, in the rounded Khmer script. At the start of October, only one existing structure was summarily expanded. However, it is this place that the Cambodian Prime Minister, Hun Manet, chose to inaugurate, on August 5, the construction site of the future canal, described as a “living monument symbolizing the greatness of the ancient Funan empire” – the Chinese name of the first Khmer kingdom, which would have existed between the 1st and 7th centuries. The date of the inauguration, which became a public holiday, was that of the 72nd birthday of Hun Sen, the strong man of Cambodia, who, if he ceded the post of prime minister to his son in the summer of 2023, after the Having occupied it for thirty-eight years, retains close control over the affairs of this kingdom of nearly 17 million inhabitants. “Techo” is one of his honorifics, meaning “great commander”. Read the report: Article reserved for our subscribers In Cambodia, the Chinese grip is not loosening Read later The Funan Techo, with an announced cost of 1.7 billion dollars (1.6 billion euros), long of 180 kilometers and a width of up to 100 meters, should – ultimately – allow the passage of carriers with a maximum load of 3,000 tonnes to Sihanoukville, the only deep-water port in the country. Thus Cambodia will be able to “breathe through its own nose”, as the official media insist – that is to say, no longer depend on the Vietnamese ports of the Mekong Delta for the transport of its goods. The Mekong, near Chiang Khong, in northern Thailand, October 23, 2024. JITTRAPON KAICOME FOR “THE WORLD” Rarely a simple canal project, however ambitious it may be, will have aroused so much speculation in South Asia. East. The suspected involvement of a Chinese state company in the construction and management of this project raises concerns about Beijing’s strategic ambitions in the Mekong region. 4,350 kilometers long, the river has its source in the Tibetan peaks of the Himalayas in China under the name of Lancang, runs along Burma and Thailand, runs through Laos over its entire length and crosses Cambodia from north to south, before reaching Vietnam, where it vanishes into the torpor of a delta which distributes its brownish waters into the green of the rice fields. Five neighboring countries over which China has been seeking to increase its influence for more than a decade. You have 88.04% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
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