Thursday, September 08, 2016:
 |
||
TT Barack Obama
họp báo tại Vietiane Lào ngày 08/9/2016 lên án ứng cử viên Cộng hòa
Donald Trump là không xứng đáng làm Tổng Tư lệnh Hoa Kỳ khi đi ca ngợi TT Nga Putin
|
VietPress USA (08/9/2016): TT Barack Obama
trong chuyến công du cuối cùng đến Á Châu đã là vị Tổng thống đương nhiệm đầu
tiên của Hoa Kỳ đến thăm Lào quốc nhân dự phiên họp lãnh đạo các quốc gia thuộc
khối ASEAN.
Tại Thủ đô Vientiane của Lào trong một cuộc họp báo vào ngày
08/9/2016, Tổng thống Hoa Kỳ Barack Obama đã lên án ông Donald Trump là
không xứng đáng để trở thành Tổng tư lệnh Mỹ, sau khi ứng cử viên Tổng thống
của Đảng Cộng hòa nói rằng Tổng thống Nga Vladimir Putin là nhà lãnh đạo
hơn Tồng thống Hoa Kỳ Barack Obama.
TT Barack
Obama đã phê bình gay gắt Ứng cử viên của đảng Cộng Hòa Donald Trump có các lời
nói và hành vi ca ngợi kẻ thù trong khi tại Biển Đen chiến đấu cơ Su-27
Flanker của Nga bay sát đe dọa máy bay trinh sát P-08A của Hải Quân Hoa Kỳ chỉ
cách 3 mét (10 Feet). Tại phiên Hội nghị G20 ở Hàng Châu, Trung Quốc trong các
ngày 04 đến 05/9/2016, TT Hoa Kỳ Barack Obama đã cảnh cáo TT Nga Vladimir Putin
về các hành động hỗ trợ cho chính quyền độc tài Bashar al-Assad bằng các
cuộc không kích tấn công những lực lượng dân quân đối lập do Hoa Kỳ huấn luyện
và tài trợ để chống quân Khủng bố Hồi giáo ISIS ở Syria.
TT Barack Obama tuyên bố rằng: "Tôi không
nghĩ rằng ông ta đủ điều kiện để trở thành Tổng thống của Hoa Kỳ. Điều đó được
khẳng định qua mỗi phát biểu của ông ta”. Đây là lần
đầu tiên TT Barack Obama đã có lời phát biểu mạnh mẽ và gay gắt bất thường đối
với Donald Trump mặc dầu trước đó Trump đã có những bằng chứng liên lạc làm ăn
chung với phe nhóm tay chân của Vladimir Putin.
Video TT Barack Obama nói tại Lào rằng
"Donald Trump không đủ tư cách để làm Tổng thống Hoa Kỳ"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcXuj8nXYwc
Thứ Sáu 19/8/2016, Chủ tịch Ủy Ban Vận động Tranh cử Trung ương của Ứng cử viên Tổng thống Đảng Cộng Hòa Donald Trump là ông Paul Manafort đã công bố từ chức khỏi nhiệm vụ nấy sau khi bị báo New York Times đưa ra bằng chứng đã nhận số tiền mặt là USD12.7 Triệu từ quyết định ký bằng văn bản viết tay của cựu Tổng thống Ukraine thân Nga Viktor Yanukovych đã bị dân chúng lật đổ hiện đào tỵ tại Nga từ tháng 2/2014.
Thứ Sáu 19/8/2016, Chủ tịch Ủy Ban Vận động Tranh cử Trung ương của Ứng cử viên Tổng thống Đảng Cộng Hòa Donald Trump là ông Paul Manafort đã công bố từ chức khỏi nhiệm vụ nấy sau khi bị báo New York Times đưa ra bằng chứng đã nhận số tiền mặt là USD12.7 Triệu từ quyết định ký bằng văn bản viết tay của cựu Tổng thống Ukraine thân Nga Viktor Yanukovych đã bị dân chúng lật đổ hiện đào tỵ tại Nga từ tháng 2/2014.
Ủy Ban Quốc gia của chính phủ Ukraine hiện nay đã trưng ra một số các bằng
chứng, kể cả bằng chứng ông Paul Manafort và một cánh tay mặt của Tổng thống
Nga Vladimir Putin là Oleg Deripaska mua hệ thống Truyền hình Ukriane
với giá USD 8 Triệu để điều hành chung với ông Donald Trump. Ông Paul Manafort
cũng bị đưa ra các bằng chứng giúp cho những chương trình nhiều chục Triệu
Dollars giữa Ukraine và Nga. Chính vì vậy mà báo New York Times cho rằng thời
gian vứa qua ông Donald Trump đã hết lòng ca ngợi TT Nga Vladimir Putin, cho
rằng vấn đề Nga chiếm bán đảo Crimea của Ukraine là việc làm đứng đắn. Ngoài
ra, ông Donald Trump cũng kêu gọi TT Putin nên tìm cách đột nhập mạng để tìm
các Emails mà bà Hillary Clintons đã để lạc mất khi còn làm Ngoại trưởng Mỹ và
ông Trump nói rằng "Tôi tin chắc là Nga đã có rồi.." (http://www.vietpressusa.com/2016/08/chu-tich-uy-ban-tranh-cu-cua-donald.html).
Vào tối Thứ Tư
07/9/2016 trên hệ thống truyền hình phát trực tiếp toàn quốc Hoa Kỳ của ABC, trong chương
trình "Tổng Tư Lệnh - Commander-in-Chief" với sự
tham dự của một số cựu chiến binh Hoa Kỳ, Đài ABC đã phỏng vấn hai Ứng cử viên
đại diện hai đảng Cộng Hòa và Dân Chủ nhưng họ không gặp trực tiếp nhau. Khi
Đài NBC hỏi Donald Trump nhận xét về TT Barack Obama trên cương vị Tổng Tư Lệnh
Quân đội Hoa Kỳ, thì ông Donald Trump đã chê bai TT Obama và bà Hillary Clinton
trong chức vụ Ngoại trưởng đầu tiên của nội các TT Barack Obama thuộc đảng Dân Chủ.
Video ông Donald Trump ca ngợi TT Nga
Putin là nhà lãnh đạo tài giỏi hơn TT Hoa Kỳ
Barack Obama:
Barack Obama:
Ông Donald
Trump tuyên bố với Truyền hình NBC "Tôi nghĩ
rằng dưới sự lãnh đạo của ông Barack Obama và Hillary Clinton thì các vị Tướng
lãnh đã bị giảm xuống thành đống xà-bần đổ nát. Họ đã bị giảm xuống đến một
điểm thật tệ hại xấu hổ cho đất nước của chúng ta".
Donald Trump
tuyên bố tiếp trên Truyền hình toàn quốc của NBC rằng "Vladimir Putin
của Nga là một nhà lãnh đạo tốt hơn là Tổng thống Mỹ Barack Obama".
Sau khi khen
Tổng thống của nước Nga là kẻ thù của Hoa Kỳ giỏi hơn Tổng thống Hoa Kỳ Barack
Obama; ông Donald Trump tự cho rằng ông với tư cách là
đại diện chính thức được đảng Cộng Hòa bầu chọn đại diện ra tranh cử Tổng thống
Mỹ sắp tới thì ông chính là người đã được trang bị mọi kiến thức và tài thao
lược để sẵn sàng làm Tổng thống Hoa Kỳ kiêm Tổng Tư Lệnh Quân lực Hoa Kỳ.
Đây là lần đầu
tiên hai Ứng cử viên đối nghịch cùng phát biểu trên một chương trình của NBC
nhưng không nhìn thấy nhau. Bà Hillary Clinton ứng cử viên của đảng Dân Chủ nói
rằng "Trump khen Putin và đề nghị rằng Nga và Hoa
Kỳ nên liên kết thành một liên minh để chống lại Khủng bố ISIS đã làm cho các
nhà tình báo chiến lược phải cau mày vì ai cũng biết chính Moscow là kẻ phá rối
và tạo ra nội chiến ở Syria".
Donald Trump
nói về TT Nga Putin rằng "Nếu ông ấy
nói điều tốt đẹp về tôi thì tôi nói điều tốt đẹp về ông ấy. Và dĩ nhiên trong
chế độ đó thì ông Putin là một nhà lãnh đạo giỏi hơn là ông Tổng thống của
chúng ta".
Ông Trump cũng
từng gọi TT Barack Obama là "the founder of ISIS" (người thành
lập khủng bố ISIS) được nhắc đi nhắc lại nhiều lần trong những bài phát biểu
của Trump mấy tuần qua. Trump khoe rằng vì là người được đảng Cộng Hòa đề
cử ra tranh chức Tổng Thống Hoa Kỳ nên ông được tham dự các buổi tường trình
vắn tắt về các thông tin tình báo. Sau đó, Trump nói "Có điều
làm cho tôi vô cùng ngạc nhiên; đó là người lãnh đạo của chúng ta là Barack
Obama đã không nghe theo lời các chuyên gia nói ông ta phải làm, và tôi rất..
rất ngạc nhiên... Nhà lãnh đạo của chúng ta đã không theo những gì họ yêu cầu
làm.."
Trước đó vào
buổi sáng Thứ Tư cùng ngày, Donald Trump đưa ra bản tin nói rằng Mỹ cần tổ chức
ngay hệ thống quân đội ứng phó vì hiện nay nước Mỹ đang bị các kẻ thù đe dọa
như Khủng bố Hồi giáo, Bắc Hàn và Trung Quốc.
Chương trình
Truyền hình của NBC về "Tổng Tư Lệnh", hỏi bà Hillary Clinton rằng bà có
khả năng làm Tổng Tư Lệnh không? Bà Hillary Clinton trả lời "Tôi từng là Thượng Nghị sĩ Hoa Kỳ
và từng là Ngoại trưởng Hoa Kỳ.. Thời gian và kinh nghiệm cũng như khả
năng kiến thức cá nhân giúp tôi trở thành một Tổng Tư Lệnh khôn ngoan và vững
chắc để trở thành một Tổng thống của Hoa Kỳ". Bà nói bà hoàn toàn sẵn
sàng và đủ cứng rắn để giải quyết mọi khó khăn, đương đầu với mọi kẻ thù để bảo
vệ nhân dân và đất nước Hoa Kỳ cũng như lãnh đạo thế giới.
CHỦ TỊCH QUỐC
HỘI CỘNG HÒA PAUL RAYAN CHÁN NGÁN LỜI CỦA TRUMP KHEN TT NGA PUTIN GIỎI HƠN TT
MỸ:
Trong khi đó, sau khi bị TT Barack Obama lên án Donald Trump ứng cử viên
đại diện đảng Cộng Hòa đi khen Tổng thống Nga Vladimir Putin giỏi hơn Tổng
thống Mỷ; ông Paul Rayan đương kim Chủ tịch Quốc Hội do đảng Cộng
Hòa nắm phe đa số, đã tỏ ra chán ngán lời tuyên bố của Donald Trump khen TT Nga
Putin; nhưng cố gắng tìm cách che chắn cho ứng cử viên của đảng Cộng Hòa.
 |
Chủ
tịch Quốc Hội Paul Ryan của đảng Cộng Hòa họp báo tại Quốc Hội
nói chán ngán về lời ca ngợi TT Nga Putin của Ứng cử viên Donald Trump |
Ông Paul Ryan nói "Tôi có đọc
lời nói của ông Trump tối Thứ Tư tuyên bố trên diễn đàn ứng cử viên khen ông
Putin của Nga là lãnh đạo giỏi hơn TT Obama của Hoa Kỳ.. Cho tôi nói về
Vladimir Putin là một tên xâm lược không đáng cho chúng ta quan tâm, Vladimir
Putin đã vi phạm xâm lăng lãnh thổ nước láng giềng.."
Chủ tịch Quốc Hội Paul Ryan tiếp tục tố cáo Putin là kẻ đột nhập mạng của
Hoa Kỳ. Chính quyền Mỹ tuyên bố rằng chắc chắn Nga đã đột nhập mạng của Đảng
Dân Chủ để ăn cắp các Emails nội bộ và nay Hoa Kỳ đang điều tra những vụ ăn cắp
trên mạng khác của Nga thực hiện. Đảng Dân Chủ tin rằng Nga ăn cắp và đưa ra
cho Donald Trump tìm cách hạ bà Hillary Clinton và Trump đã từng công khai kêu gọi
Putin nên đột nhập mạng của bà Hillary Clinton để tìm những Emails bà Hillary
Clinton thất lạc và Trump nói rằng Trump biết Nga đang có..!
Một ứng cử
viên Tổng Thống Mỹ lại công khai kêu gọi nước kẻ thù hãy vào đột nhập mạng của
đất nước Hoa Kỳ thi sau nầy khi đắc cử làm Tổng thống thật thì chắc Trump sẽ vì
lợi ích riêng mà bán nước Mỹ cho kẻ thù.
Paul Ryan nói
"Đó không phải là lợi ích của chúng tôi và
đó chỉ là lập trường thù địch của ông ta và ông ta đã hành động như thù hận". Khi
báo chí chất vấn rằng lời tuyên bố của Paul Ryan có nghĩa là Chủ tịch Quốc Hội
Cộng Hòa không đồng ý với Donald Trump và như vậy ông còn tiếp tục hỗ trợ cho
Trump là ứng cử viên được đảng Cộng Hòa đề cử hay không? Paul Ryan nói rằng ông
thất vọng nhưng ông còn những việc khác để làm ngoài ra ông cũng lo vấn đề
tranh cử của riêng ông nữa.
"Ông ta là
ứng cử viện được đảng Cộng Hòa đề cử vì ông ta thắng vụ đê cử đó; nhưng tôi
không việc gì phải ngồi ở đây để lo những chuyện lẩm cầm đối với lời tuyên bố
tối qua của Donal Trump hay vào đêm trước đó trong trong buổi tranh luận của
Hillary đối lại Trump. Đó không phải là công việc của tôi và tôi cũng sẽ không
tham gia vào chuyện tổng kết năm tranh cử", Paul
Rayan tuyên bố như vậy tại cuộc họp báo ở Quốc Hội hôm nay. Đây là cuộc họp báo
đầu tiên tại Quốc Hội sau khi Quốc Hội trở lại khóa họp mới sau khi nghỉ hè. Còn
lối 3 tuần nữa sẽ đến kỳ họp mới và cuộc tranh cử Tổng thống đến hồi quyết liệt
nên chắc chắn các lời tuyên bố gây tranh cãi đối với Donald Trmp sẽ còn dài
dài.
Hạnh Dương
__._,_.___
FINANCIAL TIMES
8-9-16
How China bought its way into Cambodia
Phnom Penh has emerged as a vital ally, and in return Beijing is driving development in the
country
James Kynge, Leila Haddou and Michael Peel
In Cambodia’s Chinese business community, “Big Brother Fu”is a name to be reckoned with. A
former officer in China’s People’s Liberation Army, his thickset build and parade-ground voice
reinforce the authority suggested by his nickname. But his physical bearing pales next to the heft
of his political connections. Few, if any, foreign investors in this small but strategically
important Southeast Asian nation enjoy access as favoured as that of Fu Xianting.
At state events, Mr Fu wears an official red sash studded with gold insignia, attire that hints at
his ties to Hun Sen, Cambodia’s authoritarian ruler. So close is Mr Fu to the prime minister that
the leader of his personal bodyguard unit, some of whose members have been convicted of
savage assaults on opposition lawmakers, calls him “a brother”and has pledged to “create a safe
passage for all of Mr Fu’s endeavours”.
These connections have helped Mr Fu and his company, Unite International, win a rare
concession to develop one of the most beautiful stretches of Cambodia’s coastline into a $5.7bn
tourist destination. More broadly, they signal how big money, secret dealings and high-level
backing from China’s Communist party have helped pull Phnom Penh firmly into Beijing’s
sphere of influence.
As China has sought to assert its authority in the South China Sea, some Southeast Asian nations
have bolstered their ties with the US, including Vietnam and the Philippines. Cambodia is
China’s staunchest counterweight, giving the country of 15m people an outsized role in one of
the world’s most fraught geopolitical tussles. With an effective veto in the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations, the region’s top diplomatic grouping, Cambodia has a weapon to wield
on China’s behalf.
Mr Fu’s story shows how private Chinese companies, backed by Beijing’s diplomatic resources
and the unrivalled muscle of its state-run banks, are spearheading a commercial engagement that
helps form the foundation for China’s political and strategic ambitions.
“In terms of money, China is the number one,”says Phay Siphan, Cambodia’s minister of state
within the council of ministers. “The power of China is getting much bigger … we choose China
because [its investment] does not come with conditions.
“A number of western investments come with attachments,”he adds. “[They say] we have to be
good in democracy. We have to be good in human rights. But in Cambodia we went through a
civil war and we understand that if you have no food in your stomach, you cannot have human
rights.”
2
An investigation by the Financial Times reveals the favoured treatment that Chinese companies
have won from Cambodia’s leadership, resulting in the award of land that far exceeded legal size
limits, the apparent overriding of a state decree for the benefit of a Chinese investor and official
support against the protests of dispossessed farmers.
An analysis of state documents shows that in several cases, Chinese investments were facilitated
personally by Mr Hun Sen, a ruler of 31 years who insists on being referred to as “Lord Prime
Minister and Supreme Military Commander”. Global Witness, the UK campaign group, claimed
in a report this year that the Cambodian leader presides over a “huge network of secret
dealmaking and nepotism”that has allowed his family to amass stakes in leading industries and
help “secure the prime minister’s political fortress”.
Cambodia’s government has accused Global Witness of having an agenda and refused to
comment on its allegations. Mr Phay Siphan did not reply to repeated phone calls and emails
about the Global Witness report.
Mr Hun Sen’s personal assistance was crucial in providing Mr Fu, 67, with his early break. A
letter written in October 2009 by the prime minister wishes Mr Fu “complete success”in
developing a 33 sq km area of coastal land on a 99-year lease — even though some of the land
fell within a protected national park. The prime minister also set up a special committee with
representatives from seven ministries to assist with the project’s execution.
“I express my personal thanks and support for your company to carry out this tourism project,”
Mr Hun Sen wrote in the letter, seen by the FT. It is dated nine months after Mr Fu’s company
donated 220 motorbikes to Mr Hun Sen’s bodyguard unit, a 3,000-strong private army equipped
with armoured personnel carriers, missile launchers and Chinese-made machine guns. The gift
was the latest in a series of donations to the unit, which is charged with guarding the prime
minister and his wife, Bun Rany, officially known as the “Most Glorious and Upright Person of
Genius”.
‘Our brother of many years’
In an account of the ceremony at which the motorbikes were presented — published on the
Chinese company’s website — Sok An, a deputy prime minister, was quoted as “thanking the
Unite Group for this gift of 220 motorbikes and several previous donations of material assistance
to Hun Sen’s bodyguard … which have fulfilled the duty of donation to the royal government”.
Unite formed a “military-commercial alliance”with the bodyguard unit in April 2010, a highly
unusual arrangement for a foreign company in Cambodia. At a ceremony to celebrate the
alliance, Lieutenant General Hing Bunheang, commander of the bodyguards and one of Hun
Sen’s closest associates, showered praise on Mr Fu.
“Mr Fu is our brother of many years who has made an outstanding contribution to the
development of Cambodia,”Lt Gen Hing Bunheang is heard saying on a video, according to a
Chinese voiceover. “Mr Fu’s business is our business. We will create a safe passage for all of Mr
Fu’s endeavours.”
Such accolades represented a high point in Mr Fu’s business career, which has seen him move
from at least a decade in the PLA to manager and chairman of Chinese state-owned enterprises,
company documents say. His dealings in Cambodia began in the early 1990s when he organised
an exhibition of Chinese agricultural machinery. He holds a position in Beijing on a committee
of the China Association of International Friendly Contact, which reports to the foreign ministry.
3
But his business profile inside China appears almost non-existent, with corporate databases
showing only a role as “legal representative”of Beijing Tian Yi Hua Sheng Technology, a
company with just Rmb2m ($300,000) in registered capital.
In Phnom Penh, though, Mr Fu is probably China’s most influential businessperson, an official
adviser to Hun Sen and the recipient of state and military honours. But notwithstanding these
gold-plated connections, Mr Fu’s investment in Cambodia has proven controversial.
China is pouring money into the country at an unprecedented rate but, as the FT’s James Kynge
reports, not everyone is benefiting from the billion dollar investment deals.
Environmental groups protested that the Chinese company had been able to secure land inside
the Ream National Park, which was protected from development under a royal decree. Licadho,
a Cambodian human rights group, complained that hundreds of farming families were evicted
from their homes. Villagers staged protests to hamper the Chinese company’s work.
In May 2010, a decree from the Council of Ministers revoked licences held by Mr Fu’s company
for the development of the Golden Silver Gulf, the name of his proposed resort, according to a
copy of the decree obtained by the FT. The document passed responsibility for the area over to
the environment ministry, but it remains unclear whether development work was ever actually
halted.
Contacted by phone and email, Mr Fu declined to comment on the decree revoking his licences
but said the approvals he won from Mr Hun Sen’s government had been secured because of his
reputation as a trusted businessman in Cambodia and had nothing to do with his “militarycommercial
alliance”with the bodyguard unit.
This year, a subsidiary of Unite International, Yeejia Tourism, announced several deals relating
to the project, signalling a resumption of activity.
Warming relations
Mr Hun Sen has not always been pro-China. He once labelled it the “root of everything that is
evil”because of Beijing’s support for the genocidal Khmer Rouge, which killed an estimated
1.7m Cambodians in the 1970s.
But over the past 15 years, the Cambodian leader has become China’s most reliable supporter in
Southeast Asia, presiding over the sale of his country’s choicest assets to Chinese companies,
forging military links and praising Beijing as a “most trustworthy friend”.
This elevation of China has at times translated into a cold shoulder to the US, as President
Barack Obama found during an East Asian summit in Phnom Penh in 2012. As the first sitting
US president to visit Cambodia approached the government building, he saw two large banners
proclaiming: “Long Live the People’s Republic of China”.
In the 20 years from 1992, when the west started to engage in building democracy in Cambodia,
donor nations delivered some $12bn in loans and grants — a large portion of which was never
spent on development but went instead to pay the salaries of expensive consultants, according to
Sebastian Strangio, author of Hun Sen’s Cambodia.
By contrast, China invested $9.6bn in the decade to 2013; and about a further $13bn is yet to
come, according to the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace, a think-tank.
4
But China’s magnetism is not confined to its investment firepower. Chinese companies, backed
by the China Development Bank and other powerful institutions, have a reputation for delivering
crucial infrastructure projects quickly and without delays caused by human rights and
environmental objections.
An example is the $800m Lower Sesan 2 dam being built by HydroLancang, a state-owned
Chinese company. The 400MWdam has been hit by protests from thousands of villagers who
are set to be displaced or lose their livelihoods, but it remains on schedule for completion in
2019.
Of some 8m hectares (80,000 sq km) granted to companies between 1994 and 2012, nearly 60
per cent or 4.6m ha — an area larger than the Netherlands — went to Chinese interests,
according to estimates by the Cambodia Centre for Human Rights, a group funded mostly by
western donors.
A blend of secrecy and elite contacts is evident in two other large Chinese investments that were
enabled by Mr Hun Sen and his executive, according to copies of the decrees. One involved a
360 sq km land concession for a $3.8bn investment by Union Development Group, a subsidiary
of the Wanlong Group, a large Chinese developer. The other was a 430 sq km concession for a
$1bn investment by Heng Fu Sugar, one of China’s largest sugar producers. The combined size
of these concessions is larger than Phnom Penh, the capital.
Both investments have triggered waves of protests by farmers and both exceeded the 100 sq km
legal limit on concessions to a single company. Heng Fu Sugar skirted this law by setting up five
separate companies to each receive a contiguous land concession slightly smaller than the limit,
according to concession documents.
Although each of the five companies carries a different name — Heng Rui, Heng Yue, Heng
Non, Rui Feng and Lan Feng — company executives acknowledged they are in fact all owned by
Heng Fu Sugar. Tan Jiangxia, the company’s representative on the plantation in the central
province of Preah Vihear, explained how the company avoided the restriction. “This is related to
a clause in the land concession law. One company is only allowed to get hold of 10,000 hectares
or less, so we have kept the land under each company at under 10,000 hectares,”Mr Tan says.
A good friend to have
Big investment deals have cemented Beijing’s relations with Phnom Penh, but they have also
helped yield political dividends for China as it imposes claims to disputed areas in the South
China Sea. With US destroyers sailing close to Chinese-built islands equipped with anti-ship
missiles, the South China Sea has become one of the world’s most highly charged flashpoints.
As regional tensions have grown, so has Cambodia’s value to Beijing. Of particular use is
Phnom Penh’s membership in Asean. Because Asean works by consensus, the objections of one
member can thwart any group initiative.
Cambodia used this effective veto to protect China in July. Asean was poised to issue an official
statement mentioning an international tribunal’s ruling that there was no basis under UN law for
China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea. But after Cambodia objected, a watered-down
final communique was issued with no mention of the ruling.
China, which had pledged $600m in aid for Phnom Penh just days before the Asean meeting,
reacted with gratitude and public delight. Wang Yi, the foreign minister, said Beijing “highly
5
appreciates”Cambodia’s stand in the meeting, which history would show was “correct”. A few
days after the meeting, Beijing said it would build a $16m National Assembly hall in Phnom
Penh.
“Since the ruling against China of the [international] tribunal in July, China has offered
Cambodia $600m in aid and in return Cambodia has at least twice blocked Asean statements
criticising China,”said Murray Hiebert, Southeast Asia expert at the Center for Strategic and
International Studies, a think-tank.
“Cambodia gets a lot in return. It gets foreign aid, it gets debt forgiveness and for a government
that is very dependent on foreign aid, it gets critical Chinese aid. And the Chinese don’t ask
questions on human rights.”
Additional reporting by Tat Oudom
Harbouring grand ambitions
A Chinese company working with the diplomatic support of the People’s Liberation Army is
close to completing construction of a deepwater port on a 90km stretch of Cambodia’s coastline,
according to company executives and documents.
The port — deep enough to handle cruise ships, bulk carriers or naval vessels of up to 10,000
tonnes in weight — is located on the Gulf of Thailand just a few hundred kilometres from
disputed territories in the South China Sea.
“The port is nearly finished,”says Soeng Songang, an executive at the Tianjin Union
Development Group (UDG), the Chinese company developing a 360 sq km area of Cambodia’s
Koh Kong province. The area is owned on a 99-year lease from Phnom Penh, at an estimated
cost of $3.8bn. “Big trading ships will be able to come to the port, which can take ships up to
10,000 tonnes because the sea is 11 metres deep.”
The port represents the latest example of China’s push to become the predominant maritime
power in Asia partly by building, investing in or gaining unfettered access to a network of ports
throughout the region, analysts say.
“Ports are extremely important in this pursuit of regional domination,”says Geoff Wade, an
expert on Asia at the Australian National University. He adds that Beijing is investing to develop
or control a series of ports at Hambantota in Sri Lanka, Gwadar in Pakistan, Kyaukpyu in
Myanmar and Chittagong in Bangladesh, as well as other facilities in Thailand and Indonesia.
In addition, China is setting up its first overseas military base in Djibouti, in the Horn of Africa,
occupying a vital strategic position at the southern entrance to the Red Sea from the Indian
Ocean, with 30 per cent of the world’s ships passing close by.
There has been no suggestion by Beijing that it plans to use the new port on Cambodia’s western
seaboard for military purposes, but Mr Wade says the facility will be big enough to
accommodate most of the frigates and destroyers in the Chinese navy, if required.
The UDG investment has received high-level political and military backing in Beijing since the
private company, which is based in the northern city of Tianjin, secured its unusually large land
concession — which cedes control of 20 per cent of Cambodia’s total coastline — in 2008.
Zhang Gaoli, a member of China’s Politburo Standing Committee, the pinnacle of the country’s
ruling Communist party, presided over the signing ceremony for UDG’s investment, according
6
to documents obtained by the FT. Since then, the project — called Dara Sakor and which also
includes plans for an international airport, hospitals, international schools, five-star hotels and
tourism resorts — has been endorsed by military leaders in both countries.
In July 2015, Liao Keduo, who was then political commissar of the PLA’s Tianjin Garrison
Command, met Cambodia’s defence minister, Tea Banh, during a visit to Tianjin. According to a
UDG website, which showed a photograph of the two men in conversation, Mr Liao expressed a
“hope that Dara Sakor, this flower of friendship nurtured by the two countries of China and
Cambodia, can blossom at an early date”.
James Kynge and Leila Haddou
8-9-16
How China bought its way into Cambodia
Phnom Penh has emerged as a vital ally, and in return Beijing is driving development in the
country
James Kynge, Leila Haddou and Michael Peel
In Cambodia’s Chinese business community, “Big Brother Fu”is a name to be reckoned with. A
former officer in China’s People’s Liberation Army, his thickset build and parade-ground voice
reinforce the authority suggested by his nickname. But his physical bearing pales next to the heft
of his political connections. Few, if any, foreign investors in this small but strategically
important Southeast Asian nation enjoy access as favoured as that of Fu Xianting.
At state events, Mr Fu wears an official red sash studded with gold insignia, attire that hints at
his ties to Hun Sen, Cambodia’s authoritarian ruler. So close is Mr Fu to the prime minister that
the leader of his personal bodyguard unit, some of whose members have been convicted of
savage assaults on opposition lawmakers, calls him “a brother”and has pledged to “create a safe
passage for all of Mr Fu’s endeavours”.
These connections have helped Mr Fu and his company, Unite International, win a rare
concession to develop one of the most beautiful stretches of Cambodia’s coastline into a $5.7bn
tourist destination. More broadly, they signal how big money, secret dealings and high-level
backing from China’s Communist party have helped pull Phnom Penh firmly into Beijing’s
sphere of influence.
As China has sought to assert its authority in the South China Sea, some Southeast Asian nations
have bolstered their ties with the US, including Vietnam and the Philippines. Cambodia is
China’s staunchest counterweight, giving the country of 15m people an outsized role in one of
the world’s most fraught geopolitical tussles. With an effective veto in the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations, the region’s top diplomatic grouping, Cambodia has a weapon to wield
on China’s behalf.
Mr Fu’s story shows how private Chinese companies, backed by Beijing’s diplomatic resources
and the unrivalled muscle of its state-run banks, are spearheading a commercial engagement that
helps form the foundation for China’s political and strategic ambitions.
“In terms of money, China is the number one,”says Phay Siphan, Cambodia’s minister of state
within the council of ministers. “The power of China is getting much bigger … we choose China
because [its investment] does not come with conditions.
“A number of western investments come with attachments,”he adds. “[They say] we have to be
good in democracy. We have to be good in human rights. But in Cambodia we went through a
civil war and we understand that if you have no food in your stomach, you cannot have human
rights.”
2
An investigation by the Financial Times reveals the favoured treatment that Chinese companies
have won from Cambodia’s leadership, resulting in the award of land that far exceeded legal size
limits, the apparent overriding of a state decree for the benefit of a Chinese investor and official
support against the protests of dispossessed farmers.
An analysis of state documents shows that in several cases, Chinese investments were facilitated
personally by Mr Hun Sen, a ruler of 31 years who insists on being referred to as “Lord Prime
Minister and Supreme Military Commander”. Global Witness, the UK campaign group, claimed
in a report this year that the Cambodian leader presides over a “huge network of secret
dealmaking and nepotism”that has allowed his family to amass stakes in leading industries and
help “secure the prime minister’s political fortress”.
Cambodia’s government has accused Global Witness of having an agenda and refused to
comment on its allegations. Mr Phay Siphan did not reply to repeated phone calls and emails
about the Global Witness report.
Mr Hun Sen’s personal assistance was crucial in providing Mr Fu, 67, with his early break. A
letter written in October 2009 by the prime minister wishes Mr Fu “complete success”in
developing a 33 sq km area of coastal land on a 99-year lease — even though some of the land
fell within a protected national park. The prime minister also set up a special committee with
representatives from seven ministries to assist with the project’s execution.
“I express my personal thanks and support for your company to carry out this tourism project,”
Mr Hun Sen wrote in the letter, seen by the FT. It is dated nine months after Mr Fu’s company
donated 220 motorbikes to Mr Hun Sen’s bodyguard unit, a 3,000-strong private army equipped
with armoured personnel carriers, missile launchers and Chinese-made machine guns. The gift
was the latest in a series of donations to the unit, which is charged with guarding the prime
minister and his wife, Bun Rany, officially known as the “Most Glorious and Upright Person of
Genius”.
‘Our brother of many years’
In an account of the ceremony at which the motorbikes were presented — published on the
Chinese company’s website — Sok An, a deputy prime minister, was quoted as “thanking the
Unite Group for this gift of 220 motorbikes and several previous donations of material assistance
to Hun Sen’s bodyguard … which have fulfilled the duty of donation to the royal government”.
Unite formed a “military-commercial alliance”with the bodyguard unit in April 2010, a highly
unusual arrangement for a foreign company in Cambodia. At a ceremony to celebrate the
alliance, Lieutenant General Hing Bunheang, commander of the bodyguards and one of Hun
Sen’s closest associates, showered praise on Mr Fu.
“Mr Fu is our brother of many years who has made an outstanding contribution to the
development of Cambodia,”Lt Gen Hing Bunheang is heard saying on a video, according to a
Chinese voiceover. “Mr Fu’s business is our business. We will create a safe passage for all of Mr
Fu’s endeavours.”
Such accolades represented a high point in Mr Fu’s business career, which has seen him move
from at least a decade in the PLA to manager and chairman of Chinese state-owned enterprises,
company documents say. His dealings in Cambodia began in the early 1990s when he organised
an exhibition of Chinese agricultural machinery. He holds a position in Beijing on a committee
of the China Association of International Friendly Contact, which reports to the foreign ministry.
3
But his business profile inside China appears almost non-existent, with corporate databases
showing only a role as “legal representative”of Beijing Tian Yi Hua Sheng Technology, a
company with just Rmb2m ($300,000) in registered capital.
In Phnom Penh, though, Mr Fu is probably China’s most influential businessperson, an official
adviser to Hun Sen and the recipient of state and military honours. But notwithstanding these
gold-plated connections, Mr Fu’s investment in Cambodia has proven controversial.
China is pouring money into the country at an unprecedented rate but, as the FT’s James Kynge
reports, not everyone is benefiting from the billion dollar investment deals.
Environmental groups protested that the Chinese company had been able to secure land inside
the Ream National Park, which was protected from development under a royal decree. Licadho,
a Cambodian human rights group, complained that hundreds of farming families were evicted
from their homes. Villagers staged protests to hamper the Chinese company’s work.
In May 2010, a decree from the Council of Ministers revoked licences held by Mr Fu’s company
for the development of the Golden Silver Gulf, the name of his proposed resort, according to a
copy of the decree obtained by the FT. The document passed responsibility for the area over to
the environment ministry, but it remains unclear whether development work was ever actually
halted.
Contacted by phone and email, Mr Fu declined to comment on the decree revoking his licences
but said the approvals he won from Mr Hun Sen’s government had been secured because of his
reputation as a trusted businessman in Cambodia and had nothing to do with his “militarycommercial
alliance”with the bodyguard unit.
This year, a subsidiary of Unite International, Yeejia Tourism, announced several deals relating
to the project, signalling a resumption of activity.
Warming relations
Mr Hun Sen has not always been pro-China. He once labelled it the “root of everything that is
evil”because of Beijing’s support for the genocidal Khmer Rouge, which killed an estimated
1.7m Cambodians in the 1970s.
But over the past 15 years, the Cambodian leader has become China’s most reliable supporter in
Southeast Asia, presiding over the sale of his country’s choicest assets to Chinese companies,
forging military links and praising Beijing as a “most trustworthy friend”.
This elevation of China has at times translated into a cold shoulder to the US, as President
Barack Obama found during an East Asian summit in Phnom Penh in 2012. As the first sitting
US president to visit Cambodia approached the government building, he saw two large banners
proclaiming: “Long Live the People’s Republic of China”.
In the 20 years from 1992, when the west started to engage in building democracy in Cambodia,
donor nations delivered some $12bn in loans and grants — a large portion of which was never
spent on development but went instead to pay the salaries of expensive consultants, according to
Sebastian Strangio, author of Hun Sen’s Cambodia.
By contrast, China invested $9.6bn in the decade to 2013; and about a further $13bn is yet to
come, according to the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace, a think-tank.
4
But China’s magnetism is not confined to its investment firepower. Chinese companies, backed
by the China Development Bank and other powerful institutions, have a reputation for delivering
crucial infrastructure projects quickly and without delays caused by human rights and
environmental objections.
An example is the $800m Lower Sesan 2 dam being built by HydroLancang, a state-owned
Chinese company. The 400MWdam has been hit by protests from thousands of villagers who
are set to be displaced or lose their livelihoods, but it remains on schedule for completion in
2019.
Of some 8m hectares (80,000 sq km) granted to companies between 1994 and 2012, nearly 60
per cent or 4.6m ha — an area larger than the Netherlands — went to Chinese interests,
according to estimates by the Cambodia Centre for Human Rights, a group funded mostly by
western donors.
A blend of secrecy and elite contacts is evident in two other large Chinese investments that were
enabled by Mr Hun Sen and his executive, according to copies of the decrees. One involved a
360 sq km land concession for a $3.8bn investment by Union Development Group, a subsidiary
of the Wanlong Group, a large Chinese developer. The other was a 430 sq km concession for a
$1bn investment by Heng Fu Sugar, one of China’s largest sugar producers. The combined size
of these concessions is larger than Phnom Penh, the capital.
Both investments have triggered waves of protests by farmers and both exceeded the 100 sq km
legal limit on concessions to a single company. Heng Fu Sugar skirted this law by setting up five
separate companies to each receive a contiguous land concession slightly smaller than the limit,
according to concession documents.
Although each of the five companies carries a different name — Heng Rui, Heng Yue, Heng
Non, Rui Feng and Lan Feng — company executives acknowledged they are in fact all owned by
Heng Fu Sugar. Tan Jiangxia, the company’s representative on the plantation in the central
province of Preah Vihear, explained how the company avoided the restriction. “This is related to
a clause in the land concession law. One company is only allowed to get hold of 10,000 hectares
or less, so we have kept the land under each company at under 10,000 hectares,”Mr Tan says.
A good friend to have
Big investment deals have cemented Beijing’s relations with Phnom Penh, but they have also
helped yield political dividends for China as it imposes claims to disputed areas in the South
China Sea. With US destroyers sailing close to Chinese-built islands equipped with anti-ship
missiles, the South China Sea has become one of the world’s most highly charged flashpoints.
As regional tensions have grown, so has Cambodia’s value to Beijing. Of particular use is
Phnom Penh’s membership in Asean. Because Asean works by consensus, the objections of one
member can thwart any group initiative.
Cambodia used this effective veto to protect China in July. Asean was poised to issue an official
statement mentioning an international tribunal’s ruling that there was no basis under UN law for
China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea. But after Cambodia objected, a watered-down
final communique was issued with no mention of the ruling.
China, which had pledged $600m in aid for Phnom Penh just days before the Asean meeting,
reacted with gratitude and public delight. Wang Yi, the foreign minister, said Beijing “highly
5
appreciates”Cambodia’s stand in the meeting, which history would show was “correct”. A few
days after the meeting, Beijing said it would build a $16m National Assembly hall in Phnom
Penh.
“Since the ruling against China of the [international] tribunal in July, China has offered
Cambodia $600m in aid and in return Cambodia has at least twice blocked Asean statements
criticising China,”said Murray Hiebert, Southeast Asia expert at the Center for Strategic and
International Studies, a think-tank.
“Cambodia gets a lot in return. It gets foreign aid, it gets debt forgiveness and for a government
that is very dependent on foreign aid, it gets critical Chinese aid. And the Chinese don’t ask
questions on human rights.”
Additional reporting by Tat Oudom
Harbouring grand ambitions
A Chinese company working with the diplomatic support of the People’s Liberation Army is
close to completing construction of a deepwater port on a 90km stretch of Cambodia’s coastline,
according to company executives and documents.
The port — deep enough to handle cruise ships, bulk carriers or naval vessels of up to 10,000
tonnes in weight — is located on the Gulf of Thailand just a few hundred kilometres from
disputed territories in the South China Sea.
“The port is nearly finished,”says Soeng Songang, an executive at the Tianjin Union
Development Group (UDG), the Chinese company developing a 360 sq km area of Cambodia’s
Koh Kong province. The area is owned on a 99-year lease from Phnom Penh, at an estimated
cost of $3.8bn. “Big trading ships will be able to come to the port, which can take ships up to
10,000 tonnes because the sea is 11 metres deep.”
The port represents the latest example of China’s push to become the predominant maritime
power in Asia partly by building, investing in or gaining unfettered access to a network of ports
throughout the region, analysts say.
“Ports are extremely important in this pursuit of regional domination,”says Geoff Wade, an
expert on Asia at the Australian National University. He adds that Beijing is investing to develop
or control a series of ports at Hambantota in Sri Lanka, Gwadar in Pakistan, Kyaukpyu in
Myanmar and Chittagong in Bangladesh, as well as other facilities in Thailand and Indonesia.
In addition, China is setting up its first overseas military base in Djibouti, in the Horn of Africa,
occupying a vital strategic position at the southern entrance to the Red Sea from the Indian
Ocean, with 30 per cent of the world’s ships passing close by.
There has been no suggestion by Beijing that it plans to use the new port on Cambodia’s western
seaboard for military purposes, but Mr Wade says the facility will be big enough to
accommodate most of the frigates and destroyers in the Chinese navy, if required.
The UDG investment has received high-level political and military backing in Beijing since the
private company, which is based in the northern city of Tianjin, secured its unusually large land
concession — which cedes control of 20 per cent of Cambodia’s total coastline — in 2008.
Zhang Gaoli, a member of China’s Politburo Standing Committee, the pinnacle of the country’s
ruling Communist party, presided over the signing ceremony for UDG’s investment, according
6
to documents obtained by the FT. Since then, the project — called Dara Sakor and which also
includes plans for an international airport, hospitals, international schools, five-star hotels and
tourism resorts — has been endorsed by military leaders in both countries.
In July 2015, Liao Keduo, who was then political commissar of the PLA’s Tianjin Garrison
Command, met Cambodia’s defence minister, Tea Banh, during a visit to Tianjin. According to a
UDG website, which showed a photograph of the two men in conversation, Mr Liao expressed a
“hope that Dara Sakor, this flower of friendship nurtured by the two countries of China and
Cambodia, can blossom at an early date”.
James Kynge and Leila Haddou
__._,_.___
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks