18 Dec 2009
Source: Reuters
(CAAI News Media)
Dec 18 (Reuters) - Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping arrives in Cambodia on Sunday on the final leg of an Asian tour that has also taken in Japan, South Korea and Myanmar.
Here are five facts about relations between China and Cambodia:
* China had close relations with the ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge and its leader Pol Pot. Under their 1975-1979 rule an estimated 1.7 million people -- 21 percent of the population -- perished in the Khmer Rouge's attempt to turn the impoverished nation into an agrarian utopia.
* China continued to back the Khmer Rouge during the civil war that followed Vietnam's invasion of Cambodia in 1979 and the installation of a Hanoi-backed government. China briefly invaded Vietnam in 1979 in punishment for the attack on Cambodia.
* A 1991 U.N.-brokered peace pact led to elections in 1993 and the restoration of Norodom Sihanouk, an old friend of China's, as a constitutional monarch.
In February this year, as the trial of the group's chief torturer opened in Phnom Penh, China defended its ties with the Khmer Rouge regime, saying it was part of normal diplomatic relations. [ID:nPEK363839]
* China was Cambodia's top foreign investor in 2008 in terms of approved projects, with $4.3 billion in investments. China has mainly invested in the hydropower, agriculture, telecommunications and tourism sectors. Bilateral trade last year reached $794 million.
* China is Cambodia's largest source of foreign aid, providing some $600 million in 2007 and $260 million in 2008, helping to build roads, dams and other infrastructure. China also gives military aid.
Sources: Reuters, Xinhua news agency, Cambodian Investment Board, Cambodian media, Jamestown Foundation. (For a story on Xi's visit to Cambodia: [ID:nSGE5BH04N]) (Compiled by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Martin Petty and Jerry Norton)
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