Phnom Penh (FN), July 30 – Kong Korm, then president of Sam Rainsy Party and now Khmer Will Party’s honorary president, stated that the fake news on Chinese military presence in Cambodia’s Ream naval base is a wicked plan orchestrated by the US, who owns a military base in Vietnam’s Cam Ranh.
“The US, Cambodian politicians, and liberal Vietnamese (Degar/Montagnard) who pushed for Cambodia Democracy Act and systematically fabricated reports stating that Cambodia hosted the Chinese military in Sihanoukville might create opportunity for US military base in Vietnam’s Cam Ranh to extend its wicked plan,” Korm wrote on his Facebook on Tuesday.
“China speaks less, do more, making Khmer-Sino relations close than any period,” he added.
It is worth noting that VOA and the Wall Street Journal recently published a fabricated report, baselessly accusing the kingdom of signing secret deal with China over the use of military base at the kingdom’s coastal province.
Defense spokesperson Chhum Socheat led a big group of 73 journalists to conduct fact-finding mission to the kingdom’s Ream Naval Base on 26 July 2019.
Besides Fresh News, there are representatives of AP, Reuters, Kyodo News, VOA, Cambodia China Times, AFP, Xinhua, Cambodia China Friendship Radio, and Japanese TV.
Media representatives confirmed shortly after visit that there is no presences of Chinese armed forces at Ream Naval Base.
“What the western media published was politically motivated and a falsified truth about Cambodia,” they said.
Answering a question from Fresh News reporter whether China needs to setup military base in the kingdom, Puy Kea stated that, “China does not need Cambodia’s military base, as they already possesses a huge base in the South China Sea of Southeast Asia.”
“It is a very small waterway here at Ream of Cambodia and that the water is too shallow for the Chinese navy to navigate,” he added.
Ouk Seyha, commander of Ream Naval Base said the coast of Ream Naval Base is just more than one kilometer and the water is between six and seven meters deep.
=FRESH NEWS
