9:30 AM - 10:00 AM
[1M01] Dragon Rouge Redux: Assessing China’s Economic Hegemony in Cambodia
Keywords:China, Cambodia, World-Systems Analysis, Hegemony, Belt and Road Initiative
1. Cambodia ranked second in countries most influenced by China in 2022, 9 years since the unfold of the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) ushered record foreign direct investment from Beijing. China has also become Cambodia’s top source of imports, including machines and electronics, in addition to securing a trade surplus that has grown over the last decade, while Cambodia’s surplus with established powers (Japan and the United States) has remained stagnant or widened further. In the context of China-US hegemonic rivalry, a world-systems analysis (WSA) of these and other developments may address this question: Is bifurcation as argued in scholarship occurring in Cambodia?
2. Contrary to past transitions of hegemony, bifurcation holds that hegemony will unprecedentedly split into economic hegemony seized by Beijing while the military half (and the role of security provision) remains with currently hegemonic Washington. This paper then seeks to draw parallels between China’s growing economic relationship with Cambodia and the features of economic hegemony per WSA. These are production dominance, trade dominance, and thereafter, financial dominance.
3. We find that China has encouraged low-yielding/peripheral mining and agriculture processes in Cambodia, with exports of rice and copper surging to Beijing. Further, we find that China has achieved considerable production dominance through dominating Cambodia’s imports of machines and technology, subsequently widening its trade balance with the latter while the Phnom Penh’s trade deficit with Washington grows. This surplus, combined with recent free-trade agreements leads to considerable trade dominance by Beijing, complete with free-trade agreements with Phnom Penh to maintain flows of cheap agricultural products to itself. However, Cambodia’s dependence on the US dollar as well as China’s inability to give its yuan legal status within it renders Beijing unable to achieve financial dominance, thus obstructing economic dominance and refuting the bifurcation thesis within Cambodia.
2. Contrary to past transitions of hegemony, bifurcation holds that hegemony will unprecedentedly split into economic hegemony seized by Beijing while the military half (and the role of security provision) remains with currently hegemonic Washington. This paper then seeks to draw parallels between China’s growing economic relationship with Cambodia and the features of economic hegemony per WSA. These are production dominance, trade dominance, and thereafter, financial dominance.
3. We find that China has encouraged low-yielding/peripheral mining and agriculture processes in Cambodia, with exports of rice and copper surging to Beijing. Further, we find that China has achieved considerable production dominance through dominating Cambodia’s imports of machines and technology, subsequently widening its trade balance with the latter while the Phnom Penh’s trade deficit with Washington grows. This surplus, combined with recent free-trade agreements leads to considerable trade dominance by Beijing, complete with free-trade agreements with Phnom Penh to maintain flows of cheap agricultural products to itself. However, Cambodia’s dependence on the US dollar as well as China’s inability to give its yuan legal status within it renders Beijing unable to achieve financial dominance, thus obstructing economic dominance and refuting the bifurcation thesis within Cambodia.
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