China is the biggest foreign patron of Cambodia, where Mr. Xi concluded a tour of Southeast Asia. But the region also needs to curry favor with President Trump.
Xi Jinping Boulevard runs a loop around Cambodia’s fast-growing capital, where signs in Chinese are rapidly overtaking those in English. The ring road around Phnom Penh, which was officially named after the Chinese leader last year, will soon connect to a Chinese-built airport that is being touted as one of the world’s 10 largest.
On Thursday, Mr. Xi, of boulevard renown, landed in Phnom Penh, where there are not one, but two, major thoroughfares named after Chinese Communist Party chiefs. (The other honors Mao Zedong.) Giant red banners greeted Mr. Xi, along with oversized portraits of him fronting new government ministries also built by China. Cambodians who had been paid $2.50 lined the streets, waving Chinese flags.
Mr. Xi’s state visit comes as the United States is threatening a walloping 49 percent tariff on Cambodian exports — like clothes for Nike and Lululemon — and abandoning dozens of aid projects here. Armed with airy promises of investment, Mr. Xi is underscoring with his Southeast Asia tour, which included stops in Vietnam and Malaysia, a clear geopolitical reality. In the superpower contest playing out in this part of the world, one contender is taking a big step ahead: China.
China is by far Cambodia’s largest trading partner and foreign investor, as it is for many other developing nations. Mr. Xi is pitching Beijing as these countries’ greatest champion, in implicit contrast with a United States that under President Trump seems intent on withdrawing from a position of global leadership.
“This is classic geopolitical theater, and Xi’s timing is no accident,” said Sophal Ear, a Cambodia-born political scientist at Arizona State University. “As the U.S. scales back its footprint in Cambodia, China steps in not just to fill the vacuum, but to showcase itself as the reliable and enduring partner.”
