Analysts watching Cambodia's hosting of last week's Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit concluded that the most significant aspect was China's diplomatic offensive - towards Asean as a whole, and to Cambodia in particular.

But setting a new pace of apparently friendly overtures towards one of Asean's poorest members does not mean the lights are all green for China. The history of China's support of the murderous Khmer Rouge regime and recent geopolitical realities temper talk of a Chinese renaissance.

In talks with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, Premier Zhu Rongji described ties as having 'entered a period of stable, sound and overall development' after centuries of friendly exchanges 'forged and nurtured by the Chinese leaders of three generations and Cambodian King Norodom Sihanouk', according to a Xinhua report.

President Jiang Zemin visited Cambodia in 2000 and signed a declaration to guide development of ties. More high-level visits and exchanges are planned and China is promising economic assistance with no political strings attached.

Agreements were signed last week for Chinese assistance for cross-border highway projects through Cambodia, and co-operation in agriculture, human resources and infrastructure.

A Chinese presence in Phnom Penh is pervasive, in the many Chinese-language shop signs, the scores of Chinese-language schools, the presence of a wide range of Chinese goods and foodstuffs for sale, the Chinese ancestor worship shrines, even in the capital's bars.

What makes the latest shows of warmth remarkable is China's well-known role in Cambodia's past.

'This is one of the dark areas, at least for those Cambodians who can remember it,' said Kao Kim Hourn, executive director of the Cambodian Institute for Co-operation and Peace.

The Khmer Rouge is believed responsible for the deaths of 1.7 million people during its four-year rule, a trauma no Cambodian is free of even today, and a trauma for which China has some direct responsibility.

Two decades on, China appears eager to be best friends with a one-time Khmer Rouge member who defected to Vietnam and came back to help end Khmer Rouge rule - Mr Hun Sen.

Observers believe China's role in that brutal period translates now into quiet Beijing opposition to moves to try surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge for crimes against humanity.

But mainland officials deny any intention to interfere. 'I don't know where the comments come from [about Chinese aversion to a Khmer Rouge trial],' said the head of the political section at the Chinese Embassy in Phnom Penh, Li Zhigong. 'The trial is a Cambodian matter and should be a Cambodian decision. Whether to hold a trial, how and why and when, these are Cambodian concerns to be decided by the Cambodians themselves.'

Mr Li also discounts the theory that China's closeness with Cambodia can be traced to the fighting in Phnom Penh in 1997, when Mr Hun Sen vanquished his co-premier. China tacitly approved of the actions, leaving Asean and the West to follow grudgingly later.

Mr Hun Sen was reported to have given thanks by banishing Taiwan's official trade presence from Phnom Penh within weeks.

'That's not true. The Chinese relationship was very, very close with Cambodia before the 1970s. When Cambodia was led by the co-premiers it was also very close,' Mr Li said.

Also in contention is the worth of signs of generosity towards Cambodia. Much was made, on the eve of the Asean summit, of Beijing's offer to write off Cambodian debt, but no-one is sure what that write-off means.

Cambodia described the offer as 'beyond our expectations' but reports on a Chinese foreign ministry Internet site suggested it applied only to debts which had matured. How much money is involved is unclear, with numbers starting at US$200 million (HK$1.56 billion). If debts incurred by the Khmer Rouge to China are included, the 'gift' includes amounts which Cambodia would never have paid anyway.

'Our premier [Zhu Rongji] said it applied to all debts, from the establishment of diplomatic relations between us in the 1950s,' Mr Li said, admitting detailed numbers had to be worked out in further consultations.

Dr Kao Kim Hourn said: 'The [debt write-off] announcement was more of a political declaration. We're not sure what it covers.'

Meanwhile, Chinese-Khmers are gaining control over large sectors of economic activity ranging from book imports to the trade in agricultural products. In contrast to countries such as Indonesia, where the Chinese are often scapegoats for political infighting, Cambodia's Chinese descendants are active in politics.

'We have always liked the Chinese, they seem to know how to get rich,' said a Cambodian store keeper, who went on to display a strong dislike of nearer neighbour Vietnam.

Diplomats argue that Cambodia is benefiting from China's relationship with Vietnam being less fraught than in the past, meaning Cambodia is less often used as a proxy in that struggle.

'If we look deeper into the relationship between China and Cambodia, it's not entirely a superb relationship. It has been evolving over the past 10 years to where there are some areas of good co-operation, and some areas of concern,' Dr Kao Kim Hourn said.

On the plus side is the closeness between Beijing and Cambodia's King Sihanouk, with the ageing monarch often taking refuge in his Beijing home. Defence ties instituted in 1997 were boosted by one visit of China's Defence Minister General Chi Haotian to Cambodia last year. Cultural and economic exchanges continue to grow.

Of concern however, is China's unilateral action on the upstream reaches of the Mekong River, where dam-building and the blasting of river rapids are severely disrupting Cambodian agriculture, fisheries, village locations and livelihoods.

On a broader geopolitical level, China is proposing that its ally Pakistan be allowed to join Asean's Asia Regional Forum - the security grouping - which Cambodia and Asean fear will divert forum energies too far afield into the Kashmir issue and Pakistan-India tensions. For its part, Cambodia's hosting of a first Asean-India summit last week has implications for difficult Sino-Indian relations.

All of this adds up to a far more complex picture for Cambodia than the lackey-state idea advanced by some analysts who have equated China's push for influence as equivalent to achievement of influence.

Dr Kao Kim Hourn said: 'Cambodia today, in my analysis, is quite independent of Chinese influence. Despite all of China's support, Cambodia is practising not only bilateral diplomacy but is actively engaged in multilateral diplomacy.'

He points out that Japan remains Cambodia's largest aid donor by a large margin, that France remains an active player in geopolitical, financial, diplomatic and cultural areas, that India remains a true friend due to its almost sole support of Cambodia in past times of international isolation, and that no matter how big China's embassy building is in Phnom Penh, the Russian and French ones are larger.

'The Chinese have been practising realpolitik, focused on whatever advances China's interests, not considering the moral rights or wrongs of their actions,' Dr Kao Kim Hourn said. 'China probably understands that if it is not doing enough, it may lose its influence. It knows it has to work to retain what relationship and influence it has. Cambodia is not a static country.'

Vaudine England is the Post's regional correspondent

Graphic: VAUD12GET