How Chinese money is changing Sihanoukville – ‘No Cambodia left’
The once-sleepy beach town of Sihanoukville has been transformed by Chinese investment – and the sheer speed of development has divided locals
Inside a lavishly decorated casino, where chandeliers hang from the ceiling, cigarette smoke lingers in the air and platters of mango are served to gamblers, a game of baccarat is getting heated. Cards are slammed down, US$100 bills are brandished and Chinese tourists shout excitedly.
This is not Las Vegas, nor is it Macau. It is Sihanoukville, a once-sleepy seaside city in Cambodia that has become a ballooning enclave for Chinese-run casinos – despite gambling being banned. These towering skyscrapers and vast domed structures covered in flashing neon signs have transformed Sihanoukville beyond recognition in less than two years. It will have more than 70 of them by the end of this year.
As home to Cambodia’s only deep-water port – part of a vital trade route for Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative – the city has become a focal point for investment from the Asian superpower. Vast Chinese-run construction projects are visible across almost every area of the city and its high streets are now lined with majority-Chinese businesses and restaurants.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s willing embrace of Chinese investment, unlike neighbouring countries Thailand, Myanmar and Vietnam, has ensured Cambodia is at the core of Belt and Road plans in Southeast Asia. The southern coast of Cambodia is now home to US$4.2 billion worth of power plants and offshore oil operations, all owned by Chinese companies. Beyond Sihanoukville, Belt and Road money is financing a new highway to the capital Phnom Penh, and a bigger airport in that city.
Sitting outside her family restaurant and guest house at Otres Beach, 23-year-old Deu Dy gestures with concern to the huge Chinese resort complex being built next door. It has gone up in less than a year, with construction 24 hours a day.
“Everything has changed in Sihanoukville in just two years,” says Deu Dy, who is learning Mandarin to try to integrate better with the city’s new community. “Before, it was really quiet here, but not any more, with all the Chinese construction. I am worried that it’s very destructive to the environment, all this building … And what will happen when all the construction is finished and thousands more people come? There will be no Cambodia left in Sihanoukville.”
Like many local business owners in the city, Deu Dy is regularly approached by Chinese investors wanting to buy her inn – and offering her very good money. It is tempting, especially now that her family’s profits have collapsed: the 24-hour construction next door has driven away European customers, while Chinese tourists prefer to stay in Chinese-run hotels and resorts.
Many of the new Chinese businesspeople arriving in Sihanoukville are here to take advantage of a new China-Cambodia tax-free economic zone. The majority of the 100-plus factories in the zone are run by Chinese companies, and a further 200 mainly Chinese companies – producing consumer goods and garments – will be part of its ongoing expansion. A four-lane highway is being built by a Chinese construction company to connect Sihanoukville to Phnom Penh.
Because of all the Chinese businessmen here, my expenses have gone up but my earnings have gone down. My rent has increased from US$50 to US$150 and it’s unaffordable for me
For locals, this ongoing transformation is divisive. Some are benefiting from an influx of money the city has never seen before, but many are being driven out by the skyrocketing cost of living.
Kong Samol, 32, a tuk-tuk driver, is one of those losing out. “Because of all the Chinese businessmen here, my expenses have gone up but my earnings have gone down,” he says. “My rent has increased from US$50 to US$150 and it’s unaffordable for me. The owner wants to kick me out of my room so he can rent it to the Chinese, who will pay so much more than I can afford. I know so many people who came here for work but have moved back to their villages because rent is impossible now.”
Hemming clothes outside his sewing shop in the shadow of a new Chinese casino, Seng Lim Huon says Chinese investment is widening the divide between rich and poor. “The people who own the land here and have houses to rent, they can live bigger and bigger because they can earn so much more than before,” he says, adding that rooms he would once rent out for US$500 per month to local residents now go for US$4,500 to Chinese visitors. “But for people who don’t own land, it is a terrible situation.”
The transformation has also brought employment to the city. While a large number of Chinese workers have been brought in to staff casinos, there are also more jobs being offered to Cambodians, who earn between US$120 and US$200 a month (considered decent wages). Cambodian workers on Chinese construction sites earn three times what they used to on local projects.
More grandiose and divisive projects are cropping up by the day. This week saw the announcement of a new US$1 billion joint Chinese-Malaysian-run Sihanoukville resort called Wisney World, which will feature water parks, hotels, casinos, malls, gardens and churches across 65 hectares of land. In a sign of the disconnect between Chinese investors and those in local government, Sihanoukville’s provincial governor, Yun Min, said he had never even heard of the project.
Sihanoukville is no stranger to foreign investment. Before the Chinese it was the Russians who pumped money into local resorts and restaurants. The relationship is memorialised by a large, fading hoarding outside an abandoned resort building site, which pictures Hun Sen shaking Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hand.
The Chinese have money, much more money than the Cambodians, and that means they have the power here now
However, the key complaint for many in Sihanoukville is that even though Chinese investment brings wealth, it is mainly kept within their own community. Chinese residents and visitors buy from Chinese businesses and visit Chinese restaurants and hotels, ensuring the trickle-down effect is minimal.
“Chinese products are very expensive, it is not good for us, and the Chinese buy only Chinese goods so we are very separate,” says Srey Mach, 43, shredding morning glory outside her shop while the sound of construction thunders all around. “Even the vegetables and fruits they export from China. The Chinese have money, much more money than the Cambodians, and that means they have the power here now.”
As one of Southeast Asia’s poorest countries, suffering from basic power and sanitation issues, Cambodia has welcomed the hefty cheques, soft loans and infrastructure plans from China with open arms. Between 2013 and 2017, China invested US$5.3 billion in the country – that’s more money than the Cambodian government did. Cambodia’s reliance on China has become even more pronounced in recent months after the United States and European Union pulled funding in the light of recent authoritarian political measures.
Are Chinese buyers creating a Cambodian luxury property bubble?
The speed at which money is pouring in has also left local authorities in Sihanoukville with little time and resources to create regulation to manage either the dark underbelly of the Chinese casinos – sophisticated financial crime and money laundering – or the growing local discontentment.
Locals seethe when they discuss the problem of organised crime: there have been incidents of kidnappings, as well as an increase in drink-driving accidents and prostitution. Earlier this year, the regional governor complained that the crime rate in the province was increasing, in part due to an influx of “Chinese mafia [who] disguise themselves to commit various crimes and kidnap Chinese investors […] causing insecurity in the province”.
Yet with so much at stake in Cambodia, the Chinese are equally keen for the tide not to turn against Belt and Road. Sihanoukville is at the heart of this.
“The image of China in Cambodia has been affected by what’s happened in Sihanoukville,” says Vannarith Chheang, co-founder of the Cambodian Institute for Strategic Studies. “I think the Chinese government and the Chinese embassy accepts there is rising anti-China rhetoric in Cambodia.”
Highlighting ongoing negotiations between the two governments in an effort to tackle crime and local ill feeling, he adds, “It is important for China to win the hearts of the Cambodian people. If China fails in Cambodia, it will fail in the region.” The Guardian
