How a dam in Cambodia symbolises the growing influence of China across Asia

The thump of jackhammers and the whine of drills pierce the air. Above the river, a concrete wall is slowly rising.

A jackhammer - known as a pneumatic drill in the UK - used to break up concrete

In lush, north-eastern Cambodia, the S$1.1 billion Lower Sesan 2 Dam stands as a potent symbol of China’s growing reach, and Beijing’s ambitious plans to expand its influence throughout Asia by building some desperately needed infrastructure.

Beijing Financial Street, the financial center of Beijing

This dam project is part of a much larger Chinese ambition: President Xi Jinping is making a bold move, billed as the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, to restore what he sees as Beijing’s historic place at the centre of Asia.

Chinese President Xi Jinping

Mr. Xi is working behind the scenes to surpass the United States as Asia’s regional power. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Cambodia, a country that emerged in ruins after the Vietnam War and a civil war in the 1970s. Now at peace, its economy is growing fast but is in desperate need of transport infrastructure and power. China has promised it easy money, offered with no strings attached, for roads, bridges and dams.

View of Angkor Wat in Siem Reap. Today Angkor Wat is Cambodia's main tourist attraction and is visited by many tourists from around the world

Yet in the villages around the Lower Sesan 2 Dam, the drawbacks of this Chinese largesse soon become apparent. Almost 5,000 people are likely to be evicted from their villages when the dam’s reservoir fills, and 40,000 living along the banks of the Sesan and Srepok rivers stand to lose most of the fish they rely on for food.

Map of the Sesan river in Cambodia; the river is also known as Tonle San and is a major tributary of the Mekong river

Meanwhile a China-funded project to build an international trade and eco-tourism centre on Cambodian coast has seen thousands of people forcibly evicted, given inadequate compensation and resettled on poor-quality land, in poor houses, with limited access to electricity, clean water or toilets.

Women in Sesan district are washing their clothes in Tonle Sesan, the major tributary of the Mekong River that flows through Cambodia

Back in the village of Srae Kor, hand-painted signs on wooden houses proclaim the determination of many residents not to leave their homes, even when the Lower Sesan 2 Dam’s reservoir fills and the floodwaters rise.

Said a villager,

“I prefer to die in my village and remain with my ancestors. The river is my life. I live a happy life. I catch fish. I will not leave this place.

(All images - credit: Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons licence)