Until now China has been criticised for its policy of non-interference and doing business with states irrespective of their internal political orientation.

These critics will be crying a lot louder when China really starts taking sides in defence of its growing economic stakes in large conflict-prone countries. There is no rule which says everyone must be on the same side as the West in every conflict.

Lending military assistance to one or the other competing groups is something that all great powers have done when their interests demand it. Beijing will be no exception. While Beijing is facing up to the difficult burdens of being a great power, there is nothing to suggest that New Delhi is considering ways of defending its own growing foreign economic presence.

Cambodian oil

After decades of political and diplomatic investment in Cambodia, India now finds itself out of the race for the exploitation of the nation’s natural resources, including oil. The US Company Chevron announced last week that it has found potentially huge oil fields off the Cambodian coast in the Gulf of Thailand.

As the international energy companies circle around the hydrocarbon booty in Cambodia, China is well placed to get a big share of the new oil. It already controls one of the six major oil fields off Cambodia.

In the last few years, China has become Cambodia’s biggest foreign investor and the largest provider of economic assistance. As part of its initiative to develop the Mekong region, China has undertaken a large number of projects in Cambodia.

... contd.