🍒 'No Cambodia left': how Chinese money is changing Sihanoukville | Cities | The Guardian

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Their arrival brought money and jobs — and now their sudden absence is causing problems. Inside casinos, wads of U. Cambodians have mixed feelings about the Chinese. In Sihanoukville, most of the money has been private, and the biggest share has gone into some 70 casinos — all of which are being ordered to shut from April 1 as a temporary measure to help slow the spread of coronavirus. They are better than you. But Kang is betting on a future beyond the pandemic, banking on the return of money from China to finish transforming the scrappy frontier town into a gleaming metropolis. The collapse of a half-built Chinese-owned building last year, killing dozens, fuelled resentment in the town. Zhao sits in a window-lined atrium of a half a billion-dollar hotel, casino and apartment complex on the beachfront. Travel restrictions imposed in recent weeks to slow the global coronavirus pandemic have deepened the effects of a ban last year on lucrative online gambling. It broke ground last August, just as the online gambling ban was announced, and has seen a sharp slowdown in sales because of the coronavirus, but is still on track to open in two years. Sihanoukville gives you a feeling of freedom and no control. For Kang and others, the city is like the China of several decades ago — with all of the promise and none of the competition. The current idle is only a blip. Click to enlarge. In the next three years, Sihanoukville will also host both the Southeast Asian Games and a meeting of regional leaders. As cases skyrocket elsewhere in the world, zero local transmissions have been reported on some days in China, where the virus originated. The Chinese-funded gambling enclave of Sihanoukville has suffered a double blow. As Chinese money has swept across Southeast Asia, Cambodia has become one of the most visible examples of the investment, with authoritarian Prime Minister Hun Sen doing all he can to strengthen ties to Beijing. Outside, streets are coated in fine orange dust and pedestrians cross rivulets of sewage on scraps of plywood. Sorry, but your browser needs Javascript to use this site.{/INSERTKEYS}{/PARAGRAPH} {PARAGRAPH}{INSERTKEYS}Sihanoukville, Cambodia — When casino owner Kang Qiang looks out the window of his 20th floor office in this city on the remote Cambodian coast, he sees construction cranes sitting idle. Southeast Asia , cambodia , casinos , Sihanoukville. So did the constant noise of construction, rising crime and rubbish piled in the streets. But he is convinced his future is on the dusty streets of Sihanoukville despite his casino losing money since November.