AChinese model for patron–client relations? The Sino-Cambodian partnership

Abstract

Despite extensive economic ties and political engagement throughout Asia and sizable investment in some of the region’s most vulnerable regimes, China has yet to develop a stable of devoted client states. This article argues that both strategic and normative factors militate against China’s cultivation of strong patron–client pacts. The article then uses the case of Cambodia to illustrate these arguments, analyzing how that part-nership has developed and its important limitations.