Editor's note: Andrew Korybko is a Moscow-based American political analyst. The article reflects the author's views and not necessarily those of CGTN.

Reuters reported that spokesman of the U.S. Embassy in Cambodia Chad Roedemeier criticized his host country for the construction work that China is currently carrying out at its biggest naval base at Ream. According to the outlet, he described it as opaque. Roedemeier also speculated without any factual basis that China might intend to station its naval forces there, which the spokesman warned would violate the Cambodian Constitution and be regionally destabilizing.

He's also quoted as saying that, "The Cambodian people deserve to know more about the project at Ream and to have a say in this type of military agreement, which has long term implications for their country." Roedemeier's comments were prompted by a U.S. think tank sharing what it claimed to be the latest satellite photos showing that construction progress has been made at the Ream base. America's neocolonial pressure on Cambodia is absolutely unacceptable.

It has no place to offer a critical opinion about any of that country's development partners, let alone fearmonger about an unrealistic military scenario and then condescendingly warn about possible violations of the Cambodian Constitution. On top of that, it's shameless for the U.S. to talk about a lack of transparency on this issue when it has the world's largest network of military bases by far, some of which like those in Africa aren't even officially recognized as such. None of those locals have any say about these facilities.

Cambodia is once again the object of America's neocolonial pressure because the latter wrongly believes that it can manipulate the manufactured issue of a forthcoming Chinese naval base. The U.S. aims to invent a pretext for Cambodia's partners in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to join Washington's latest anti-Chinese pressure campaign. 

From the American perspective, it would be ideal if it could get them to "isolate" Cambodia while simultaneously distancing themselves from China over this fake issue.

This information warfare provocation is further proof of America's meddling in the affairs of foreign countries and blocs. It never ceases in its crusade to divide and rule the Eastern Hemisphere, especially those regions that neighbor China. This is all part of its grand strategic campaign to "contain" China, to which end it attempts to sacrifice other nations' objective national interests like Cambodia's on fake news pretexts such as this one.

In the present context, there exists no evidence to support the U.S.'s fearmongering about a forthcoming Chinese naval base in Ream. It's nothing but lies, exactly as the campaigns against Huawei, Xinjiang and other issues have been. Nevertheless, the U.S. relies on the influence that it exerts over the powerful Western mainstream media in order to launder this disinformation in the public sphere so as to manipulate people's consciousness by getting them to gradually believe that there's some truth to these lies if they're repeated enough.

The facts are therefore on China and Cambodia's side, which the world must become more well aware of. Thankfully many people have grown disillusioned with the American government and its Western mainstream media proxies in recent years so it shouldn't be taken for granted that they'll take their unsubstantiated claims at face value. 

They've been proven wrong so many times before about China, Russia, Iraq, Libya, Yugoslavia, Syria and others that it's difficult for any reasonable person or foreign government to ever believe them again.

The reality is that China's international development projects with its partners are apolitical and have no ulterior military motives. This makes them the exact opposite of those of the U.S. America's neocolonial pressure campaigns are no longer as convincing as they might have been at times during its Cold War with the Soviet Union. The information-communication revolution of the past few decades has enabled everyone to become aware of the truth if they want to. For this reason, the U.S. will fail to isolate Cambodia on these false pretexts.

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