Alongside China's competition with the United States, it is involved in a parallel game over influence with Vietnam, historically an important local player in Southeast Asia. That could be why Vietnam on Tuesday announced its president Tran Duc Luong would visit Cambodia on November 27, on the heels of Jiang's visit. China faces an uphill struggle, since the Cambodian leadership's pro-Beijing lobby is characterized by observers as small and insignificant. Its pro-Vietnam lobby is influential and led by Premier Hun Sen, a former militant communist who was installed as head of a regime after Vietnam invaded Cambodia in 1979. This leaves China with little hope of a decisive change in its favor, and it may have only modest expectations.
China wants the Cambodian leadership to respect China's interests.
But it hopes to see Cambodia strike a good balance between China and Vietnam. The actual state visit to the sultanate does not begin until two days later and will focus on business and economics.