The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI), a U.S. think tank affiliated with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, published satellite images appearing to show rapid progress in the Chinese-constructed Ream naval base in Cambodia, with land being cleared and construction underway.

This will add to ongoing concerns in Washington that the Chinese military will use the base. But a spokesperson for the Cambodian government put the blame for growing geopolitical tensions on the U.S.: “They set an agenda to choose between the US or China,” he said. “ASEAN or Cambodia does not choose the US or China. We do not choose anyone.”