Norodom Sihanouk and China: a life-long alliance

BEIJING, 15 October 2012 (AFP) - Through decades of turmoil at home, former Cambodian king Norodom Sihanouk enjoyed vital political and medical succor from China, a staunch ally that provided the mercurial leader with a second home.

For more than 40 years, Sihanouk had at his disposal a stately and luxurious residence in the heart of Beijing, a grey-walled complex just a short distance from Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.

The historic residence -- the French embassy in the early 1900s, it was put at his disposal in 1970 by China's late premier Zhou Enlai -- is a stone's-throw from the hospital where he died on Monday.

The relationship between Sihanouk and his Chinese hosts was often rocky as China simultaneously supported the radical Khmer Rouge, Sihanouk's on-again, off-again allies.

But the late Cambodian so-called "father-king" praised the Beijing doctors who sustained him physically and the Chinese Communist state that propped him up politically through dark times.

"Long live the fraternal and indestructible friendship uniting the kingdom of Cambodia and the glorious People's Republic of China!" he wrote in 2009 on his website which he maintained until just recently.

The Cambodia monarch had received regular medical treatment in Beijing since being diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1994.

During his extended stays in the city, he often offered biting commentary on Cambodia's fractious politics, decrying nepotism, corruption, the abuse of the "little people" and the pillaging of natural resources.

He maintained a long friendship with China's communist leaders Mao Zedong and Zhou, whom he met at the Bandung Conference of non-aligned nations in Indonesia in 1955.

"I've always considered China as my second homeland... only China has supported us, the Khmer resistance, the Soviet Union does not want us," he said in 1971.

China repaid the praise on Monday in offering condolences over his death.

The foreign ministry called Sihanouk "a great friend of China" and said Vice President Xi Jinping met with the late king's wife, Queen Monique, after his death and expressed "shock and sadness."

After abandoning a 40-room home in Pyongyang offered by the North Korean leader Kim Il-sung, Sihanouk and his queen Monique, who faithfully stayed by his side to his death, took up residence in the Beijing building in 1970 after he was deposed in a military coup.

"It's a very comfortable residence in modern Chinese style, beautifully decorated," Julio Jeldres, Sihanouk's official biographer and frequent visitor to his Beijing home, told AFP in 2009.

Sihanouk opened the doors of his sanctuary mostly to privileged guests -- members of his royal family, high-ranking diplomats or Chinese dignitaries.

In comments to AFP, Sihanouk's long-time personal assistant Prince Sisowath Thomico recalled the former king's love of food.

He had many chefs at his disposal in Beijing who specialised in French cuisine, but the gourmet royal was himself an accomplished cook who enjoyed spending time in the kitchen.

"He used to teach his cooks how to make French dishes," the assistant said. "The royal residence was known among diplomats in the early 1970s to be the best place for French cuisine in Beijing."

It was during his first exile in Beijing in April 1975 that Sihanouk learned that the radical Khmer Rouge had taken over Phnom Penh and allowed for his return.

Mao urged Sihanouk to cooperate and on returning to Cambodia, Sihanouk remained safe amid the Khmer Rouge's intensifying reign of terror only due to his Chinese benefactors.

Yet he was kept under house arrest in Phnom Penh, which had been turned into a ghost town, emptied by the murderous Khmer Rouge. He entered a deep mourning period after five of his 14 children were killed.

China arranged for his escape from Phnom Penh as Vietnam invaded Cambodia beginning late in 1978, driving the Khmer Rouge from power.

Restored to the throne in 1993, Sihanouk found a nation traumatised by civil war and genocide. Peace did not come until 1998, when Pol Pot, Mao's old protege, died.

Many observers considered the alliance between a royal monarch and China's communist rulers to be a union of strange bedfellows, but Mao early on put such notions to rest.

"Some say that communists do not like princes," Mao had said, "but we Chinese communists like and we esteem a prince like Norodom Sihanouk who is so close to his people, who are loyal and devoted to him."