The building was the Tactical Headquarters of the National Committee for Maritime Security. It was US-funded andequipped by Australia,according to a speech delivered by Deputy Prime Minister Tea Banh at the facility's opening in August 2012.
Speaking to the Agence France-Presse on Sunday,Tea Banh dismissed suggestions the Chinese-funded expansion works at the base meant China would have greater access to the facilities. He said the headquarters would be relocated 30 kilometres away.
"We relocated the facility to a new spot. We cannot keep it anymore and the building is already old,"he said.
But Sophal Ear,a Cambodian-American associate professor at Occidental College in Los Angeles,said the demolition suggested"full steam ahead with plans[to] transform the base into the second naval facility outside of China and Djibouti[Africa],where the Chinese will have a foothold".
"The Prime Minister of Cambodia[Hun Sen] keeps saying'nothing to see here'and maintains this[a Chinese base] would be against the Cambodian Constitution. There are many,many things happening in Cambodia that are unconstitutional."
In July last year,Cambodia signed a secret deal that would allow China to use the base,which sits near the coastal city of Sihanoukville,to station troops,store weapons and berth ships.