In the wake of Taiwan’s election that pushed a pro-independence candidate to the presidency, Prime Minister Hun Sen said last week that Cambodia will continue its “one-China” policy and will not have political nor official relations with Taiwan, according to the China’s state news agency.
Hun Sen made the remarks at his Phnom Penh residence Thursday during a meeting with a visiting delegation from China’s Zhe Jiang province.
“Cambodia will never change its ‘one-China’ policy which is always adhered by our King Norodom Sihanouk,” Hun Sen said, according to Xinhua. “As the inheritor of the policy, I will continue to pursue it.”
“Only a pure commerce and economic relation are allowed between Cambodia and Taiwan, any activities beyond it will be banned,” Hun Sen stressed, adding “[but we] welcome Taiwanese companies and businessmen to have trade and economic activities in Cambodia which should be no political color.”
Hun Sen also pledged that such circumstances as “one- China, one-Taiwan” or “two- China”, even “three-China” will never occur in Cambodia.
Shortly after the factional fighting of July 1997, Hun Sen shut down the Taiwan’s representative office in Cambodia, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office.