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Massive Chinese Project Engulfs Cambodia’s Coastline

Japan Forward
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Massive Chinese Project Engulfs Cambodia’s Coastline

Southern Cambodia’s Dara Sakor is a special economic zone encompassing nearly 140 square miles (363 sq km). It is carved out of the Botum Sakor National Park. Running alongside Cambodia’s Koh Kong province, the coast constitutes almost 20% of this Southeast Asian nation located on the Gulf of Thailand’s coastline. Dara Sakor was adopted as a Chinese project under the Belt and Road Initiative in 2007.

Then, in 2008, the Cambodian government granted a 99-year lease to a state-owned Chinese company, Union Development Group (UDG). UDG is a subsidiary construction company of China’s Tianjin Union Development Group that operates in the northern city of Tianjin.

The lease period of 99 years is the maximum term allowed under Cambodian law. Moreover, the lease imposed no payment obligation on the development group for more than 10 years. Even after the initial lease period, Cambodia receives only $1 million USD annually from UDG. Meanwhile, the company gains control of 20% of the country’s entire coastline.

In full: https://japan-forward.com/all-politics-is-global-massive-chinese-project-engulfs-cambodias-coastline/

UNESCO is criticized after Cambodia evicts thousands around World Heritage site Angkor Wat

AP
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UNESCO is criticized after Cambodia evicts thousands around World Heritage site Angkor Wat

The human rights group Amnesty International has strongly criticized UNESCO and its World Heritage program for failing to challenge the Cambodian government’s ongoing mass evictions at the famous centuries-old Angkor Wat temple complex.

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The London-based organization in a report released Tuesday charged that the evictions of an estimated 10,000 families by Cambodian authorities violated international and national law.

It said the evicted people have received little or no compensation and the government’s two main resettlement sites have inadequate facilities in terms of roads, water and electricity supplies and sanitation.

In full: https://apnews.com/article/angkor-wat-evictions-development-resettlement-9a65b5f0c87c7aec287236a18dac7275

China Expands Overseas Naval Base on South China Sea

Newsweek
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China Expands Overseas Naval Base on South China Sea

China is building a large dry dock at Cambodia’s Ream Naval Base on the South China Sea, which could one day accommodate its largest aircraft carriers, new analysis suggests.

Recent satellite imagery showed a sizable new dry dock under construction at the base, close to Cambodia’s coastal city of Sihanoukville, at a site where the People’s Liberation Army is suspected to be developing infrastructure for its warships and submarines, according to H.I. Sutton, an open-source maritime security analyst.

Sutton’s analysis suggests the scale of the expansion underway at Ream further confirms the likelihood of its use by Beijing once ready. Phnom Penh’s small navy has few naval vessels over 50 meters (164 feet) in length, he said, challenging Cambodia’s claim that the base was exclusively for its navy.

In full: https://www.newsweek.com/china-cambodia-ream-naval-base-aircraft-carrier-submarine-1843389

Lisa brings a smile to the faces of Cambodian children

The Nation
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Lisa brings a smile to the faces of Cambodian children

Netizens are praising K-pop sensation Lalisa “Lisa” Manoban after learning that the Thai member of Blackpink group donated to PSE, a non-profit organisation for underprivileged children in Cambodia.

PSE – Pour un Sourire d’Enfant, on Monday quoted Lisa’s message to her friends and fans in Cambodia, specifically the part addressing children under PSE’s care.

“Whatever your plans and dreams for the future are, keep in mind: never give up, even if there are problems that arise during your life,” said Lisa.

In full: https://www.nationthailand.com/thailand/general/40032843

Cambodia’s Traumatized Generation 

The Diplomat
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Cambodia’s Traumatized Generation 

The future of post-conflict countries depends upon how governments and their people confront, reconcile, and move forward from their past. Survivors are the key stakeholders in this process, not only because they are the teachers and storytellers about this past, but also because they are the barometer for their nation’s development and achievement of a better future.

Cambodia in the late 1960s and early 1970s was consumed by the Vietnam War and between 1970 and 1975, Cambodia was torn apart by internal conflict, foreign intervention, and ultimately the destruction of society. In April 1975, Khmer Rouge forces captured the entirety of the country and for the next four years, the Cambodian people suffered indescribable horrors including genocide, crimes against humanity and unimaginable human rights violations. Following the collapse of this regime, the Cambodian people continued to be plagued by internal conflict, which was accentuated by international isolation that perpetuated, if not aggravated, the instability, famine, and the most horrendous human conditions. All told, Cambodians suffered through nearly four decades of war, genocide, and inhumanity.

It is believed that approximately 7 million Cambodians survived the Vietnam War period, and approximately 2 million Cambodians died during the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime. This means that approximately 5 million Cambodians survived both.

In full: https://thediplomat.com/2023/11/cambodias-traumatized-generation/

Unesco under fire for failing to prevent evictions at Angkor Wat temple site

The Guardian
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Unesco under fire for failing to prevent evictions at Angkor Wat temple site

Unesco has “fallen short of its responsibility to uphold and promote human rights” amid mass evictions at Cambodia’s Angkor Wat temple complex, Amnesty International has claimed in a new investigation.

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The Cambodian government has used “intimidation, harassment, threats and acts of violence” to remove about 10,000 families from the world heritage site, the report said. In an unusual move, Amnesty also named Unesco as a “responsible actor”, arguing that the UN body was made aware of alleged human rights abuses for months but did not investigate or acknowledge them.

The report called on Unesco to perform an independent assessment, require a resettlement plan complying with international standards, and to “categorically reject” forced evictions at world heritage sites. Amnesty also reiterated calls for Cambodia to halt the relocations.

In full: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/nov/14/unesco-under-fire-for-failing-to-prevent-evictions-at-angkor-wat-cambodia-temple-site

Chinese Navy’s Suspected New Overseas Base in Cambodia Now Even Larger

Naval News
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Chinese Navy’s Suspected New Overseas Base in Cambodia Now Even Larger

China’s new naval base at Ream in Cambodia is well documented. It will provide the Chinese Navy (PLAN) with a base at the southern end of the highly contested South China Sea. The base is still east of the Malacca Straight which separates the South China Sea from the Indian Ocean, yet is still strategically important. And a key part of China’s construction of overseas bases.

However the base now appears even more expensive and capable than previous reports suggested. There is clear evidence of a new dry dock being constructed.

It is important to acknowledge that Cambodia has claimed that the rebuilding of the base at Ream, with Chinese Aid, is for their own navy. So it is possible that the dry dock is for the Royal Cambodian Navy, or even civilian use. However its size and construction make this a less likely explanation and few analysts are likely to accept it. Cambodia’s small navy barely has any naval vessels over 50 meters (164 feet) in length.

In full: https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2023/11/chinese-navys-suspected-new-overseas-base-cambodia-now-even-larger/

Taiwanese man found dead in Cambodia with 3 gunshot wounds to head

Taiwan News
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Taiwanese man found dead in Cambodia with 3 gunshot wounds to head

Cambodian police last week found the body of a Taiwanese man who had been shot in the head three times.

On Nov. 7, police found a male body in a white car that had been abandoned in a desolate area of the western Cambodian city of Poipet, reported The Cambodia China Times. Police said the man had gunshot wounds in the back of the head, right eye, and temple.

Due to the condition of his body when found, doctors determined that the man had been deceased for at least two days. The man was sitting in the passenger side seat, according to police.

In full: https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/5039050

Thai man jailed for killing Chinese scammer in Cambodia dies in prison

The Thaiger
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Thai man jailed for killing Chinese scammer in Cambodia dies in prison

A Thai man jailed for killing a Chinese member of a call centre scam gang in Cambodia has died in prison. The government was urged to help Thai people lured into working for unscrupulous scam gangs in Southeast Asia.

The 40 year old mother of the deceased, Boonraem Boonme, travelled from the central province of Sukhothai to the eastern province of Trat to collect the remains of her son, 25 year old Wachirawit Kongthong, who died of pneumonitis on November 6, in a prison in the Kampong Som City in Cambodia, also known as Sihanoukville.

Boonraem explained that her son was lured into working for a call centre gang a year earlier. Wachirawit was tortured when he failed to meet his targets. The Chinese gang members reportedly beat him up and attacked him with a stun baton.

In full: https://thethaiger.com/news/national/thai-man-jailed-for-killing-chinese-scammer-in-cambodia-dies-in-prison

Cambodia’s microfinance sector hit by predatory lending claims

Nikkei Asia
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Cambodia’s microfinance sector hit by predatory lending claims

Cambodia’s microfinance sector was supposed to be an engine for small business growth and help lift millions out of poverty.

That promise drew money from European development banks and the International Finance Corp. (IFC), the World Bank’s private lending arm, supplying funds critical to boosting access to credit in one Asia’s most impoverished countries.

But now, Cambodia’s microlenders are under fire after reports of suicides by heavily indebted borrowers, as well as families forced to sell their land or put school-age children to work to pay off crippling debt.

In full: https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Finance/Cambodia-s-microfinance-sector-hit-by-predatory-lending-claims

New airport shows Cambodia can get what it wants from China

Nikkei Asia
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New airport shows Cambodia can get what it wants from China

Cambodia’s newly inaugurated Siem Reap-Angkor International Airport offers an important window into how China’s Belt and Road Initiative is evolving and what it can still bring to developing countries.

Last month’s Belt and Road Forum in Beijing sparked a torrent of commentary about the program’s successes, failings and future, the economic and political gains from the program over the past 10 years and what Western countries have missed out on.

China and its allies say, unsurprisingly, that the BRI has provided manifold benefits to developing countries. Program detractors argue that the BRI has aggravated the debt burden of participating nations, had a negative impact on their governance, environmental and social indicators, and even been counterproductive to global order.

In full: https://asia.nikkei.com/Opinion/New-airport-shows-Cambodia-can-get-what-it-wants-from-China

Cambodia farmers displaced by sugar plantations proceed with landmark international class action suit

The World
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Cambodia farmers displaced by sugar plantations proceed with landmark international class action suit

Hoy Mai, 61, cuts down weeds on the farm she runs with her children in Oddar Meanchey province in northern Cambodia. The rice and cassava fields in her area stretch out to the horizon.

But 14 years ago, Mai was far from this landscape, trapped in a prison cell in Siem Reap, pregnant and terrified. She was imprisoned for eight months after she refused to sign over her five hectares of farmland to make way for a proposed sugar plantation.

“My experience was horrible. My life has been difficult, and I have made sacrifices up until today,” she said. “Everyone has the right to seek justice. That’s what keeps motivating me.” 

Listen: Cambodia farmers displaced by sugar plantations proceed with landmark international class action suit

In full: https://theworld.org/stories/2023-11-10/cambodia-farmers-displaced-sugar-plantations-proceed-landmark-international-class

Cambodian artist turns tyres into giant King Kong (video)

AFP
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Cambodian artist turns tyres into giant King Kong (video)

A giant, snarling gorilla rears from the peaceful paddy fields on the outskirts of the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, made entirely from old tyres by a Cambodian artist keen to encourage others to reuse materials in their work.

Mean Tithpheap used 500 bicycle and motorbike tyres to create the 2.5-metre (eight-foot) King Kong over five weeks with two helpers.

The 37-year-old artist, who studied at fine art school in Phnom Penh, has been turning tyres into sculptures for four years.

Watch: Cambodian artist recycles materials to create art work

In full: https://news.yahoo.com/cambodian-artist-turns-tyres-giant-110122028.html

Japanese suspects say life was harsh in Cambodia scam operation

Kyodo News
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Japanese suspects say life was harsh in Cambodia scam operation

Some of 25 Japanese men arrested for allegedly taking part in phone scams from Phnom Penh targeting people across Japan have complained about harsh treatment by those who led the operation in the Cambodian capital, police said Thursday.

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One of them told Japanese police after their arrests Wednesday while being deported from Cambodia aboard a flight bound for Japan that he had only one day off a month and was “not allowed to go outside” the apartment from which the scam was run.

“I wanted to stay only for two to three months but could not return home (as he wanted). Honestly I am relieved that I was arrested,” the police quoted another as saying.

In full: https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20231109/p2g/00m/0na/038000c

Proud and united: Cambodian LGBTQ football team promotes acceptance at Gay Games Hong Kong (video)

South China Morning Post
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Proud and united: Cambodian LGBTQ football team promotes acceptance at Gay Games Hong Kong (video)

Hong Kong is hosting the first Gay Games in Asia from November 3-11, 2023. Athletes from more than 40 countries, ranging in age from 18 to 87, are competing for medals in 18 sports. Among them is an LGBTQ-inclusive football team from Central Cambodia that is attending the Games on a scholarship. Relations between partners of the same sex are legal in Cambodia, but many LGBTQ Cambodians say they still face societal discrimination. Coach Pa Vann and his players all care deeply about creating visibility for their community through sport.

Watch: https://www.scmp.com/video/hong-kong/3240856/proud-and-united-cambodian-lgbtq-football-team-promotes-acceptance-gay-games-hong-kong

The United States Should Take a Wider Perspective of Cambodia

Newsweek
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The United States Should Take a Wider Perspective of Cambodia

Earlier today, thousands of my fellow citizens gathered peacefully at the Independence Monument in Phnom Penh to mark 70 years of Cambodia’s independence from France. This year, our celebrations take on greater significance as Cambodia is led by a new government with a young and competent leadership headed by Prime Minister Hun Manet.

The leadership of Hun Manet provides the United States with unique opportunities to engage more deeply with my country, and foster a relationship that can benefit both peoples and countries, while contributing to regional peace, stability, and development.

Cambodia’s strategic location in Southeast Asia makes it a crucial player in the region. Historically, the nation has undergone significant political and social transformations, including the Khmer Rouge regime’s brutal reign, when more than 3 million Cambodians were killed between 1975 and 1979, and our subsequent rebuilding efforts. Today, Cambodia is making great strides in establishing itself as a stable and prosperous nation.

In full: https://www.newsweek.com/united-states-should-take-wider-perspective-cambodia-opinion-1841627

A Long Beach-born painter captures the surrealism of the Cambodian American experience

Los Angeles Times
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A Long Beach-born painter captures the surrealism of the Cambodian American experience

The first thing you notice about the paintings of Tidawhitney Lek is the hands. Hands slink around doorways and sofas and emerge out of closets and gutters. They play with the locks on your door while you are napping and cleaver banana plants in the middle of the night. Sometimes the hands are green; other times, human shades of brown. Always, they bear glittery manicures. Never is it revealed to whom these hands might belong or whether their intention is protective or sinister.

“People always ask me, ‘Friend or foe?’” Lek says of the mysterious appendages. “I say, ‘That’s the idea.’”

The magic in Lek’s work extends well beyond hands. On the surface, her paintings appear to chronicle intimate domestic scenes. In one canvas, a woman dozes peacefully on a couch; in another, two women linger in a lush garden. But look closer and you’ll find details that unsettle. The sleeping figure rests on a sofa whose abstracted pattern evokes a swarm of winged insects. And the garden where the women idle isn’t a single space but a vertiginous composite of several spaces whose angles defy the laws of physics.

In full: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2023-11-09/how-tidawhitney-leks-surreal-paintings-illuminate-the-camodian-american-experience-in-l-a

They opened the door. The dictators were waiting.

Washington Post
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They opened the door. The dictators were waiting.

Sarada Taing was worried sick.

A U.S. citizen who was born in Cambodia, he was running from Washington an online, independent news broadcast for audiences in Cambodia and around the world. On his weekday Khmer-language video talk show, which draws between 50,000 and 80,000 viewers, he airs investigative reports on corruption, money laundering, land grabs, deforestation, human rights abuses and human trafficking — challenging the authoritarian government.

On June 19, just weeks before a Cambodian election, Sarada got two audio messages on Facebook Messenger from a pro-government social media celebrity in Cambodia. In the first message, the man told Sarada he “would chop my head off if I entered Cambodia.” In the second, the man asserted that he had friends outside Cambodia and “they also don’t like you.” The threat was repeated in a Facebook Live conversation the celebrity hosted from Cambodia on June 22, during which the man said he would not hesitate to kill Sarada.

In full: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/11/09/dictators-transnational-repression/

An Open Letter to Cambodia’s Hun Manet About His PhD Thesis

The Diplomat
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An Open Letter to Cambodia’s Hun Manet About His PhD Thesis

Prime Minister Dr. Hun Manet,

At present, your PhD thesis, completed at Bristol University in 2009, sits gathering dust on a shelf in a library building in southwest Britain.

No one reads it and no one is allowed to photocopy it. Neither is it possible to transfer it to any other academic library. The thesis is literally kept under lock and key.

Most theses are readily available to be read by interested researchers everywhere. You will have needed to read many completed theses yourself in the course of your studies.

In full: https://thediplomat.com/2023/11/an-open-letter-to-cambodias-hun-manet-about-his-phd-thesis/

Calls grow to repurpose land squandered in Cambodia’s concession policy

Mongabay
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Calls grow to repurpose land squandered in Cambodia’s concession policy

“Make the bosses rich in Cambodia,” then-prime minister Hun Sen said at the 2012 inauguration of a sugar refinery in Kampong Speu province. “If a country has no millionaires, where can the poor get their money from?”

This underscored the ideology at the heart of the policy of economic land concessions, or ELCs, which promised benefits for all by handing vast swaths of the country to a handful of elites to develop, mostly for agroindustry.

The sugar refinery where Hun Sen gave this speech belonged to one his closest advisers, Ly Yong Phat — a ruling party senator with a sprawling business empire and a well-documented history of environmental vandalism.

In full: https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/calls-grow-to-repurpose-land-squandered-in-cambodias-concession-policy/

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