clandestine bombing of Cambodia during the Vietnam War, just before the Khmer Rouge gained popular support. In a 2018 propaganda film that presents the ruling party’s version of history, the prime minister emphasizes the U.S. Recently, Hun Sen has excluded China from the Khmer Rouge narrative, revealing where his loyalties lie. “It restored the spiritual and physical value of the Cambodian people.” “The January 7 victory saved millions of Cambodians who were already at the brink of death,” he said last year during annual celebrations commemorating the Khmer Rouge’s defeat. He now rebukes the Khmer Rouge regime, which killed nearly a quarter of the population between 19-a reign of terror from which Hun Sen claims to have delivered Cambodia. Vietnam occupied Cambodia in 1979 and placed Hun Sen in power in 1985, and he has remained there ever since. Hun Sen was just a low-level commander in the Khmer Rouge when he defected to Vietnam in 1977. The shift seems intended to enable China’s influence-building process in Cambodia. He has now taken the alliance a step further, mirroring Xi in rewriting Cambodia’s official Khmer Rouge-era history: exempting Beijing’s wrongdoings and emphasizing those of the United States instead. It’s unsurprising then that Hun Sen has shaped Cambodia’s domestic and foreign policy to support Beijing’s interests. And as China has backed major infrastructure projects and pledged around $100 million in military aid, Cambodia has vetoed Association of Southeast Asian Nations resolutions opposing China’s expansive claims in the South China Sea. Cambodia seems to have handed over large swaths of its coastline to China for military purposes. China is Cambodia’s biggest investor-best evidenced by the coastal city of Sihanoukville, transformed by the construction of apartments, casinos, and hotels for Chinese nationals. The visit was another example of how Phnom Penh has grown closer to Beijing in recent years, while drifting further from the West.Ĭambodia appears increasingly like a Chinese vassal state. ![]() Hun Sen was the first foreign leader to visit China after the outbreak began, calling Cambodia and China “ steadfast friends” and criticizing other countries for restricting travel to China. Last month, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing in a show of solidarity amid the coronavirus crisis.
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