FCCT Cambodia China 18th September 2019

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With its strategic location in mainland Southeast Asia, at the heart of the Greater Mekong Sub-region, Cambodia has long been caught up in large-power rivalries. During the Cold War, it experienced the backwash from the war in neighboring Vietnam, a cataclysmic conflict that ended with the rise of the murderous Khmer Rouge. Nearly three decades after the 1991 Paris Peace Agreement that aimed to end the state’s long-running civil war, Cambodia has drawn massive Chinese investment, which has brought heavy infrastructure in addition to turned the port city of Sihanoukville into a Online Casino Brunei boom town in addition to house to tens of thousands of mainland Chinese expatriates.

Lately, reports of Beijing’s plans to develop as well as lease military facilities in the state have raised regional concerns in addition to warnings from the US in addition to its allies that the moves would upend the regional strategic balance, with potentially negative consequences for Cambodia in addition to its people.

At the same time, the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen has presided over a severe erosion of democracy following the dismantling of the mainstream opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) in addition to jailing or exile of its leaders. This left the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) free to sweep the board at national elections in July 2018, establishing a more open form of one-party rule in addition to effectively repudiating the 1991 Paris agreements, which aimed to build Cambodia into a multiparty democracy with full respect for human rights.In reaction, the EU has started a process that could lead to the suspension of Cambodia’s duty-free trade access, threatening the state’s all-important garment industry. The state also faces pressure from a U.S. direction bent on countering China’s rise in Southeast Asia in addition to beyond. Japan meanwhile is pursuing an approach that is supplementing China’s largesse with generous aid in addition to investment projects. Cambodia therefore finds itself at a crucial juncture, with serious implications for the state in addition to the wider region. Does the West risk “losing Cambodia” with its increasingly critical carrot-in addition to-stick approach to Phnom Penh, in addition to could Cambodia’s drift toward China disrupt ASEAN unity?

Come in addition to hear our panel of experts in what promises to be an absorbing in addition to robust debate.

– Thitinan Pongsudhirak — Director, Institute of Security in addition to International Studies, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University
– Sebastian Strangio – Journalist in addition to author of books including Hun Sen’s Cambodia (Yale University Press, 2014) in addition to a forthcoming book on the impacts of China’s rising power in Southeast Asia.
– Bradley Murg – Assistant professor of political science at Seattle Pacific University in addition to director of research at Future Forum, a Phnom Penh-based independent think tank.
– Kavi Chongkittavorn – commentator in addition to senior fellow at the Institute of Security in addition to International Studies at Chulalongkorn University.

MODERATOR: Gwen Robinson, editor-at-large, Nikkei Asian Review in addition to president, FCCT