An AI-generated image depicting the scam operations in Myanmar and Cambodia
[People News] In recent years, there have been frequent reports of people from mainland China and Taiwan being tricked into going to Cambodia, where they are forced into scam operations. What has happened to Cambodia? Do its laws simply not apply?
Today, we will take a closer look at Cambodia and analyze the reasons behind this strange phenomenon. Cambodia is an ancient country with a history of over a thousand years, once creating the glorious Khmer civilization in Southeast Asia. Even after World War II, Cambodia's economy was among the top in the region. However, this very country has now become a paradise for scam operations.
Since September 2021, large numbers of Chinese and Taiwanese citizens have been deceived into traveling to northern Myanmar and Cambodia, only to be forced into scam-related work. If they resist or fail to meet performance targets, they are subjected to torture, rape, murder, or even live organ harvesting. These areas have essentially turned into a living hell. How did Cambodia, once a simple and kind-hearted nation, end up like this?
In reality, the scam companies operating in Cambodia are run by Chinese nationals. The rise of these scams is closely linked to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Since Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping proposed the BRI in 2013, a massive influx of Chinese capital and Chinese nationals has poured into Sihanoukville, Cambodia (commonly known as "Westport") since 2016.
In just a few years, Sihanoukville transformed from a quiet, simple town into the Cambodian city with the largest Chinese population. There are more Chinese than locals, and the streets are lined with casinos and nightclubs. As a result, the city became a hub for gambling, prostitution, and drugs. While Cambodian law prohibits locals from entering casinos, foreign visitors—mostly Chinese—flock to them.
However, after Cambodia banned gambling, many of these casinos transitioned into scam operations. These scam businesses are still run by Chinese nationals, who lure Mandarin-speaking individuals from mainland China, Taiwan, Malaysia, and other regions with promises of high-paying jobs, only to trap them inside scam compounds and force them into fraudulent activities. Women are often subjected to sexual slavery, and in some cases, people are killed for organ trafficking.
Most of these scam compounds are concentrated in Sihanoukville. If you walk through the city, you will see Chinese characters on nearly every signboard. If you didn’t know better, you might think you were in a third-tier Chinese city. The majority of the population is Chinese, while the local Cambodians are barely visible. Since the CCP became Cambodia’s biggest financial backer through the Belt and Road Initiative, a steady stream of Chinese nationals has flooded in, many of whom engage in gambling, drugs, and prostitution. Some of these individuals were already criminals in China. During China's anti-gang crackdowns, many fled to Sihanoukville, turning this once peaceful coastal town into a true crime city. Many of these scam syndicates are run by Chinese mafia groups. There’s an old saying, "Chinese people don’t scam other Chinese people," but this now seems like the biggest international joke.
So why don’t Cambodian laws take action? The answer lies in corruption. The police are colluding with the scam syndicates. If someone manages to escape from a scam compound and reports it to the police, the authorities will inform the scam bosses, who will then capture the person again. Cambodia’s military and police act as the protectors of these scam operations. In reality, Cambodia’s current state of corruption is a legacy of the communist movements of the last century.
In 1975, the Cambodian Communist Party, known as the Khmer Rouge, took control of Cambodia with the backing of the Chinese Communist Party, establishing what they called 'Democratic Kampuchea.' During the Khmer Rouge's regime, a staggering quarter of Cambodia's population was killed. At that time, anyone with even a slight education or talent was at risk of being targeted for extermination, leading to the near-total destruction of Cambodia's intellectual class. The Cambodian-Vietnamese War erupted in December 1978, and by January 1979, the Khmer Rouge regime was toppled by the Vietnamese Communist Party. With the support of the Vietnamese, the Cambodian People's Revolutionary Party, a communist party, began to govern, remaining in power until 1991 when it renounced Marxism and rebranded itself as the Cambodian People's Party.
Today, Cambodia is still under the one-party authoritarian rule of the Cambodian People's Party, with many current officials being former members of the Khmer Rouge. Notably, both the current Prime Minister Hun Sen and Heng Samrin, the honorary chairman of the Cambodian People's Party, were key figures in the former Khmer Rouge. Cambodia endured 16 years of devastation under communism, resulting in the near-total annihilation of its social elite. Consequently, the current leaders of the country are a generation that has been indoctrinated with communist ideology for 16 years, which helps explain the strange phenomenon of the government acting as a protector for fraud rings.
In summary, the reasons behind Cambodia's transformation into a scam haven can be traced back to the Chinese Communist Party's Belt and Road Initiative, which has established an overseas base for Chinese criminals. Furthermore, the country is still under the governance of politicians educated during the communist era, and it is these corrupt officials who provide protection for the scam organizations.
However, if Cambodia is unable to address the scam groups due to official corruption, how was it able to effectively regulate the gambling industry during the 8.18 gambling ban in August 2019? Why has the government been powerless when these gambling operations shifted to scam activities? Given the magnitude of this issue and the strong ties between Cambodia and mainland China, along with the numerous Chinese victims in Cambodia, this should have raised alarms for the Hun Sen government. Yet, Prime Minister Hun Sen appears indifferent. Can a national government truly be outmatched by petty scammers? Or is there a specific reason for their reluctance to tackle these scam groups?
Is there a hidden collusion between these scam organizations and the Chinese Communist Party? The abhorrent practice of organ harvesting aligns with the CCP's historical actions, as they have been known to harvest organs from Falun Gong practitioners. While it remains uncertain whether the CCP is secretly benefiting from the scam groups in Cambodia, it is clear that the Communist Party has turned this ancient civilization into a modern-day kingdom of crime. △
(Originally published by the People News)
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