Cambodia 20260511
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Handshakes in Cebu But Tents on the Border
Hun Manet and Thai PM Anutin Charnvirakul met in Cebu on May 7 for their first direct talks since two rounds of fighting last year killed more than 100 people and displaced more than 300,000. Philippine President Marcos brokered the session on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit, and both leaders walked out with something they could call progress. Their foreign ministers have been tasked with confidence-building activities, and dormant border bodies (including the Joint Boundary Commission and General Border Committee) are being revived. Tens of thousands of people reportedly remain in displacement camps.
Read more: CamboJA News (Hun Manet), Media Selangor (Thai sovereignty stance), Cambodianess (ASEAN chair statement), Khmer Times (border mechanisms), Al Jazeera (displacement camp conditions)
Owns A Third But Knows Nothing
Hun To, a cousin of Prime Minister Hun Manet, confirmed on Wednesday that he was a 30% owner of US-sanctioned Huione Pay, but then explained why that shouldn't count. He says he never paid in his share capital, never attended shareholder meetings, never authorized proxies, and never received any profits, dividends, or assets. He was, by his own account, a 30% owner who owned nothing and did nothing. The company's former chairman, Li Xiong, who held 62% of Huione Pay and who Chinese authorities say was running a transnational gambling and fraud syndicate, was extradited to China last month after collecting more than $1 million in liquidation payouts. Hun To and co-director Yan Sathya got nothing, according to the liquidator's report. US authorities have tied the Huione Group to more than $4 billion in laundered funds. Organized crime researcher Lindsey Kennedy said Hun To has been listed as a director or shareholder of "countless criminally exposed companies" but doubted he would face any criminal investigation in Cambodia, "especially while his uncle […] is still alive."
Read more: CamboJA News (liquidation payouts), KTEN ($4B laundered)
No Deadline, No Passport, No Problem
Cambodia's anti-scam sweep hauled in 5,535 people from 48 spots in April, including 3,391 Chinese nationals, 726 Thais, and 461 Vietnamese. The government has clarified that Hun Manet's end-of-April deadline was a "rumor" and a "misinterpretation," and that the campaign will run until there are no scams left, a rather different kind of timeline. The arrest figures do not account for those who got rounded up but were never charged. The new anti-scam law, in force since early April, has so far been used to charge 64 organizers and coordinators, none of them, said Licadho's Am Sam Ath, among the officials who (allegedly) ran protection for the compounds.
Read more: The Star (stranded foreigners), CamboJA News (deadline clarification), Cambodianess (arrest breakdown)
Most of the Money, Most of the Questions
NGO Forum brought Chinese Embassy representatives, government officials, and affected communities into the same room in Phnom Penh on Thursday to talk through some of the points of friction that come with Chinese-backed projects. Chinese investors make up more than 70% of Cambodia's FDI and backed more than half of 2025's 630 approved projects, worth about $10 billion. A 2024 NGO Forum-commissioned survey found nearly 80% of Cambodian respondents were worried about whether Chinese firms follow local rules. In a different survey, the Asian Vision Institute polled 2,612 Cambodians between December 2025 and March 2026 and came back with a finding that 97.4% of them are “optimistic” about ties with Beijing and 99.7% saying that the relationship is important. Only seven respondents said the relationship wasn’t important. Xinhua gave the findings prominent play for their audience.
Read more: CamboJA News (NGO Forum), Xinhua (BRI project rankings), Khmer Times (fraud concerns)
Beijing Passport Gets Cambodian Welcome Mat
From June 15 to October 15, PRC passport holders (including Hong Kong and Macao) can get into Cambodia on a digital arrival card alone, 14 days free, multiple entries included. The window falls during China's peak summer travel season. Chinese visitors were more than 240,000 in Q1 ‘26, making China the top source market, after 1.2 million arrivals for all of 2025. The Cambodia-China Cultural Tourism Bridge Development Association met with Tourism Minister Huot Hak on May 7 to pitch joint promotion and "major investors" from China. PATA president Thourn Sinan said it’s "Cambodia's largest tourism trial initiative [ever]."
Read more: Phnom Penh Post (42% growth), Travel and Tour World (success metrics)
Koh Kong Loses Stalls and Patience
Environmental rangers destroyed 100 structures near the Damnak Kbon waterfall on Tuesday. The action will impact about 40 families who had built huts and run tourist stalls there since 2019. Two days later, more than 100 Koh Kong residents traveled by bus to Phnom Penh so that they could petition the Land Ministry. Some of them arrived with evidence of disputes that go back to 2007, when Heng Huy Agriculture Group (allegedly) cleared their rice fields to grow sugarcane. One petitioner said she sold her chickens and ducks to pay the bus fare. In 2023, ten residents from the same community were convicted of incitement and given one-year prison sentences AND fines totaling nearly $10,000 that was payable to Heng Huy. The Land Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
Read more: CamboJA News (Adhoc land stats), CamboJA News (demolition tactics)
Flights from the Gulf and Free Rooms for Followers
Etihad Airways and Air Cambodia introduced a codeshare on May 6, connecting Abu Dhabi to Siem Reap via Phnom Penh on a single ticket and allowing for baggage to be checked through to a passenger’s final destination. The next day, Angkor Mansion & Residence said it would hand free rooms to influencers, vloggers, and content creators who were willing to photograph Siem Reap during the Green Season, a rainy stretch that traditionally has seen most tourists stay home. The hotel is running the campaign in partnership with the Ministry of Tourism.
Read more: Travel and Tour World (Air Cambodia network), Travel and Tour World (sustainable tourism)
Phnom Penh Sweats the Hantavirus
Authorities are keen to let everyone know that they’ve tightened thermal scanning at Techo International Airport after the WHO flagged eight hantavirus cases, including three deaths, aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship that’s off the coast of West Africa. Health Ministry secretary of state Yuk Sambath took a look at the airport's health-control section on May 8, and confirmed that Teacho Santepheap Hospital has been designated for isolation and emergency treatment and the 115 hotline is ready and on standby. The hantavirus strain involved is reportedly the “Andes” variant, which is the only hantavirus known to pass between humans through close contact. WHO publicly says that the overall public health risk remains low for now.
Read more: VietnamPlus (CDC response teams), Cambodianess (Yuk Sambath role)
Another £1.6 Million for Mine Action
The UK is putting £1.6 million into another year of Cambodian mine clearance; the HALO Trust and MAG are aiming to clear about 890,000 square meters in Battambang, Siem Reap, Banteay Meanchey, Oddar Meanchey, Pursat, Pailin and Koh Kong. APOPO's "Minefields to Ricefields" project will get a piece of the action too, with 3.4 million square meters earmarked for rehabilitation to the benefit of at least 500 farming families. Britain has now put about £65 million into the sector over more than three decades. The Cambodian government still has a planned deadline to clearing the remaining contamination by 2030.
Read more: Cambodianess (casualty toll), Cambodia Investment Review (education sessions)
Bring Back the Tigers For Cash
A paper in PARKS journal has put a number on a wild idea. Reintroducing tigers to Cambodia's Cardamom Mountains could reportedly pull in $5-7 million yearly in tourism revenue within a decade. Compare versus the $3.6 billion that Cambodia took in from visitors in 2024.
Read more: Down To Earth
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