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Jun 01, 2026

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No Peace for the Emerald Triangle

A year after Cambodian and Thai troops first swapped lead in the Emerald Triangle on May 28, 2025, in action that killed a Cambodian service member and gutted what was meant to be a celebration of 75 years of diplomatic ties, Phnom Penh is using the anniversary to accuse Bangkok of taking territory under cover of the ceasefire. Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn told the UN Security Council on May 26 that Cambodia doesn’t recognize the "modification of the border by force or the creation of a de facto situation," before meeting with his Thai counterpart on the sidelines. Two rounds of fighting, the second in December which went on for more than three weeks, have knocked diplomatic relations down to second-secretary level. On May 28, Phnom Penh held a three-hour “Day of Reckoning” ceremony that pulled together Khmer Rouge remembrance, COVID-19 hardship stories and border-war footage to try and win hearts and minds. Deputy Prime Minister Hun Many was keen to remind everyone, however, that the event was "not intended to encourage Cambodian people to despise any nationality."

Read more: Cambodianess (investor confidence), Cambodia Daily (Sokhonn-Hossain meeting), Cambodianess (analyst voices), Cambodianess (Hun Many remarks)

Buddha Statues on Land, Gas Fields at Sea

Thailand has spent its time since the December 27 ceasefire doing things that don't look much like peacekeeping. There are now 36 Buddhist statues built in Preah Vihear and Oddar Meanchey provinces, two flagpoles planted in Preah Vihear, roads built, containers and barbed wire reinforced, and tourism activities running on what Phnom Penh claims is Cambodian territory. The Foreign Ministry's May 30 protest says all of this violates ceasefire points 2 and 3, which are supposed to require both sides to keep to their (then-)current positions and only use the existing border demarcation mechanisms. The same pressure campaign has also gone offshore, where Cambodia this month walked away from a 25-year joint exploration agreement over roughly 27,000 square kilometers of the Gulf of Thailand. The area is thought to hold up to 11 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and nearly $300 billion in combined oil and gas reserves. Energy Minister Keo Rottanak says conciliation under UNCLOS is now the only realistic path forward.

Read more: Cambodianess (UN Security Council), Modern Diplomacy (TotalEnergies interest)

Sokha Walks, But Not Far

Kem Sokha left his Tuol Kork house at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, freed by a royal pardon that Acting Head of State Hun Sen signed May 25 on behalf of King Sihamoni, (abroad being treated for cancer). Even as he’s been able to get out from under house arrest, his lifetime ban on political activity has not been relaxed. Nor has his five-year travel ban. Sokha, 72, greeted officials, but declined interviews, and said he planned to enter monkhood to show gratitude to his 101-year-old mother. The U.S., EU, UK, France, Germany, Australia, and Canada all welcomed the release, but most of them also suggested that “more” would be appropriate. The partial pardon is seen as mostly a play for Western goodwill, with Sokha visible enough to satisfy foreign critics but shackled enough to be no political threat. CPP spokesperson Chea Thirith said that the skeptics are "extremists."

Read more: CamboJA News (Western missions), CamboJA News (analyst dissent), Cambodia Daily (geopolitical motive), CamboJA News (Sokha's exit), Cambodia Daily (U.S. stance)

Hun Sen Shocked to Discover Scamming

About 300,000 foreign nationals have been arrested, deported, or have departed voluntarily under Cambodia's Anti-Telecom Fraud Law came into effect, Deputy PM Sar Sokha told Swiss Ambassador Pedro Zwahlen on Wednesday. Since January, the government also says that 91 casinos have been shut. Days earlier, Senate President Hun Sen told a Phnom Penh administration meeting he was "very surprised" to learn tens of thousands of scammers were operating in the country, even though the UN reported the figure to be about 100,000 way back in 2022. Since a May 22 sub-decree, senior police in Mondulkiri Province have been let go, and Phnom Penh Municipal Court issued an arrest warrant for a Banteay Meanchey provincial military police deputy chief of staff on charges of conspiracy in aggravated online fraud and money laundering.

Read more: CamboJA News (Hun Sen), Asia Gaming Brief (300K breakdown)

Cops Raid the Raid

More than 30 Kampot police and gendarmes, including a deputy provincial police commissioner, were arrested Wednesday after allegedly cutting the locks of a casino near the Prek Chak border crossing with Vietnam and “liberating” evidence that had been taken in an earlier anti-scam raid. The casino had already been raided for hosting scam operations. Provincial police chief Mao Chanmathurith confirmed the arrests but decided to say no more, even refusing to name the casino. The National Military Police spokesperson also passed on giving much commentary, offering only that prosecutors were “on the case.”

An Eviction Notice That Wasn't

A forged immigration document, complete with lifted signatures from GDI Director-General Som Sopheak and Interior Ministry Secretary of State Sar Sokha, tore through African social media last week claiming Ghanaians, Kenyans and others had until May 31 to leave or suffer two years in prison and an $8,000 fine. Several major African outlets ran it straight. Cambodia's Interior Ministry said the note was fabricated (Ghana's FM Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa confirmed the same). Even though the document was fiction, the immigration waivers referenced in the fake notice are real instruments, used on workers with expired visas who had fled or been freed from scam compounds and needed time to arrange passage home. Ghana's High Commission in Malaysia, which handles Cambodia affairs, evacuated 85 Ghanaians between March and May, and 76 more are waiting on the next flight out.

Read more: Phnom Penh Post (forged signatures), Cambodianess (19,000 expulsions), The Whistler (ministry), Modern Ghana, TVC News (76 pending evacuation)

Master 25's Ponzi Trail Leads to the Ministries

Leng Channa and two sidekicks have confessed to getting between $93 million and $98 million from a figure known only as "Master 25." They used the money to buy land and pay interest to earlier investors in what the Anti-Corruption Unit says was a Ponzi. About 5,000 victims were taken in by Brilliant City, whose CEO and two deputy CEOs were arrested in Siem Reap in March 2024 on charges of aggravated fraud and money laundering. The ACU has since begun investigations into Sean Borat, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Education, and Sar Thavy, Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of National Defense. The PM has assigned Ky Tech, head of the government’s legal team, to look after victims' interests.

Bank Crisis or Challenge?

Cambodia's banking sector sanctioned and placed multiple financial institutions into liquidation over the past year. That’s the sort of news that often gets buried in otherwise reassuring press releases, but it’s not a good look. Total banking assets are $101.8 billion, the result of roughly 400 percent growth over the past decade, and the National Bank of Cambodia's prudential ratios still look fine on paper. The non-performing loan ratio is 3.7 percent, which should be manageable, even though that’s a historical high for Cambodia. The bank closures are doing reputational damage to be sure, the question is if this is "crisis or challenge?"

Read more: Khmer Times (NPL historical highs), Kiripost (3.7% NPL rate)

The Golden Emblem Opens Doors, Wallets

Susumu Tai, 73, Cambodia's honorary consul in Sendai, raked in more than 2 billion yen ($12.5M) from more than 20 Japanese companies for sham investment consulting, then returned most of it as kickbacks while skimming 10-20 percent as his “commission.” The Sendai Regional Taxation Bureau has charged him roughly 260 million yen in back taxes and penalties on some 370 million yen in unreported income; the companies that paid him face a dues of another 700 million yen or so. Tai's pitch was gentlemanly, and his business card carried the golden national emblem of Cambodia, and clients' confidence was fortified in January 2024 when Hun Manet appointed him a special adviser to the prime minister. When tax authorities came calling, Tai claimed diplomatic immunity, a privilege Japan (not unusually) does not extend to honorary consuls.

PTT's Cambodia Pumps Run Dry

PTT's OR unit has watched its Cambodian petrol station network shrivel from 200 to 91 since border tensions between Thailand and Cambodia began, and says that sales are off 50 or 60% from what they were a year ago. Forty or fifty of those lost stations didn't close so much as defect, switching to rival (non-Thai, natch) brands. Café Amazon locations saw a more modest reduction, from 150 outlets to 136. CFO Wilaiwan Kanjanakanti's silver lining is that the Cambodia apparently only accounts for 2-3% of the firm’s net profit.

Tuk-Tuks 1, EVs 0

Cambodia's transport ministry suspended WowNow's electric taxi fleet on Wednesday after tuk-tuk drivers complained the EV service had cut their daily earnings from $25 to $10. Left unmentioned in the ministry’s announcement was WowNow's previous tie-ups with Prince Bank and Prince Supermarket, both companies which were sanctioned by the US over alleged links to online scams, money laundering, and human trafficking under the Prince Group crackdown. WowNow itself hasn't been accused of wrongdoing, and Prince Group continues to deny the allegations. Dozens of suspended EV drivers petitioned the labor ministry the same day, and were asked to "remain silent" while negotiations are ongoing.

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