TAIPEI, Taiwan – Cambodia deported Taiwanese fraud suspects to China, the island’s foreign ministry said, urging Cambodian authorities to provide a complete list of the deportees, who may number in the dozens. About 180 Taiwanese were arrested together with seven alleged Chinese coconspirators on March 31, during raids on an online fraud center in Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh. After receiving notification of the arrests on April 1, Taiwan’s representative office in Ho Chi Minh City began negotiating with the Cambodian government, said the ministry. Cambodia deported nearly 190 suspects to…
Tag: Cambodia
Cambodia reopens naval base after Chinese upgrade
Cambodia has formally re-opened a naval base on its southwestern coast after a substantial upgrade supported by China, but denies it will allow any foreign country to establish a base on its soil. Prime Minister Hun Manet on Saturday officiated the re-opening of Ream Naval Base. The Chinese ambassador to Cambodia and a member from China’s Central Military Commission attended the ceremony. “The royal government of Cambodia, led by the Cambodian People’s Party, in the past, now and in the future will not violate its own constitution to allow any…
China ‘world’s biggest debt collector’ as poorer nations struggle with its loans
China has become the world’s biggest debt collector, as the money it is owed from developing countries has surged to between $1.1tn (£889bn) and $1.5tn, according to a new report. An estimated 80% of China’s overseas lending portfolio in the global south is now supporting countries in financial distress. Since 2017, China has been the world’s biggest bilateral lender; its main development banks issued nearly $500bn between 2008 and 2021. While some of this predates the belt and road initiative (BRI), Beijing’s flagship development programme has mobilised much of the…
China Reels From Floods and a Bruising Heat Wave
China and several other Asia Pacific countries were reeling from monsoonal floods and stultifying temperatures on Wednesday, the latest disruptions in what forecasters say could be a long summer and autumn of extreme weather around the world. The authorities in China said on Wednesday that 15 people had died and four others were missing as a result of flooding in the sprawling southwestern city of Chongqing, according to the state-run news media. In another sign of how bad the flooding was in China, news footage showed rescuers in the central…
Cambodia’s modern slavery nightmare: the human trafficking crisis overlooked by authorities
At 3.28am on 29 June 2021, Xu Mingjian crept out of a dorm room inside a gated compound in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, and made his way to the second floor, where his friend, another victim of trafficking, was waiting. The two had hatched a desperate plan to escape the modern slavery nightmare they’d been in since Xu was sold to an online scam company in the same building three months earlier, believing a well-paid data entry job awaited him. They jumped from the balcony onto the first floor of the building…
U.S. Seeks to Reassure Asian Allies as China’s Military Grows Bolder
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Just a few hours after five Chinese missiles blasted into Japanese waters near Taiwan, the foreign ministers of China and Japan found themselves uncomfortably close together, in the holding room for a gala dinner on Thursday night at a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister, saluted reporters before stepping into the room, stayed for three minutes, then walked out to his motorcade. He had already canceled plans for a bilateral meeting with his Japanese counterpart in the Cambodian capital…