Episode 1: Cambodia – A Land Outside the Law? Capital of Sin!
Let's talk about it today - Cambodia controlled by the devil
During the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, warlords were divided into warlords, which was also a very absurd era in Chinese history, with the humiliation of Western powers on the outside and oppression by various official governments inside.
And today's Cambodia is like the late Qing and Republican era we once had.
01 Introduction: Extreme poverty
Friends who have traveled to Angkor Wat know that Cambodia is a country of extreme poverty and Buddhist learning.
Poor enough that "temples can be splendid", but they only need to live in "thatched huts on stilts", which is a common phenomenon in their countryside.
Such a poor Buddhist country has the largest population market in Southeast Asia.
Although nearly 95% of the population is Buddhist, it is known as "the paradise of criminals."
Customs industry, telecommunications fraud, human trade, organ trafficking, drug gambling
It is almost equal to the notorious northern Myanmar.
02 Poor Cambodia – Current Situation
As of now, Cambodia remains one of the poorest countries in the world.
Economic Situation:
In 2021, the GDP of Cambodia as a whole was only 27 billion US dollars, which is equivalent to a fourth- and fifth-tier city in China.
So far, 17% of people earn less than $80 a month, which is about 550 yuan.
The average monthly income is about 1500 to 2000 yuan.
Population:
There are currently about 17 million people, 8 million of whom live on less than $2 a day, or about 13 yuan.
Custom Industries & People Trade:
Because they are so poor, there are even many people who live by "renting wives", that is, renting to local whites and other foreigners.
Cambodia has a wide gap between rich and poor, with some people running monopoly businesses and others living as prostitutes.
Unlike some Southeast Asian countries in Thailand, many women in Cambodia are forcibly trafficked into the custom gray industry.
For a long time, Cambodia was an important hub for the population trade in Southeast Asia.
Casino:
There are as many as 150 legal casinos in Cambodia, and many people don't know that Cambodia is probably the country with the most casinos in the world!
and hundreds of large and small fraud industrial parks, at least 100,000 people are practitioners in the fraud and gaming industry.
Organ Black Market:
From the above industries, there is also a large number of organ black markets.
03 Why is Cambodia so messy? How is it different from northern Myanmar?
Again, this is a question left over from history...
Cambodia is located in the south of the mainland and its capital is Phnom Penh.
Phnom Penh's ordinary salary is only 2,000, but it has a house price of up to 20,000.
The disproportionate income and consumption are also the main reasons for the proliferation of gray industries.
People's life is too difficult!
Ancient History:
Cambodia is actually an ancient civilization, as early as the 1st century AD, that is, the end of the Western Han Dynasty, the establishment of a feudal dynasty.
In the Han Dynasty it was called "Funan Kingdom", during the Sui Dynasty it was called "Chenla Dynasty", during the High Tang Dynasty it was called "Angkor Dynasty", and in the Ming Dynasty it was changed to "Cambodia".
The Angkor Dynasty in the High Tang Dynasty was the largest country in Southeast Asia at that time, the hegemon.
The famous "Angkor Wat", the seventh wonder of the world, was once the royal temple of the Angkor Dynasty.
But since the turbulent wars in Southeast Asia and the consequent fall of the Angkor dynasty, Cambodia began to gradually decline.
Modern and Modern History:
Cambodia was also occupied by Vietnam for a while, and later became a colony of France and Japan.
After the end of World War II and the withdrawal of Japan, France did not expect to make a comeback.
France was finally driven out, and then the Vietnamese-Cambodian War broke out.
The internal coup d'état, coupled with external enemies, degenerated for hundreds of years and missed the Industrial Revolution.
Geographical location:
Cambodia is above Thailand and Vietnam below, and Laos next to it.
This geographical location is also one of the reasons for the drug epidemic.
Because the geographical location is so good, controlling Cambodia is equivalent to controlling the entire Indochina Peninsula.
During the U.S. military presence, it destroyed the economic pillars of Cambodia's original agricultural power by creating a city of desire, just as it controlled Japan and South Korea.
At first, it was indeed as they thought, at first because they were too poor, a large number of Cambodian women could only sell their bodies in exchange for dollars, so soon there was a large number of red light districts near the US military base.
Countless people at the bottom have also begun to participate in the gray industry, and the country has entered a vicious circle.
But it didn't take long for things to go beyond the imagination of the Americans.
The bloody rule of the Khmer Rouge:
In 1975, there was a coup d'état within Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge regime was established.
They raised the slogan "Eliminate the rich, everyone is equal," and began a four-year overhaul.
Their leaders believed that industry was backward, corruption was rife, and that to change the situation, all evil must be destroyed.
After the regime was established, they forced the two million citizens of the capital Phnom Penh to move to the countryside.
They believe that this will destroy the evil city.
Then, in order to eliminate capital, money was directly abolished.
In order to eliminate speculation, knowledge was directly destroyed, and even private property was abolished, books were burned, culture was abolished.
Directly outlawed schools, libraries, hospitals ...
In order to solve the problem from the root, and even directly purge intellectuals.
In just four years, Cambodia's population has gone from 7 million to 4 million.
Even in order to save bullets, let these intellectuals engage in super-intensive physical labor and directly starve to death.
There are also soldiers driving tanks and directly crushing the crowd.
Prison Museum in Phnom Penh:
Once a prison of the Khmer Rouge, the peak once held 20,000 people, and in the end only 7 remained.
By killing all the talent and completely abandoning knowledge, Cambodia finally lost all its cards.
Later, people could only put their hopes directly on the gray industry.
Cambodia has finally begun to go the wrong way...
Tomorrow I'll talk about how Cambodia began to fall, and follow me to see more exciting content from Southeast Asia.