Cambodia is a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and is located on the Indochina Peninsula, bordered by Vietnam to the east, Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the southwest, and the Gulf of Siam to the south. Cambodia has a land area of 181035 square kilometers and a population of about 17.1 million, of which the Khmer ethnic group accounts for 80% of the total population and is the main ethnic group in Cambodia. The capital of Cambodia is Phnom Penh, the political, economic, cultural and transportation center of Cambodia. Cambodia's head of state is the king, the current king is Norodom Sihamoni, the head of government is the prime minister, and the current prime minister is Hun Sen.
Phnom Penh
History of Cambodia
Cambodia is an ancient civilization with a long history of more than 2,000 years in the Indochina Peninsula, and its history can be traced back to Indian civilization¹². The earliest recorded and mentioned in Chinese annals in Cambodia is the Funan Kingdom, a regime that surrounded the southernmost tip of the Indochina Peninsula between the 1st and 6th centuries³. Funam is believed to have the oldest regional Hindu culture along the South Mekong River, indicating its role in the Indian Circle as a long-standing maritime trading partner of India to the west. By the 6th century, another civilization known in the annals of Chinese history as Chenla had risen, replacing the Funan Kingdom, controlling the larger, more undulating regions of Indochina and maintaining more than one center of power. The Khmer Empire was founded in the early 9th century. Legend has it that in 802 AD, the founding monarch of the Khmer Empire, Jayavarman II, asserted its political legitimacy at Mount Kulen through rituals of mythological revelation and sacredification. Strong sovereignty, inheriting the Hindu tradition of worship of god-kings, ruled the classical era of Khmer civilization until the 11th century. According to some scholars, the introduction of Buddhism at the later provincial level led to the severance and decline of the royal religion. The royal family of the Khmer Empire ended in the 14th century, in which the administration, agriculture, architecture, hydrology, logistics, urban planning and art were all testimonies of an innovative and progressive civilization and the cornerstone of Southeast Asia's historical and cultural heritage. Cambodia's decline lasted for about 100 years, followed by the middle of Cambodian history, which began in the mid-15th century, for the Cambodian Dark Ages. Although the Hindu culture of the time has all been replaced, the ruins of the old capital remain important spiritual centers. However, since the mid-15th century, Cambodia's core population has gradually migrated eastward, with a few exceptions – settling at the confluence of the Mekong River and Phnom Penh, Lowe and U Dong around Tonle Sap Lake. Maritime trade was the basis of prosperity in the 16th century, but at the same time Cambodia was increasingly disturbed and influenced by outsiders, including Malay Muslims, Chams, Christian European adventurers and missionaries. Ambiguous fate, which brought strong economic development on the one hand, but also cultural chaos and weakened royal power on the other, was a common feature of the Lowe period. In the 15th century, neighboring Khmer tribes, including the Mon in the west and the Cham in the east, faded or were replaced by the more resilient Tai and Yue respectively. The powers have realized that control of the lower Mekong basin is particularly important in order to have full control of the Indochina Peninsula. The weak Khmer kingdom became the target of the Ayutthaya kingdom (later Bangkok) and Champa strategists. Attacks and conquests of the Khmer royal family deprived the sovereigns of their power, both superficially and de facto strongholds. Interference in inheritance and marriage policies exacerbated the decline of royal prestige. In 1601 AD, the U Dong period began, the last period of the Cambodian Middle Ages.
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French colonial era
By the 19th century, the then more technologically advanced and ambitious European colonial powers began to set foot in Southeast Asia. The kingdom of Rattanakoshin, on the other hand, was humiliated and continued to retreat, and eventually escaped by serving as a buffer between the British and French colonies. Vietnam, on the other hand, became the object of French conquest. Cambodia, though largely ignored, also joined French Indochina as a perceptible entity and reincorporated its identity and integrity into modern times. After 80 years of colonial "hibernation", Japan briefly occupied Cambodia during World War II, which also coincided with the conferment ceremony of Cambodia's King Norodom Sihanouk, which became the beginning of Cambodia's reliberation and the irreversible process of its modern history.
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Sihanoukville period
On November 9, 1953, under the leadership of Prince Norodom Sihanouk, the Kingdom of Cambodia gained independence from French colonial rule and struggled to remain neutral in a world of polarized American-Soviet Cold War.[24] On 2 March 1955, after the first general elections (1955), Prince Shihanno abdicated and founded the Sangkum Reastr Niyum party as prime minister and foreign minister and implemented "Buddhist socialism." On April 14, 1960, after the death of his father, Norodom Suramarit, he became "Head of state." On October 12, 1963, amid U.S. support for the anti-communist war in South Vietnam, he announced his withdrawal from the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization and established diplomatic relations with China, North Vietnam, and the Soviet Union. On May 3, 1965, he announced the severance of diplomatic relations with the United States and demanded that the United States withdraw its embassy and aid agencies in Cambodia. On March 22, 1966, he announced the severance of diplomatic relations with Thailand and demanded that Thailand withdraw its embassy and aid agencies in Cambodia. In January 1967, he announced the severance of diplomatic relations with South Vietnam and demanded that South Vietnam withdraw its embassy and aid agencies in Cambodia. On March 18, 1969, the United States began covert bombing of Viet Cong and Khmer Communist bases in Cambodia, killing tens of thousands of civilians. On March 18, 1970, during a visit to Moscow, Schhanno was overthrown by a coup d'état by the right-wing general Lonno, and the Khmer Republic was established. Shihanno went into exile in Beijing and established the Royal Government of National Union of Kampuchea, allied with the Khmer Communist Party, and launched an armed struggle against the Khmer Republic.
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The Khmer Republic and the Civil War
On April 29, 1970, U.S. President Richard Nixon ordered a ground invasion of Cambodia to destroy the Viet Cong and Khmer Communist bases and support the Long Nol government.
In 1970, with the Lon Nol coup, the pro-communist regime in Cambodia was overthrown, and the Chinese, as representatives of capitalism and sympathizers of communism, were suppressed and persecuted by the new regime. In April of that year, a large-scale anti-Chinese riot broke out in Phnom Penh, where thousands of Chinese were killed or fled, and hundreds of Chinese shops and homes were looted and burned¹.
On June 4, 1970, the U.S. Senate passed a bill prohibiting U.S. troops from fighting in Cambodia. On December 22, 1970, U.S. President Richard Nixon ordered the Operation Freedom Deal in Cambodia to stop the Khmer communist offensive and support the Lonno government. On August 15, 1972, U.S. President Richard Nixon ordered an end to the bombing of North Vietnam and began Paris Peace Accords with North Vietnam. On January 27, 1973, the United States, North Vietnam, South Vietnam, and the Vietnam National Liberation Front signed the Paris Peace Agreement, ending the Vietnam War. On August 15, 1973, U.S. President Richard Nixon ordered an end to the bombing of Cambodia and began negotiations with the Khmer communists. On January 1, 1975, the Khmer Communist Party changed its name to the Khmer Rouge and launched its final offensive. On April 17, 1975, the Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh, overthrew the government of Long No, and established Democratic Kampuchea.
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Democratic Kampuchea
From April 17, 1975 to January 7, 1979, the Khmer Rouge, under the leadership of Pol Pot, carried out an extreme socialist revolution in an attempt to build an agrarian society without class, city, currency, religion, education, culture, and diplomatic relations. The Khmer Rouge inflicted brutal political persecution, collectivization, forced labor, famine, genocide and massacres on the Cambodian people, resulting in the deaths of about 2 million people, a quarter of the Cambodian population at the time. The Khmer Rouge also clashed with neighboring Vietnam, triggering the Cambodian-Vietnamese War.
In 1975, the Khmer Rouge seized power and established Democratic Kampuchea. The Khmer Rouge pursued extreme socialist policies, forcing urban dwellers to move to the countryside, abolishing money and private ownership, and banning religion and foreign culture. As the main body of the urban business class, the Chinese have been severely persecuted and discriminated against. An estimated 200,000 to 400,000 Chinese died or fled under the Khmer Rouge².
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Cambodia-Vietnam War
On April 30, 1977, the Khmer Rouge launched a massive attack on the Vietnamese border, killing thousands of civilians. On December 25, 1978, the Vietnamese People's Army and the Cambodian Patriotic Union (composed of rebels opposed to the Khmer Rouge) launched a full-scale invasion of Cambodia. From January 7, 1979 to May 7, 1989, the Vietnamese People's Army and the Cambodian Patriotic Union, with the support of the Warsaw Pact countries and the Soviet Union, established a pro-Vietnamese socialist regime in Cambodia, the People's Republic of Kampuchea. The regime, with Hun Sen, the leader of the Cambodian Patriotic Union, as prime minister, operates a one-party system with the Cambodian People's Revolutionary Party as the sole legal party. The regime, with the help of Vietnam, restored social order and economic development in Cambodia and ended the tyranny of the Khmer Rouge, but also encountered armed resistance from the Khmer Rouge, the Kingdom National Unity Government, and the non-communist democratic movement of the three-faction coalition government, as well as diplomatic isolation and economic sanctions from China, ASEAN, and the West. On February 18, 1988, mediated by the Soviet Union and China, Vietnam agreed to withdraw its troops from Cambodia and began peace negotiations with the three-faction coalition government.
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United Transitional Authority
On May 7, 1989, after the complete withdrawal of the Vietnamese People's Army from Cambodia, the People's Republic of Kampuchea changed its name to the State of Cambodia and began political reforms, abandoning socialism in favor of a multi-party system and a market economy. On October 23, 1991, brokered by the United Nations, the four factions signed the Paris Peace Accords, ending the 13-year civil war and establishing the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia to oversee the general elections held from 23 to 28 May 1993. The Joint Transitional Authority, with Japanese diplomat Annan Akira as Special Representative, consisted of 22,000 UN peacekeepers, 3,500 UN police officers and 2,000 UN civilian personnel, making it one of the largest peacekeeping operations in UN history at the time.
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Cambodia
On June 14, 1993, after general elections, the four factions formed the Provisional Supreme National Council of Cambodia and restored the monarchy. On September 24, 1993, following the adoption of the new constitution, the Provisional Supreme National Council was dissolved and the Kingdom of Cambodia was established. Norodom Sihamoni was elected as the new king, with Hun Sen and Norodom Lannarit as co-prime ministers.
In 1993, Cambodia held United Nations-supervised general elections, ending a long civil war. However, in the late and early post-election period, there were multiple incidents of violence against Chinese across Cambodia, resulting in at least 30 Chinese deaths, hundreds of injuries and thousands of Chinese fleeing. These incidents are believed to have been carried out by supporters of the Cambodian People's Party or the military in retaliation for Chinese support for other political parties or to protest electoral fraud³.
On 26 September 1994, the Joint Transitional Authority formally terminated its mandate and transferred authority to the Royal Government of Cambodia. On July 5–6, 1997, Hun Sen seized de facto control and became sole prime minister in an armed coup against Norodom Lannarit.
In 1998, Cambodia held another general election, which sparked discontent and protests from the opposition. Between August and September, a series of violent incidents against Chinese occurred in Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville, among other places, resulting in the death of at least 10 Chinese, the injury of dozens of Chinese, and the looting and burning of hundreds of Chinese shops and homes. These events are believed to have been initiated by supporters of the Cambodian People's Party or the army in order to suppress the opposition or deflect internal tensions⁴.
On 29 October 1998, after the second general election, Norodom Sihamoni abdicated and was succeeded by his half-brother, Norodom Sihamoni. On 14 October 2004, after the third general election, Hun Sen was re-elected as Prime Minister and formed a governing coalition with Norodom Lannarit. On 25 September 2008, after the fourth general election, Hun Sen was re-elected as Prime Minister and formed a governing coalition with Norodom Lannarit. On 28 July 2013, after the fifth general election, Hun Sen went on to serve as prime minister and formed a governing coalition with Sam Rancy. On July 29, 2018, after the sixth general election, Hun Sen was re-elected as prime minister and led the Cambodian People's Party to win all 125 seats by a landslide.
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The current situation in Cambodia
The political situation in Cambodia has seen some changes and turbulence in recent years. The BJP, which has been in power since 1985, faced an unprecedented challenge in the 2013 election, with its share falling to 48.8 percent, just seven seats more than the opposition National Salvation Party. The CNRP accused the election of fraud and unfairness, refused to recognize the results, and launched mass protests. On 22 July 2014 , with good offices , the two sides reached an agreement whereby the CNRP ended its boycott of parliament and joined the newly formed Electoral Reform Commission.
However, on September 3, 2017, CNRP leader Genzoka was arrested and charged with treason. On November 16, 2017, the Supreme Court ruled to dissolve the CNRP and ban its 118 senior members from engaging in political activities for the next five years. The ruling drew an outcry and condemnation from opposition and human rights groups, and was seen as a means of political persecution by the BJP to eliminate its rivals. In the general election held on 29 July 2018, the BJP won all 125 seats and declared a landslide victory. The opposition and Western countries refused to acknowledge the election, which lacked genuine competition and fairness, and called for sanctions and pressure on Cambodia.
There are also some problems and challenges in Cambodia's social situation. Although the poverty rate has declined in recent years, a certain percentage of the population still lives below or near the poverty line. According to the 2020 Human Development Report2 released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Cambodia ranked 144th out of 189 participating countries and second to last in Southeast Asia. The report points out that Cambodia still has big gaps and deficiencies in education, health and gender equality.
The level of education in Cambodia is relatively low, and although compulsory education has been universalized, student enrolment and completion rates are still low. According to data released by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF),3 in the 2019-2020 school year, primary school enrolment was 98.1%, but the graduation rate was only 86.5%; The junior high school enrolment rate is 55.8 per cent, and the graduation rate is only 38.9 per cent; The upper secondary school enrollment rate is 24.6 per cent, and the graduation rate is only 19.1 per cent. In addition, educational conditions in rural areas and ethnic minority areas are even more backward and inadequate.
Cambodia's health situation also needs to be improved, and although infant and maternal mortality rates have declined in recent years, they are still higher than the South-East Asia average. According to data released by the World Health Organization (WHO)4, in 2019, there were 23 deaths per 1,000 live births and 160 maternal deaths per 100,000 births; The Southeast Asian averages were 15 and 110 respectively. In addition, there are also some problems in the prevention and control of infectious diseases, nutritional deficiencies, and the allocation of medical resources.
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(1) Cambodia - Wikipedia. https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%9F%AC%E5%9F%94%E5%AF%A8.
(2) Cambodia (Kingdom of Cambodia)_Baidu Encyclopedia. https://baike.baidu.com/item/ Cambodia/210375.
(3) History of Cambodia - Wikipedia. https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%9F%AC%E5%9F%94%E5%AF%A8%E5%8E%86%E5%8F%B2.