Cambodia-US Relations: Cambodia is not the enemy of the US

America believes that Cambodia is China’s vassal state. And it does everything to solidify that belief. In the end, they justify their sanctions against Cambodia for being too friendly with China whom the US considers as the “malign actor” and “revisionist state” to the hegemonic order with the US at the top.

But then how much is called overdependent? How much sanction is considered enough against the alleged malign actor?

Americans warn Cambodians to beware of lucrative interactions with China. But Cambodia’s a trade and investment with China is less than 10% of the whole of Southeast Asia. Statistically speaking, countries that are close with the US such as Singapore and Vietnam are in fact the highest beneficiaries from trade and investments with China.

Media that are anti-China can lie about Cambodia’s overdependence on China but numbers don’t lie. Impartial academics should look into those numbers by themselves and make comparisons to the whole region to verify and question their established prejudice. The so-called independent minds should not become the trash collectors of all bad press about Cambodia with many hyperlinks to the anti-Cambodia puppet media and organizations.

Cambodia is currently the most sanctioned country in Southeast Asia, even more than the military junta in Myanmar, and the fact is that there is no sanction at all against communist Vietnam, which has no freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and freedom of expression. What does anyone say to these? None at all.

What does democracy mean to America when Cambodia is being treated this way by the American government and congress on the aspect of democracy and human rights?

Cambodia is among the few countries in Southeast Asia that have regular multi-parties elections.

Cambodia is among the few countries where the press, both domestic and foreign, operate freely, and some of the US’ affiliates like the Voice of America, the Voice of Democracy, and Radio Free Asia, bombards daily with verbal diarrhea against Cambodia as if Cambodian people are living in hell. Nothing can be seen positively from the point of view. And they still say that Cambodia has no freedom of expression.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES