The governments of Vietnam and the United States are calling for greater transparency over a $1.7-billion canal project that is being built by a Chinese state-owned firm in southern Cambodia. The 180-kilometer-long Techo Funan Canal, which is scheduled to begin construction later this year, will connect the country’s capital Phnom Penh to the coastal province … Read more
Cambodia’s continued attempts to minimize the extent of cyber-slavery on its territory reflect official complicity, as well as the need to embark on a learning curve that many other countries have yet to master, experts say. A huge volume of media reports concur that trafficking victims are recruited to work in cyber-slavery from China, and … Read more
Thirty-two years after the first edition was launched, The Phnom Penh Post has closed its English- and Khmer-language editions with senior management blaming growing financial costs which blew out amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the “subsequent economic downturn.” Its final edition headlined: “Newspaper of record: Post, the world’s window on Cambodia,” harked back to a … Read more
According to historian Walter LaFeber, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower (in office 1953-1961) believed that “the overriding threat to world stability was communism, not starvation, inequality, or other wants that led the have-nots to rebel against the haves.” To thwart this global threat, Eisenhower established a post-World War II strategic presence for the United States … Read more
Australian journalist Alan Parkhouse holds the rare distinction of having served as editor of both The Phnom Penh Post and its rival, the Khmer Times, at a time when journalistic freedoms in Cambodia were much greater than they are today. During his long career, Parkhouse witnessed all sides of the Cambodian media business as the … Read more
On the outskirts of a village near the ancient Cambodian capital of Longvek, the only sounds are the whir of an electric fan and the hum of insects all around. Suddenly, the silence is broken by the beating of a large drum hanging from an awning. At first, the pounding comes slowly, like a heartbeat. … Read more
Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the leader of Thailand’s ruling Pheu Thai Party, yesterday paid a one-day visit to Cambodia aimed at strengthening its relationship with its counterpart in Phnom Penh – a sign of a growing momentum in the two nations’ bilateral relations. During the visit, she held meetings with senior officials including Prime Minister Hun Manet … Read more
The recent diplomatic activity between the Thai and Cambodian governments has reopened stalled talks on the overlapping sea claims of the two Southeast Asian nations. The overlapping claims in the Gulf of Thailand date back to the early 1970s, when Cambodia claimed a maritime territory of 200 nautical miles of the continental shelf in line … Read more
The Mekong was once a river teeming with fish, providing food security for millions of poor farmers as well urban centers. These days, that river of abundance has disappeared, replaced by forlorn fishers who say they’re lucky if they can secure a catch at all, as more and more hydropower dams are being installed. A … Read more
Tep Vong, the senior monk who headed Cambodia’s Buddhist hierarchy and played an important role in its revival of Buddhism in the aftermath of the rule of the murderous Khmer Rouge in the late 1970s, has died. He was 92. In a statement yesterday, The Associated Press reported that Cambodia’s Ministry of Cults and Religions said … Read more