Why Labour need to strike out in a new direction on Cambodia
To date, the post-Brexit mission of the UK has been trade deals at almost any cost. And these costs have been many and varied. While there has been noisy public consternation about chlorinated chicken from America and low welfare beef from Australia, less attention has been given to the UK’s willingness to sign “no strings” deals with countries with highly questionable records on human and civil rights.
Take Cambodia, for example. In December 2020, the UK used its new Brexit freedoms to strike independent trade deals to offer Cambodia privileges on exports. This contrasted sharply with the EU’s suspension earlier that year of its preferential “Everything but Arms” agreement, citing concerns about serious and systematic violations of human rights principles and the increasing repression of civil society in the country. In the years since, the UK has used international forums to pay lip-service to press freedoms and civil society. However, its decision to prioritise trade renders the rhetoric hollow, and undermines the efforts of Cambodians who embrace democracy and freedom but are prevented from living in a free and open society.
Hopes for Cambodia were dashed in 2023 following a sham election, in which the only remaining meaningful opposition party was ruled ineligible just weeks beforehand. This laid the groundwork for dynastic handover of power, from the outgoing prime minister, Hun Sen, to his son, Hun Manet. Their party, the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), has been in power, and led by the Hun family, since 1985. Hun Sen’s 38-year reign was characterised by repression, threat and harassment, which saw opponents jailed, forced into exile and worse, while newspapers were shuttered and access to opposition websites blocked.
In June this year, the Center for Alliance of Labor and Human Rights (CENTRAL) produced a report detailing verbal intimidation, threats, harassment and blacklisting of union representatives in 10 out of the 14 workplaces it was able to investigate, despite each receiving the highest rating by the Better Workplaces Cambodia scheme. Since publishing the report, CENTRAL has experienced harassment and intimidation, similar to other organisations that have dared to raise concerns about conditions in Cambodia. In July, ten young environmental activists from the award-winning organisation, Mother Nature, were convicted of plotting against the government and condemned to prison for between six and eight years for raising awareness of illegal activities, including pollution of the Tonle Sap river. These events support a growing sense that Bristol University-educated Hun Manet does not intend to change the country’s trajectory, and Hun Sen, who transitioned to the position of head of the CPP, remains de facto ruler.
This matters not only because of the damaging impact of the Hun regime on the Cambodian population, but also because Cambodia is a key strategic partner, and “most reliable friend” of China, with a relationship recently described by Hun Manet as “inseparable”.
Later this year, Chinese-owned companies are due to start work on the Funan Techo canal, a 180-kilometre (112-mile), $1.7 billion project, which will connect the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh, to the Gulf of Thailand. Upon completion, this project could divert traffic from the Mekong River and establish a trade route for China, through Laos and Cambodia, that cuts out the need for passage through Vietnam. As well as facilitating trade, it could enable the passage of military vessels, through Cambodia, towards the Vietnamese border: a way for China to keep a Western ally under constant threat.
At Ream, on Cambodia’s western coast, Chinese construction companies are building a new naval port. Observers have noted the on-going presence of People’s Liberation Army vessels, while Cambodian and other visiting vessels are being routed to neighbouring ports, raising concerns that this modernisation project for Cambodia may in effect be China’s first naval base in the region.
This comes at a time when tensions between China and Cambodia’s neighbours, particularly Vietnam and the Philippines, are hotting up over disputed territory in the South China Sea. Valuable, unmined mineral deposits, and significant fishing territory, as well as major shipping routes, make control of the region highly desirable.
With a newly-energised Labour government, there is an opportunity for the UK to change tack, and put the defence of democratic ideas and structures back in the heart of its international engagements.
In the case of Cambodia, the UK has clout. It is an important market for the ruling regime in Phnom Penh, worth $1.4billion, and is the second biggest in Europe after Germany. While some argue that increasing pressure on Hun Manet, or targeting key individuals of his administration with sanctions, is self defeating, and will only serve to push Cambodia further into the orbit of China, the reality is that failure to provide any challenge to the status quo leaves the UK as a financer of the repressive regime’s activities, a bystander to China’s creeping influence in the regime, and an unsupportive ally to the EU and US. Progressive realism, and a preparedness to speak out, and act where necessary, on human and civil rights abuses, is required if the UK, and its international allies, are to safeguard democracy among China’s neighbours.
At a time when the UK can start afresh and reset its standing on the world stage, undertaking more robust engagement with countries like Cambodia - and other regimes that are off-shoring their ill-gotten assets in London - would help demonstrate what ‘Global Britain’ is about. It would show that the UK is prepared to push back at China’s aggressive behaviour in South East Asia, and that Keir Starmer’s government is in alignment with its international allies on issues critical to the global balance of power.
Mu Sochua is a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, human rights activist, and president of the Khmer Movement for Democracy.
