Cambodia · Full chronicle and history

According to a post by X user @jielijian citing an Al Jazeera report, secretly recorded evidence of the Chinese government and the Southeast Asia telecom fraud supply chain has been exposed. The report discloses details of Chinese Communist Party spies from Cambodia meeting in multiple locations in Guangzhou, points out that the Chinese government invested 350 million dollars in a military runway to supply the CCP military port in Djibouti, and mentions that female employees of CCP agents provided close, close-quarters protection to Xi Jinping's visiting delegation.

On October 15, Cambodian media outlet CamboJA published an investigative report in which several construction workers at the "Peninsula Bay" project in Sihanoukville said their wages had been repeatedly delayed in recent months. One plasterer said that after August wages went unpaid, workers sat at the gate of the site and refused to start work before they finally got paid; China State Construction serves as the general contractor.

From October 4 to 5, the gendarmerie of Sihanoukville Province, Cambodia, conducted consecutive raids on three suspected online fraud dens, arresting 31 Chinese and 16 Vietnamese nationals, and seizing more than 100 mobile phones, computers, passports and a small amount of drugs. The suspects and evidence have been handed over to the gendarmerie for investigation.

On September 29, police in Sihanoukville, Cambodia's Sihanoukville Province, raided a villa in Village 2, Division 3 of Sihanoukville City, arresting 34 people suspected of online fraud, including 26 Chinese nationals, as well as 5 South Koreans, 1 Malaysian, and 2 Cambodians. The suspects and physical evidence were handed over to the provincial police department for handling.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet announced at an international anti-fraud conference that all large-scale telecom fraud parks identified within the country have been cleared, and warned that criminal organizations may break up into smaller, dispersed dens.

On September 21, Cambodian authorities led the media on an on-site visit to Scam Compound No. 8 in Prey Veng Province. Covering an area of about 120 hectares and capable of holding up to 20,000 people, the compound features office buildings, surveillance equipment, and Chinese-language workplace slogans.

On August 18, 2026, about 2,000 workers at a factory in Kong Pisei District, Kampong Speu Province, Cambodia went on strike, accusing a Chinese supervisor of verbally abusing employees and punishing late workers by making them stand under the scorching sun, and demanding that he be replaced.

US Deputy Secretary of War Colby met with Cambodian leader Hun Manet, where the two sides discussed restoring bilateral military exercises, while Pentagon officials visited the Ream Naval Base and pushed for warship visits to Cambodia.

Wang Dawei is alleged to have traveled to Cambodia after being shut down in connection with gambling companies in the Philippines, where he served as a cryptocurrency supervisor for Wynn Group; the group is accused of involvement in human trafficking and 'pig-butchering' scams.

Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the Cambodian government has long failed to respond to Taiwan on an equal and reciprocal basis, and has repeatedly cooperated publicly with China in issuing statements that demean Taiwan's sovereignty and implicitly support the use of force for reunification.

The Chinese side held a meeting with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet, and the two sides continued to take the fight against telecom fraud, online gambling, and transnational crime as a topic of cooperation.

On June 26, 2026, Xi Jinping met in Beijing with Hun Sen, president of the Cambodian People's Party, expressing willingness to establish a security partnership with Cambodia and praising Cambodia's crackdown on telecom fraud to completely eradicate the scourge of telecom fraud.

The Ministry of Public Security announced that Liu Ren, a key backbone of the Chen Zhi criminal syndicate and president of the Anhui General Chamber of Commerce in Cambodia, has been escorted back to Beijing from Phnom Penh.

On June 15, 2026, the Cambodian government officially launched a trial visa-free policy for Chinese citizens traveling to Cambodia on ordinary passports, allowing stays of up to 14 days, with a pilot period of four months.

Liu Ren, formerly president of the Cambodia Anhui Chamber of Commerce, has been formally handed over to Chinese police by Cambodian law enforcement and escorted back to China to stand trial on suspicion of multiple serious transnational crimes, including cross-border money laundering, telecom and online fraud, and illegal human trafficking.

On June 10, according to Cambodian police and local media reports, Liu Ren, president of the Cambodia Anhui Chamber of Commerce, who was suspected of cross-border money laundering, telecom and online fraud, and illegal human trafficking, was handed over by the Cambodian side to Chinese police and escorted back to China. Liu Ren was taken away by local law enforcement authorities in Phnom Penh for investigation on June 5.

Cambodian police arrested Liu Ren in Phnom Penh as he was preparing to leave the country, and subsequently handed him over to Chinese public security authorities. The Ministry of Public Security announced that he is suspected of online gambling, telecom fraud, and serious violent crimes.

Jinbei Group founder Liu Ren was escorted from Cambodia back to Beijing by the Ministry of Public Security.

After the Huiwang Group's funds collapsed, large numbers of Chinese and Cambodian depositors gathered outside the National Bank and the Chinese Embassy in Cambodia to defend their rights, demanding the return of their hard-earned money and pressing for the recovery of frozen funds.

Chinese senior officials went to Cambodia, with public agenda items including cracking down on cross‑border telecom fraud; Wang Yi and Dong Jun attended, while Wang Xiaohong did not join the delegation.

On January 7, 2026, a working group from the Ministry of Public Security escorted Chen Zhi, a ringleader of a cross-border gambling and fraud syndicate, back to China from Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The Ministry of Public Security announced the news on January 8.

Cambodia announced the arrest of Tai Kun Chen Zi, one of the country's biggest crime bosses, who was subsequently repatriated to China, sparking a nationwide crackdown on online fraud and illegal gambling.

Hui Jian published a post on a WeChat public account, accusing Liu Ren, president of the Cambodian Anhui Chamber of Commerce, of violent loan-sharking in casinos, beating a renovation boss to death, running telecom fraud parks, and armed transnational crime.

In 2024, blogger Hui Jian publicly reported Liu Ren, president of the Cambodia Anhui Chamber of Commerce, for telecom fraud; afterwards the article was deleted and he lost contact. Acquaintances told Jiemian News that Liu Ren's side had proposed paying for post deletion before calling the police, and Hui Jian was criminally detained on extortion charges; reporters contacted multiple parties but received no response.

While the Pol Pot-led Khmer Rouge was in power in Cambodia, the local ethnic Chinese population plummeted from 430,000 to just over 210,000, and at the time its biggest backer was the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).