On the issue of Chinese organized cybercrime accounting for 60% of Cambodia’s economy, the strongman’s silence speaks volumes
by David Whitehouse July 11, 2025
Hun Sen’s family regime in Cambodia is accused of being complicit in cyber scams that use the victims of human trafficking to steal billions of dollars a year online.
The response from Hun Sen is a constitutional amendment designed to allow opposition leader Sam Rainsy to be stripped of his Cambodian nationality.
On June 28, Sam Rainsy made a statement which he claims explains the real reasons that have pushed Hun Sen to manufacture this year a confrontation between Cambodia and Thailand. The Thai government has been trying to curb the activity of cyber-scam compounds in Cambodia, as well as in Myanmar.
Industrial-scale cybercrime in Southeast Asia can no longer be tolerated in Thailand. The scam compounds are a major problem both for the Thai nationals who can be trapped as slaves there and for the wider Thai economy, where tourism has failed to recover to pre-Covid-19 levels.
Chinese tourists to Thailand understand the dangers of being abducted to become slaves in cyber-scam compounds, and prefer to avoid the region. Thailand needs to see the issue effectively tackled, regardless of who is its prime minister.
But on the issue of organized cybercrime, it seems that Hun Sen has nothing to say. His silence speaks volumes. Hun Sen resorted to anti-Thai rhetoric and propaganda to distract attention from the real issue. The border closures between the two countries that have taken place mean that the estimated 2 million Cambodians who work in Thailand have been paying the price for Hun Sen’s smokescreen.
Source: https://asiatimes.com/2025/07/hun-sen-on-cyberscam-criticism-revoke-sam-rainsys-citizenship/#
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