Preparatory Session for the Second US State Department Roundtable: June 30, 2025
On March 26, 2025, over 650 members of the Khmer international community participated in the first U.S. State Department roundtable on Cambodia. 14 U.S. State Department working officials attended, and the discussion focused on the most the most urgent issues facing Cambodia today, with more than half of the inputs coming directly from inside Cambodia. In the following weeks, State Department officials requested for continued engagement from the Khmer community to help inform U.S. policy and action. This Preparatory Session builds directly on that request.
However, it is important to bring attention to two additional issues: The U.S. government’s decision to defund the National Democratic Institute, International Republican Institute, Voice of America and Radio Free Asia, institutions that have long served as trusted sources of information and intelligence for US policymakers and partners operating in Cambodia and Southeast Asia. These platforms were already forced out, bought out, or expelled by the Hun Sen government. Pulling U.S. support now directly advances the regime’s goals of eliminating the last channels of independent journalism and ground-level reporting. At a time when U.S. aid, diplomacy and trade are being measured for strategic return, cutting this support strengthens authoritarian regimes and deepens growing foreign influence in Cambodia and the region. Second, a new development of the regime’s latest expansion of repression builds on a longstanding pattern that includes political assassinations and the forced return of exiled dissidents from countries like Thailand and Malaysia.
To frame these critical issues and offer expert perspectives, Brad Adams, former Asia director of Human Rights Watch opens the session with insights gathered from a former U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia and other high-level experts. Their views echo the concerns raised by the international Khmer community.
The three major issue areas identified as requiring priority attention are:
Worsening political repression and destruction of democracy. Cambodia’s political environment has deteriorated under the 45-year rule of the Hun Manet and Hun Sen regime. The political opposition has been dismantled, mass criminal trials have silenced over 150 critics, and independent media has been forcibly closed. The lowest point was reached ahead of the 2023 national election and culminated in what the U.N. described as the “hereditary appointment” of Hun Sen’s son, Hun Manet, as his successor as Prime Minister. The latest highly repressive action along these same lines was the prosecution and conviction of long-time union leader and spokesperson for workers’ rights, Rong Chhun was sentenced to four years in prison simply for exercising his rights to free speech and association in support of workers.
Sovereignty and territorial integrity, particularly the growing foreign influences by the governments of China and Vietnam. A consensus among the Khmer community and Cambodia experts is the growing disproportionate influence of China and Vietnam in Cambodia both in respect to Chinese economic and military participation and growing influence of Vietnam that deserved highest priority attention. China operates a naval base at Ream and is developing additional dual-use facilities like Dara Sakor, while expanding illicit operations linked to cybercrime and trafficking in at least five additional provinces. Vietnam has entrenched itself through military-linked land acquisitions, including 40,000 hectares in Ratanakiri, and over 100 permanent outposts across eight eastern provinces. Major infrastructure projects like the Phnom Penh–Ho Chi Minh City expressway further deepen Vietnam’s strategic influence and integration.
The need for stronger U.S. economic pressure to influence the Hun Manet and Hun Sen regime. There is a clear agreement from the Khmer international community that the U.S. must do more to apply economic pressure, which recent experience shows is the most effective way to influence the regime. The U.S. is one of Cambodia’s largest trade partners, particularly in the textile sector—an industry directly tied to the financial interests of Hun Sen’s family and allies. At the same time, Cambodia’s economy is increasingly dominated by Chinese investment, giving China control over factories, infrastructure, and ports. Vietnam has also expanded its economic and territorial footprint along key border regions.
There is a dramatic new development and a growing concern among the international Khmer community and Cambodia experts, which is the expanded repression of dissidents beyond borders. The escalation builds on a longstanding pattern that includes the assassinations of Om Radsady, Chea Vichea, Chut Wutty, and Kem Ley, and the forced return of exiled dissidents from countries like Thailand and Malaysia. What is new and alarming is the regime’s growing boldness, the coordination of its actions, and the extension of its authoritarian control beyond Cambodia’s borders. Repression is no longer confined within the country. It is now crossing borders to silence opposition voices wherever they exist. The January 2025 assassination of Lim Kimya in Bangkok and continued harassment of labor leader Rong Chhun reflect an expanding campaign to silence critics through aggressive, coordinated methods, both inside and outside Cambodia.
Using U.S. Economic Leverage: No More Blank Checks
As a unified stance, the Khmer international community calls on the U.S. government to speak clearly and forcefully. The Hun Manet and Hun Sen regime is growing more coordinated and emboldened in its repression, targeting critics across borders, accelerating foreign encroachments, and channeling U.S. economic benefits directly into the pockets of its leaders, families and allies. These developments threaten not only Cambodia and the Southeast Asia region, but also to international norms and U.S. interests. The U.S. government must apply sustained pressure to halt these trends and press for meaningful reform.
Recent events show that targeted economic pressure works. One example is the “19 brands initiative”, in which major companies demanded the Cambodian government to stop their retaliatory actions against labor and human rights groups, which was successful. The U.S. government holds even greater leverage and must use it, especially through trade preferences and development assistance.
A second example is the withdrawal from the CLV agreement, which followed grassroots and international pressure. This was a rare instance where the regime publicly reversed course, acknowledging the legitimacy of community objections. Yet the broader pattern of land concessions and foreign installations continues. The U.S. must put pressure on the Hun Manet and Hun Sen government to stop these incursions that are guaranteed under the Paris Peace Accords.
A third example is the linkage between U.S. foreign aid to progress in human rights and the release of political prisoners. These conditional arrangements must be expanded, no more blank checks. U.S. foreign aid should be linked directly to measurable progress on democracy, human rights and the rule of law, where international benchmarks have already been laid out by the UN and endorsed by the US.
Finally, with regime’s latest expansion of repression, including the January 2025 assassination of Lim Kimya in Bangkok and the continued harassment of Rong Chhun. These harsh repressive measures are closely connected to past assassinations and forced return of refugees, the U.S. government must not be complicit like Thailand and Malaysia in these politically motivated acts of intimidations, forced repatriation or targeting killing of dissidents. The U.S. must call out the regime and demand an immediate halt to these brazen transnational attacks.