LegiStorm

Summary:

The United States was a party to the 1991 Paris Peace Agreement that formally ended the 1979-1991 civil war in Cambodia, and has long had an interest in supporting democratic development in the country. Between 1993, when Cambodia’s first post-war elections were held, and 2017, when the government banned the main opposition party, the conduct of elections improved and civil society grew, although Hun Sen, the country’s prime minister from 1985 to 2023, often ruled in ways observers viewed as undemocratic. As bilateral relations improved in the late-2000s, U.S. engagement with Cambodia expanded, and it has included foreign assistance programs, limited military assistance and cooperation, and recovery efforts for U.S. missing-in-action (MIA) from the Vietnam War. The United States is Cambodia’s largest export market, of which garments and footwear are the main items. U.S. relations with Cambodia have become strained in the past decade in light of the Cambodian government’s suppression of the political opposition and its growing embrace of the People’s Republic of China (PRC or China). In the years leading up to the 2018 national election, the Cambodian government placed increasing restrictions on political and social activism, civil society, free speech, and foreign-funded democracy programs. In November 2017, the Supreme Court of Cambodia issued a ruling that dissolved the main opposition party, the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), for “conspiring with the United States to overthrow the government.” In the July 2023 national polls, the second general election since the CNRP was banned, Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) won 120 of 125 seats in the National Assembly. Immediately following the July 2023 general election, Hun Sen announced that he would step down as prime minister while retaining leadership of the CPP, and hand power to his son, Hun Manet, who had just been elected to the National Assembly for the first time. In August 2023, the National Assembly endorsed Hun Manet as the new prime minister. Little is known about the political views of Hun Manet, an army general who served as deputy commander of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces and joint chief of staff prior to seeking elected office, and a graduate of West Point and New York University. According to some observers, Hun Manet is not likely to usher in major policy changes in the near term or tackle systemic corruption in the country, although others speculate that he and a new generation of government ministers may provide opportunities for improved U.S.-Cambodian relations. The U.S. government has called on the Cambodian government to respect human rights and restore democratic elections, placed some restrictions on U.S. development assistance and suspended military assistance, and sanctioned some Cambodian officials for corruption or human rights violations. The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 (P.L. 117-328, Sec. 7043(b)) prohibits assistance to the Government of Cambodia unless the Secretary of State certifies that Cambodia is taking effective steps to assert its sovereignty against interference by the PRC, including by verifiably maintaining the neutrality of Ream Naval Base; cease violence, threats, and harassment against civil society and the political opposition in Cambodia; and respect the rights, freedoms, and responsibilities enshrined in the 1993 Constitution of Cambodia. Observers have called Cambodia the Southeast Asian country upon which China exerts the greatest influence. China has carried construction activities at Cambodia’s Ream Naval Base on the Gulf of Thailand, although PRC and Cambodian officials have denied that they are for exclusive use by China’s People’s Liberation Army. PRC investment and development projects have been concentrated in the city of Sihanoukville and elsewhere along the Gulf of Thailand, including an international airport and a deep-water seaport that some U.S. analysts say China potentially could use for military purposes.