Lethal Cambodia-Thailand border clash linked to cyber-scam slave camps International tension related to cybersecurity last week boiled over into a kinetic skirmish betwen Thailand and Cambodia, the first instance of information security concerns leading to armed conflict. The conflict started as an extension of a decades-old dispute over access to an ancient Hindu temple located on Cambodian …
Not going to happen, I'm afraid. Hun Sen has basically read and implemented the Tyrant's playbook. There are no longer any opposition organisations, ground-roots organisation, or any other group that could offer even minor resistance. He and his son control everything. It would take significant external pressure to bring about regime change.
BUT even though China is the primary target of these scam centres, the Chinese government dont want regime change because Cambodia now has moved out of western influence and back into China's sphere (it was definitely courting western influence all through the 90's and the 2000's). If a new democratic government got in, it would likely turn it's back on China (again). So they prop up a regime, which actively attacks their own citizens because of Geopolitics. I assume there are some rules about not attacking certain people in China (as the Myanmar Junta found out when China smacked down on them and started tacitly supporting the resistance, primarily because the Junta's Scam centres attacked the "wrong" people in China and it started generating headlines in China.).
China wants "friends" (read subordinates) in SE Asia, and so propping up Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar are it's way to counter ASEAN going it's own direction...
"...social media companies promise to do better and wring their hands – which now bear blood from an armed conflict between nations."
Just as Orson Welles as Harry Lime had it "Would you really feel any pity if one of those dots stopped moving forever?" If it ain't a $ it ain't worth thinking about as far as the Zuck and the Melon are concerned.
@ChodeMonkey
"Apologies, I did not know you were communicating with friends in-country."
Assuming sincerity thank you. They are a bit too close for comfort and do fear being hit or their work buildings even targeted. Already they had friends evacuate to their district and brought up the scary thought of having to evacuate themselves.
I was in Sydney when the Tsunami hit Thailand, and we watched the TV agape. On a hunch I channel surfed - it was the lead story on every channel, except Fox News which opened with a story about children taking christmas presents to some vetarans in hospital. The sudden death of a quarter of a million people was item number two.
"The US agrees with that assessment..." More likely, *did* agree. Trump could deport people to Cambodia, and Cambodia could put them into these slave prisons. Win for both: Trump gets to deport people, and Cambodia gets more slaves. Bonus for Cambodia: These are slaves with relevant American cultural experience (unlike your average Asian, who has to pretend to be American even though they've never been there).
