Thẻ: Cambodia

The lights dim on Laos’ brief Bitcoin dream

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

mekoneye.com By Võ Kiều Bảo Uyên 17 November 2025 at 14:50

Four years after it first approved Bitcoin mining projects powered by surplus hydropower, Laos is beginning to rethink whether the energy-hungry industry — now linked to massive transnational cryptocurrency scams — is worth keeping alive

High-rise buildings stand in the Boten Special Economic Zone in northern Laos, near the border with China. The area is suspected to be a hotspot for scam operations, including schemes that store fraudulent money in crypto for later laundering. PHOTO: Thanh Hue

Houaphanh Province, LAOS — Bitcoin is a world far away from 19-year-old Chai, an ethnic Hmong and a college student who has never owned a computer. 

But its shadow has already crept into his mountainous village, where power outages are common—often a side effect of the vast energy demands elsewhere, including cryptocurrency mining.

Despite the national grid being connected to his remote community seven years ago, he and his classmate studied by candlelight, oil lamp, or mobile flashlight at night to prepare for university entrance exams. The blackout worsens during the dry seasons when hydropower drops. 

Tiếp tục đọc “The lights dim on Laos’ brief Bitcoin dream” →

Is Cambodia serious about ending organized cyberscams?

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

DW.com

Cambodia’s central bank has reportedly revoked the banking license of a conglomerate accused of illicit online activities. But doubts abound about Phnom Penh’s commitment to taking action against cyberfraud networks.

A symbolic image of cybercrime, a person typing on a keyboard
Southeast Asia’s vast cyber scam industry exploded during the COVID-19 pandemic when many of the region’s illegal casino operators turned to online fraudImage: allOver-MEV/IMAGO

The banking arm of a Cambodia-based conglomerate accused of running the world’s “largest ever illicit online marketplace” has had its banking license revoked by the Cambodia’s central bank, Radio Free Asia reported last week.  

Huione Guarantee, the Telegram marketplace of Huione Group, has reportedly processed up to €22 billion ($24 billion) in illicit transactions since 2021, making it by far the world’s largest illegal online marketplace, cryptocurrency compliance firm Elliptic reported last year.

Huione Pay, the group’s banking arm, had its license withdrawn because of noncompliance with “existing regulations and recommendations that may have been made by the regulators,” a National Bank of Cambodia spokesperson told Radio Free Asia, a US Congress-funded media outlet.

Hub for cyberscams

Tiếp tục đọc “Is Cambodia serious about ending organized cyberscams?” →

“More than 0s and 1s”: Cambodia battles cybercrime

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

UNODC.org

Through training held in Phnom Penh, UNODC is helping to build a more robust response to cybercrime in Cambodia.

Photo: UNODC / Laura Gil

Through training held in Phnom Penh, UNODC is helping to build a more robust response to cybercrime in Cambodia.

All the screens in the room, including the one projected on the wall, have turned black, and a series of green letters have started to rain down. “Your wallet has been stolen,” one of the trainers says. All participants —some in uniform, others in suits— start scrolling down, looking for the fictitious cybercriminal.

The mix of Cambodian cybercops, law enforcement officials and judges in the room each have a laptop, and each have a task at hand: to seize the cryptocurrencies before it’s too late. If they collect and manage the digital evidence, they have succeeded, because that evidence can be later presented to the court. On their screens, what they are seeing is a simulation of a cyber-enabled fraud case involving cryptocurrencies in which criminals operate nowadays.

Tiếp tục đọc ““More than 0s and 1s”: Cambodia battles cybercrime” →

China and Cambodia ink deal for massive canal project that has raised environmental concerns

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

thestar.com

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP): Cambodia and China have signed a US$1.2 billion deal to finance an ambitious canal project that aims to boost trade efficiency by linking a branch of the Mekong River near Phnom Penh to a port on the Gulf of Thailand, the Cambodian government agency heading the project has announced,

The deal to fund the Funan Techo Canal was signed Thursday during the state visit to Cambodia of Chinese President Xi Jinping, the agency said in a news release. Xi returned home Friday after a three-nation Southeast Asian tour that also included Vietnam and Malaysia.

Tiếp tục đọc “China and Cambodia ink deal for massive canal project that has raised environmental concerns” →

Plastic is choking the Mekong River

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

themekongeye.com By Anton L. Delgado 20 January 2025 at 10:54

Plastic is now ubiquitous in the Mekong, Asia’s Mother of Rivers, and experts and local people are struggling to contain the risks to human health, biodiversity and livelihoods

ILLUSTRATION: Sunhee Park / Dialogue Earth

On Sơn Island in Viet Nam’s Mekong Delta, Le Trung Tin scatters fish feed into his ponds, where dozens of snakehead fish leap through the surface in synchronized bursts. “I taught them how to do that,” he says proudly, tossing another handful of feed at his fish.

The scene looks idyllic, but Le’s fish farm is a reluctant response to an escalating crisis. For decades, he made his living fishing the Hậu River, a distributary of the Mekong. But in recent years, plastic waste clogged his nets and strangled the fish. “I had no choice but to stop,” he says. “Everything was tangled – trash, nets, even the fish themselves. It was hopeless.”

Now, Le relies on enclosed ponds using filtered water to keep his fish alive. “I built this ecological environment free of plastic waste, chemical spills and [protected it from] extreme weather,” he says.

https://player.vimeo.com/video/1037846174?dnt=1&app_id=122963VIDEO: Anton L. Delgado/Dialogue Earth

Le’s experience reflects the wider challenges facing the Mekong. Stretching over 4,300 kilometres from the Tibetan Plateau to the South China Sea, the river supports nearly 70 million people and some of the world’s most biodiverse ecosystems. Yet, it is one of the most plastic-polluted rivers in the world and among the 10 rivers in Asia that carry the vast majority of plastic to the sea. The Mekong dumps – by some estimates – tens of thousands of tonnes each year into the ocean, with plastic waste accumulating along its banks, tributaries and lakes.

Plastic enters the Mekong in myriad ways – agricultural runoff, unregulated dumping and a flood of single-use packaging from upstream countries like China and Myanmar. It accumulates in hotspots like Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia and the wetlands of Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, where this plastic waste threatens biodiversity, food security and human health.

Plastics and other waste scattered along the riverbank
Plastics and other waste accumulate along the riverbank near the city of Can Tho in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta region. PHOTO: Anton L. Delgado / Dialogue Earth

Tiếp tục đọc “Plastic is choking the Mekong River” →

Cyber-scam hits the big screen, and Cambodia isn’t happy

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

focus-cambodia.com

The banning of the Chinese blockbuster “No More Bets” warns that Beijing’s patience is wearing thin over Cambodia’s apparent inability to control cyber crime within its borders. A dramatic drop in tourism numbers may be one symptom. 

All bets are off with regard to the impact in Cambodia of “No More Bets”, a hit Chinese movie based upon Southeast Asia’s cyber-scam industry.

Cambodia’s Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts last week requested the Chinese Embassy to stop screening the action thriller, banning it in Cambodia and calling for censorship in China.

International observers say the movie already is testing the limits of the two nations’ “ironclad” friendship, as well as impacting the already-collapsing Chinese tourism market in Cambodia. Indeed, the outrage generated by “No More Bets” is amplifying awareness of possible further political and economic consequences of this “scamdemic”.

Tiếp tục đọc “Cyber-scam hits the big screen, and Cambodia isn’t happy” →

It’s a Man’s World: Rape in Cambodia

~ Phạm Thu Hương ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

It’s a Man’s World: Rape in Cambodia | REWIND

Al Jazeera English – 12 thg 12, 2016

We rewind to 2013 when 101 East travelled to Cambodia to talk with men who admit rape and violence against women. Have attitudes changed since then?

Gang rape hit the headlines in a big way after the brutal attack of a woman on a bus in India’s capital, Delhi in 2012. But research showed that gang rape was a problem not just in India but across Asia.

The normalisation of violence against women… is still a common pattern around the world. Tiếp tục đọc “It’s a Man’s World: Rape in Cambodia” →

China Announces New ASEAN Belt & Road Initiative Projects Centered Around Cambodia

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

The Phnom Penh-Bavet Highway which will ultimately link the Cambodian and Vietnamese capital cities

aseanbriefing.com

The 2022 ASEAN summit took place at the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, this past weekend, with China as an official guest. At the event, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang announced Beijing’s approval of Chinese investment in significant infrastructure projects in the ASEAN region.  

Among these is a US$1.6 billion expressway to be built from Phnom Penh to Bavet, at the Cambodian-Vietnamese border, and financial support for a rail link between Phnom Penh, Bangkok, and Vientiane, Laos, from which a high-speed rail link has already been constructed into China. 

Tiếp tục đọc “China Announces New ASEAN Belt & Road Initiative Projects Centered Around Cambodia” →

Gold mining suspected as cause of Cambodian mass poisonings

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

by  on 17 August 2018

    • In early May, a mass poisoning event in Chetr Borei district in the Cambodian province of Kratie killed at least 13 people and caused acute levels of sickness for up to 300 more.
    • An investigation led by Cambodia’s Minister of Industry and Handicraft Cham Prasidh revealed high levels of cyanide in a nearby river, which is the source of drinking water for communities in the region that were affected by poisoning. However, Prime Minister Hun Sen dismissed the claim, saying the poisoning was caused by rice wine and agricultural chemicals.

Tiếp tục đọc “Gold mining suspected as cause of Cambodian mass poisonings” →

Cambodian female workers in Nike, Asics and Puma factories suffer mass faintings

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Guardian

Sportswear brands review spate of incidents in factories where employees on short-term contracts work 10-hour days in soaring temperatures

Garment workers on the outskirts of Pnomh Penh prepare for the working day.
Garment workers on the outskirts of Pnomh Penh prepare for the working day. Photograph: Jarl Therkelsen Kaldan/Danwatch

Women working in Cambodian factories supplying some of the world’s best-known sportswear brands are suffering from repeated mass faintings linked to conditions.

Over the past year more than 500 workers in four factories supplying to Nike, Puma, Asics and VF Corporation were hospitalised. The most serious episode, recorded over three days in November, saw 360 workers collapse. The brands confirmed the incidents, part of a pattern of faintings that has dogged the 600,000-strong mostly female garment workforce for years.

The Observer and Danwatch, a Danish investigative media group, interviewed workers, unions, doctors, charities and government officials in the country’s garment industry, worth $5.7bn in 2015.

The women who collapsed worked 10 hour days, six days a week and reported feeling exhausted and hungry. Excessive heat was also an issue in three factories, with temperatures of 37C. Unlike in neighbouring Vietnam, where factory temperatures must not exceed 32C, Cambodia sets no limit, though if temperatures reach a “very high level” causing difficulties for workers, employers must install fans or air conditioning. Tiếp tục đọc “Cambodian female workers in Nike, Asics and Puma factories suffer mass faintings” →

Australian film-maker charged with espionage in Cambodia

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Guardian

Documentary maker James Ricketson, 68, charged with collecting information prejudicial to national security

Australian film-maker James Ricketson (right) filming as opposition leaders Sam Rainsy (centre) and Kem Sokha (left) attend a demonstration in Phnom Penh in 2013.
Australian film-maker James Ricketson (right) filming as opposition leaders Sam Rainsy (centre) and Kem Sokha (left) attend a demonstration in Phnom Penh in 2013. Photograph: Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP/Getty Images

Australian Associated Press

Saturday 10 June 2017 20.45 EDT

An Australian film-maker has been sent to a Cambodian prison to await trial over allegations he collected information prejudicial to the country’s national security, a court official says.

James Ricketson, 68, was arrested a week ago and has been the subject of conflicting reports since then – with some linking his detention to flying a drone, and others to living in the south-east Asian nation without proper documentation. Tiếp tục đọc “Australian film-maker charged with espionage in Cambodia” →

Sale of Cambodian breast milk to mothers in US criticised by UN

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Guardian

UN agency says trade puts babies of poor and vulnerable at risk of malnutrition as Cambodia moves to block further exports

A man on a motorbike past the offices of Ambrosia Labs in Phnom Penh.
A man on a motorbike rides past the offices of Ambrosia Labs in Phnom Penh. Photograph: Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP/Getty

Health editor

Wednesday 22 March 2017 12.29 EDT Last modified on Wednesday 22 March 2017 13.10 EDT

The UN children’s fund has strongly criticised the sale by a commercial company of breast milk donated by Cambodian mothers to women in the US, warning it could lead to the babies of poor and vulnerable women becoming malnourished. Tiếp tục đọc “Sale of Cambodian breast milk to mothers in US criticised by UN” →

Fury in Cambodia as US asks to be paid back hundreds of millions in war debts

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ 3 bình luận
    I forwarded this first to a delegation of Veterans For Peace who are now touring Viet Nam for 17 days, and I am accompanying them. They have seen some of the terrible legacies of the war in Viet Nam — consequences very similar to what neighboring Laos and Cambodia have experienced.  So this article has special resonance for them.

    It is also a reminder of the hard bargain the U.S. insisted upon during negotiations with Viet Nam which led to normalization of diplomatic relations in 1995.  The current government of Viet Nam was required to repay an old debt of the Saigon regime which collapsed in 1975, loans which had been provided during the war totaling some $145 million US dollars.  The Vietnamese eventually agreed, and repaid the first installments totaling about $15 million before then-Sen. John Kerry and Sen. John McCain intervened (and rightly so, in the opinion of many veterans) with congressional action which converted that debt to an “education” fund to provide study opportunities for Vietnamese students in the U.S. and American students in Viet Nam.  That was better than an outright repayment, of course — particularly when U.S. humanitarian assistance at that time was less than $4 million a year, for efforts related to UXO cleanup and disability programs that might bring some relief to families facing the awful consequences of Agent Orange.

    Sometimes simple fairness and justice, common decency, and morality must take precedence over the U.S. government’s bookkeeping requirements.  (It might occur to some of us that the U.S. Ambassador in Cambodia should be reminded of that.)
    CS

MARCH 11 201

Fury in Cambodia as US asks to be paid back hundreds of millions in war debts

 

Lindsay Murdoch

Half a century after United States B-52 bombers dropped more than 500,000 tonnes of explosives on Cambodia’s countryside Washington wants the country to repay a $US500 million ($662 million) war debt.

The demand has prompted expressions of indignation and outrage from Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh.

Over 200 nights in 1973 alone, 257,456 tons of explosives fell in secret carpet-bombing sweeps – half as many as were dropped on Japan during the Second World War.

The pilots flew at such great heights they were incapable of discriminating between a Cambodian village and their targets, North Vietnamese supply lines – nicknamed the “Ho Chi Minh Trail.” Tiếp tục đọc “Fury in Cambodia as US asks to be paid back hundreds of millions in war debts” →

Amid land grabs and evictions, Cambodia jails leading activist

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ 1 bình luận
Cambodians demonstrating in support of land rights activist Tep Vanny are detained outside the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Thursday. | REUTERS

japan times

Amid land grabs and evictions, Cambodia jails leading activist

by and

Thomson Reuters Foundation Feb 25, 2017

PHNOM PENH – Even before a Cambodian judge sentenced land rights activist Tep Vanny to prison, her fellow campaigners said her fate had already been sealed.

Vanny, who fought the evictions of thousands of residents from lakeside land in Phnom Penh to make way for a luxury real estate project, was sentenced to 2½ years on Thursday for her role in a protest outside Prime Minister Hun Sen’s residence in 2013.

She was found guilty of inciting violence and assaulting security guards while trying to deliver a petition to Hun Sen on the land dispute.

The conviction came despite eyewitness testimony that neither Vanny or other protesters had committed acts of violence. It was criticized by campaigners as another step in a crackdown on dissent.

“The courts do not use their conscience. They just wait for orders from powerful men,” said Vanny, a mother of two in her mid-30s, during a recess before her verdict. “It’s easy to use the court. They are using my case to intimidate other people … and scare others to not protest.” Tiếp tục đọc “Amid land grabs and evictions, Cambodia jails leading activist” →