Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sok Chenda Sophea, emphasizing China’s readiness to collaborate with Cambodia and other nations to combat online gambling and transnational crimes.
Wang stated last Thursday that the cooperation aims to “thoroughly eradicate relevant criminal gangs and safeguard social stability in regional countries.”
The statement was issued on Thursday by central government-owned media, Xinhua, when the Cambodian top official visited China to attend the eighth Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting.
Earlier this year, China, Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos joined forces to initiate a special operation aimed at combating rampant gambling-related fraud and associated crimes in the region.
The four nations plan to establish a cooperation center for the operation in Thailand’s Chiang Mai province. The goal of the operation is to intensify efforts against crimes such as human trafficking, kidnapping, and illegal detention, all of which stem from gambling and fraud activities prevalent in the region.
Sihanoukville in Cambodia had a thriving online gambling business from 2015 to 2019. However, the government suddenly imposed a ban in August 2019, causing many investors in the business to leave the country.
Cambodian authorities noted that more than 400,000 Chinese left the country in early 2020. The ban was followed by the pandemic, leading to the further outflow of Chinese investors.
NagaCorp, a Cambodian gaming operator, runs the operations of the Hotel & Casino NagaWorld in the capital city of Phnom Penh.
