The myth of non-interference: Chinese foreign policy in Cambodia

This panel discussion will examine China's non-interference policy, taking Cambodia as a case study.

The panellists make two key arguments. Firstly, the term 'interference' is not confined to actions that challenge a regime's leadership, but may also encompass acts of shoring up regimes that lack popular support.

Secondly, China's 'non-interference' rhetoric is not demonstrated in the context of Cambodia, where it has on multiple occasions, interfered to reinforce Prime Minister Hun Sen's leadership.

To illustrate the above arguments, the discussants will touch upon the history of Beijing's interference in Cambodia with a focus on areas where Hun Sen's regime backs China's geostrategic interests.

Moderator

Dr Katrin Travouillon is a Lecturer at the Department of Political and Social Change (ANU Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs). Her research centres on the discursive and affective dimension of political change in Cambodia after the UN Transitional Authority (UNTAC 1992-1993). She is particularly interested in how the liberal peacebuilding project has shaped political ideas, identities, and interactions between domestic and international actors. Since 2019, Dr Travouillon is a member of the editorial team of the Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, a publication committed to critical analysis of international interventions, focusing on interactions and practices that influence and transform states and societies. Her work has appeared in Contemporary Southeast Asia, Peacebuilding, and Review of International Studies, among others.

Panellists

Sovinda Po is a PhD candidate in International Relations at Griffith University and a Senior Research Fellow at the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace. His research agenda evolves the relationship between China and mainland Southeast Asia and the strategic use of minilateral institutions by both major powers and small states. His journal articles have appeared in Australian Journal of International Affairs, Asian Studies Review, Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, European Journal of East Asian Studies, Southeast Asian Affairs, Journal of Greater Mekong Studies, Explorations: A Graduate Student Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, and UC Occasional Paper Series. His op-eds have appeared in The Diplomat, East Asia Forum, New Mandala, The Interpreter, ASEANFocus, IPP Review and Australian Outlook. He is often quoted in the Phnom Penh Post, and the South China Morning Post, and also is interviewed by The Wire (Australia), The Voice of America and Radio Free Asia.

Dr Kearrin Sims is a critical development scholar trained in sociology and international relations. Through ethnographic research methods and extensive in-country fieldwork, Kearrin examines the uneven ways in which development projects and interventions are encountered and experienced by vulnerable communities. This includes a focus on knowledge-power relations between development stakeholders, and an analysis of how processes of development produce new forms of marginalization and disadvantage. He also focuses on Asian regionalism and the intensification of south-south cooperation within the region. Here, his interests emanate around both expanding transnational infrastructure connectivity's and the geopolitics of development - particularly within the Mekong region. Kearrin is examining the consequences of China's growing presence in Mainland Southeast Asia, and its role in shaping global development norms, priorities and practices.

This event is supported by the Global China Research Spoke of China in the World.