China's AI Surveillance Model Takes Root in Cambodia — SkimNews
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- China is Cambodia's largest foreign direct investor, involved in the Funan Techo Canal and the expansion of the Ream Naval Base on the Gulf of Thailand, while Phnom Penh has doubled down on Beijing since Hun Manet took power three years ago.
- Cambodia is building AI surveillance through its China-backed "Smart Police" initiative, which activists say is already being used to target opposition voices and critics at home and abroad.
- Carnegie Endowment experts warned in 2022 that Chinese surveillance technology was deployed in more than 50 countries through the Digital Silk Road, which exports technology while extending Beijing's influence over information management abroad.
- Xi Jinping warned of "new historical injustices" from unequal AI access at the World AI Conference in Shanghai earlier this year, ahead of his visit to the United States this week.
- Samady Ou, a Cambodian youth activist and Human Rights Foundation Freedom Fellow, calls on the US, EU, UK, ASEAN, South Korea, and Australia to establish export safeguards before authoritarian practices become embedded in digital infrastructure.
Why it matters: Cambodia's China-backed 'Smart Police' infrastructure is already being used to identify and intimidate government critics, and the Carnegie Endowment warned in 2022 that similar Chinese surveillance tech reached 50+ countries — making this week's US-China AI talks a live test of whether democratic governments push export safeguards before the model hardens further.
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