Recent satellite images taken of the coastal area around Sihanoukville, Cambodia, show a significant development of a China-funded naval base that would help Beijing boost its power projection not only in Southeast Asia but also the Taiwan Strait.

The Wall Street Journal reported in 2019 that Phnom Penh and Beijing had signed a secret deal to allow the Chinese military to use part of the base. Phnom Penh has repeatedly denied the deal, saying giving a foreign country exclusive military access to the base would be in contradiction to Cambodia’s constitution. 

In June last year, however, the two countries began a project to develop the Ream Naval Base, in Sihanoukville province on the Gulf of Thailand, with China’s funding.

Latest satellite pictures obtained by Radio Free Asia from the Earth imaging company Planet Labs show massive changes in the landscape, as well as new constructions and large-scale land clearance.

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The mood outside the Kampong Thom Provincial Court had grown tense on the afternoon of July 26. Some 12 residents of Ngon village, an Indigenous Kuy community in Kampong Thom province’s Sandan district, waited for the judge’s verdict.

The group had spent roughly $200 traveling the 75 kilometers (47 miles) to the provincial capital, a substantial sum for the subsistence farmers, to show their support to Chan Lay Phiek, daughter of the community’s second deputy chief, Heng Saphen.

Lay Phiek had been summoned by the court as part of a long-running land dispute between the Kuy community and Sambath Platinum, a Cambodian rubber company that was given a 2,496-hectare (6,168-acre) land concession within Beng Per Wildlife Sanctuary in December 2011.

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The Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone in northern Laos is a haven for criminal activities including prostitution, scamming and drug trafficking, but Lao authorities are essentially powerless to stop it, workers in the zone and police told Radio Free Asia.

The zone is a gambling and tourism hub catering to Chinese citizens situated in Bokeo province along the Mekong River where Laos, Myanmar and Thailand meet. It has been described as a de-facto Chinese colony.

Due to the special nature of the zone, Lao authorities have limited access to it, and they require permission from officials at the Chinese-run Kings Romans Casino, the zone’s crown jewel, which is owned by the Hong Kong-based Dok Ngiew Kham Group. The group holds an 80 percent interest in the 3,000 hectare (11.6 square mile) zone, while the Lao government has a 20 percent stake in it.

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In the remote and densely forested northeastern province of Mondulkiri in Cambodia, Song Pro, a member of the indigenous Bunong community, stares at a rubber plantation that was once a sacred forest.

When the war in Indochina came to Cambodia in the 1970s, the forest saved Song Pro.

At the sound of planes, she and her family hid deep within its trails and trees, its canopy providing cover from the sights of American bombers.

“We were safe in that sacred place,” said the now 60-year-old farmer. But when peace finally returned, Song Pro and her community could not save the forest.

One morning in 2008, bulldozers arrived. The land where Song Pro and her community had farmed, foraged and worshipped all their lives was now someone else’s property.

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The post ‘It can be pretty horrifying’: how Cambodia’s land grabs are ruining lives first appeared on Open Development Mekong.

Thailand has been a popular expatriate destination for investment and retirement for decades, but foreign land ownership has long been restricted.

Foreigners can own no more than 49% of any condominium development and are restricted from owning most freehold estates. Yet Thailand is keen to attract wealthy international investors — particularly those from China.

Thailand’s now-suspended Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha proposed a policy that would allow foreigners to own land for residential use on July 15, 2022. Thai officials claim this will boost the economy by luring wealthy foreigners to spend and invest in the country.

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The Supreme Court has sentenced an indigenous Karen woman to 2 years and 8 months in prison for encroaching on National Park land despite pleas that the piece of land was passed down through her family.

Wansao Phungam is an indigenous Karen woman who lives in Tha Salao village in Nong Ya Plong District, Phetchaburi Province – one of the indigenous Karen communities on the edge of the Kaeng Krachan National Park. She has been living and working on a piece of land she inherited from her parents, and insisted that she has never encroached on the National Park. But when the government launched the One Map Project in 2016, the borders of Kaeng Krachan National Park were redrawn and Wansao’s land was included inside the Park.

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A two-lane dirt road truncates the northeastern tree line of Phnom Tamao Forest, marking the start of a housing complex on private land bordering the protected area.

Dozens of boundary markers cemented underneath the tree canopies of the forest indicate the plans for land exchange deals that would clear the way for development within the protected area itself.

Phnom Tamao, originally believed to be protected, is now threatened by shadowy construction plans, according to conservationists who worry for the future of a rescue centre and endangered wildlife in the sanctuary forest. Additionally, the privatisation of a protected area so close to Phnom Penh could indicate increased danger for Cambodia’s protected forests beyond the watch of environmental groups.

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The inauguration ceremony of the Vientiane Saysettha Low-Carbon Demonstration Zone jointly built by China and Laos was held via video conferencing on Friday.

The event indicates construction of the demonstration zone has entered a new phase, opening a new chapter for China-Laos cooperation to address climate change in the framework of South-South cooperation.

Zhao Yingmin, vice minister of China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment, said in his speech that the low-carbon demonstration project in the Vientiane Saysettha Development Zone (SDZ) serves as an important step to implement the action plan on building the China-Laos community with a shared future, and highlights the joint efforts addressing climate change made by the two countries.

Located in Vientiane, capital of Laos, the SDZ covers an area of 11.5 square kilometers. It is a key cooperation project between the governments of China and Laos, with the zone expected to function as both an industrial park and a new town of the Lao capital, with a total planned investment of about 5 billion U.S. dollars.

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The Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone (GTSEZ) is growing in development and investment projects, especially economic infrastructure, agriculture, livestock, hotels, tourism, residential areas, and entertainment, to attract more visitors, while over 500 companies are investing in the area.

During a visit by reporters this week to mark the 15th anniversary of the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone, the Director of General Office, Administration Board of GTSEZ, Xiong Jiantian, said that over the past 15 years the Zone has been continuously developing and there are plans to develop it into a prosperous and modern city.

The Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone has been developed under the direction of the Dok Ngiew Kham Group, which has concessions on 10,000 hectares of land, 3,000 hectares of which are a Special Economic Zone and 7,000 hectares are a protected area.

So far, 1,000 hectares have been developed by over 500 investment companies, Xiong said.

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