Security

What Happened: Cambodia’s role as a haven for cyber crime – and the criminal syndicates that run these scams, using slave labor acquired through human trafficking operations – has become well known over the past year. But less discussed is the role of Cambodia’s education sector. An investigation by Nathan Paul Southern and Lindsey Kennedy for The Diplomat reveals a web of close connections. Schools are complicit in the scam industry in ways both direct (providing false documents for use in human trafficking) and nebulous (helping with “reputation laundering” by accepting and publicizing donations from crime syndicates).

Our Focus: To cite just one example, New Gateway International School – a prestigious and expensive multilingual education institution – provided letters that a whistleblower said were used to secure visas for victims trafficked “to scam compounds all over Cambodia.” NGIS has murky ties to Chip Mong Group, one of Cambodia’s most powerful conglomerates, which owns and operates several properties that locals told The Diplomat were being used as scam compounds. At other times, the connection between schools and scams is less direct: crime syndicates (which in Cambodia operate openly in the guise of legitimate businesses) provide funding in exchange for “flattering media coverage, political goodwill, and protection from prosecution.” Prince Holding Group has been especially successful, winning several awards for its philanthropy in Cambodia despite being under investigation abroad for criminal activities.

What Comes Next: “In Cambodia, schools are more than just educational institutions: they are tools of reputational laundering, political influence, and elite consolidation,” Southern and Kennedy conclude. Whether schools facilitate scam operations, through fraudulent admission letters or even the use of school properties, or are simply reliant on the largesse of tycoons and criminal entities, the fate of Cambodia’s education sector is increasingly tied to the continuation of the flourishing scam industry.

INTERVIEW

Sean Turnell, an honorary professor of economics at Macquarie University and a senior fellow at the Lowy Institute (and a former economic adviser to Aung San Suu Kyi who spent nearly two years in prison after the coup), on Myanmar’s short-lived era of reform: “Unquestionably, the biggest barrier Myanmar’s economic reformers faced was the opposition of the ‘deep state.’ Of course, I know this is an over-used label and one that in many places is somewhat imaginary – but in Myanmar it was (and is) very real… the military made it clear throughout the period of the NLD government that they could intervene at any time, and destroy all and anyone who stood in their way.”

Northeast Asia

While China’s actions in the South China Sea receive more attention, it has also been stepping up activities in disputed Northeast Asian waters. Beijing has been increasing the pace and the scope of its incursions into the territorial waters around the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands, which are administered by Japan but claimed by China. This week, in a first, the China Coast Guard not only entered the islands’ territorial waters but launched a helicopter while there. China and South Korea have no territorial disputes, but they do claim overlapping areas of the Yellow Sea as their EEZs – and China recently installed a permanent structure in these disputed waters, while forcibly blocking South Korean researchers from investigating.

South Asia

Since the April 22 attack that killed 27 civilians in Pahalgam, India and Pakistan have continued to engage in shows of force. India says Pakistan was involved in the attack, a charge Islamabad denies. Early on May 7, India crossed over into the use of force, striking targets in both Punjab and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. India said the airstrikes were “non-escalatory” and targeted only militant hideouts; Pakistan said over 25 civilians were killed. Pakistan retaliated swiftly, saying it had shot down 5 Indian Air Force jets and destroyed a brigade headquarters. The strikes and casualties have already surpassed the fighting that followed the 2019 Pulwama attacks. That will make de-escalation more challenging as well.

Southeast Asia

The People’s Action Party (PAP) won a decisive victory as Singaporeans went to the poll on Saturday, in Prime Minister Lawrence Wong’s first electoral test since taking office last year. The PAP secured 65.57 percent of the vote, improving on its performance at the last election by 4 percentage points. It also prevailed in all of the most hotly contested constituencies, and ended up winning 87 of the 97 seats in Parliament. The opposition Workers’ Party held onto the 10 parliamentary seats that it won at the 2020 election and marginally increased its share of the vote, but failed to make significant inroads elsewhere. On election night, Wong said that he was “deeply humbled and grateful” by the support shown to his party, saying that the result “put Singapore in a better position to face this turbulent world.” Overall, the Singaporean public seems to have heeded the PAP’s warnings that the threats posed to Singapore by growing protectionism and global economic instability require continuity rather than change.

Central Asia

Just like last year, and the year before that, all five of the Central Asian presidents are heading to Moscow to for the annual May 9 Victory Day parade. The 2025 edition, which marks the 80th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s surrender to the Allies, is expected to be an even bigger event. Yet while the Central Asian leaders understand the importance of the day to Russia, World War II is of less and less interest to the peoples of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

Source: Statista; China Electricity Council; Carbon Brief; IEEFA estimates.

While China has continued to expand its coal-fired power capacity, the use of renewable energy is growing at a much faster rate.

SECURITY

Indonesian for “Military Operations Other Than War,” a well-known military doctrine abroad that has taken on disturbing connotations in the Indonesian context.