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Background Brief: China and the Khmer Rouge: Coming Clean? Carlyle A. Thayer October 3, 2012

[client name deleted] We are interested in your assessment of this op-ed published in the Global Times: http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/735647.shtml It interests us because Mr. Ding (an editor at the People's Daily) suggests that China acknowledge its role during the Khmer Rouge regime, and suggests that it is time to deal with said role. China has no part in funding the Khmer Rouge tribunal, and Chinas official stance is that clothes and food were sent to Cambodia during the regime to alleviate problems of starvation. There are, however, allegations that Chinas involvement ran deeper, for instance, with an airfield built using slave labour: http://thediplomat.com/2011/12/17/what-was-china%E2%80%99s-khmerrouge-role/ Is it unusual for this kind of opinion to be made from within China by someone in the media, and do you think it would resonate at all with those in power there? Would it benefit China at all to take the same approach as the US - which once funded the Khmer Rouge - and is now helping to fund the tribunal? Q1. Is it unusual for this kind of opinion to be made from within China by someone in the media, and do you think it would resonate at all with those in power there? ANSWER: Ding Gangs views are as exceptional as they are disingenuous. Ding Gang basically skates over Chinas moral, political and material support for the Khmer Rouge. When Indochina was a unit, China channeled its aid through Vietnam and Laos down the Ho Chi Minh Trail to the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia fighting the Lon Nol regime (Khmer Republic). China provided vital assistance to the Khmer Rouge once it assumed power in 1975. Chinese weaponry, ammunition and military equipment was provided to the Khmer Rouge regime, especially in 1977-78 when Khmer Rouge began to make cross border raids into Vietnam. And of course, China continued its military support to the Khmer Rouge after Vietnam invasion. Chinas aid was channeled through Thailand. Ding Gangs account distorts history. The United States government initially declined to support the Khmer Rouge tribunal. It did so in September 2008 long before the Obama Administration announced its pivot to Asia-Pacific. There is no evidence to support his claim that the U.S. is taking advantage of the Cold War legacy. I have not seen a single statement by n ranking official in the Obama Administration criticizing

2 China for its support for the Khmer Rouge. U.S. charges that Cambodia has put a rent in ASEAN unity related to Chinas pivot from supporter of the Khmer Rouge up to 1991 to supporter of the Hun Sen regime. In 1967 ultra-leftists Maoists Khmer took to the jungle and attempted to launch a violent revolution to overthrow the Kingdom of Cambodia headed by Prince Norodom Sihanouk. Sihanouk was deposed in an internal coup in March 1970 by military forces who opposed Sihanouks policy of granting the Communist Vietnamese establish sanctuaries in eastern Cambodia from which to attack Vietnam. Sihanouk also permitted Chinese military support to be off loaded at the port of Sihanoukville and transported overland to these sanctuaries. Ding Gangs remarks about the U.S. support for the Lon Nol regime should be placed in historic context. During the Cold War both China and the U.S. took sides in Cambodias internal affairs and bear responsibility for their policies. China has a huge deficit considering that the Khmer Rouge regime presided over the deaths of 2-3 million persons. Ding Gangs comments if acted upon by the current Chinese Government would shed light on the amount of assistance China provided the Khmer Rouge since 1970. U.S. assistance to Vietnam and Laos to clear up the legacy of war land mines and other unexploded ordnance also predated the Obama Administrations pivot to Asia. There is no question the U.S. has a moral responsibility to assist in clearing up this legacy of war. But it must be understood that both Vietnam and Laos were uncooperative with the U.S. in assisting with the return of prisoners of war (POW) and information on missing in action (MIA). Progress on these two issues contributing to healing the wounds of war and an accounting for POWs/MIAs were linked in the Paris Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring the Peace in Vietnam (1973). The question of Agent Orange, and dioxin in particular, is not as straight forward as Ding Gang present it. When Agent Orange was used its full effects were not known. Many U.S. and allied servicemen, such as Australians, were exposed and fell ill. There were also complicated legal arguments over culpability. No U.S. court ruled in favour of Vietnamese plaintiffs. The U.S. Congress made funds available to begin to assist in cleaning up the effects of Agent Orange long before the Obama Administrations pivot to Asia. There has been a marked step up in U.S. efforts in recent years in response to demands by the Vietnamese side. U.S. assistance to Vietnam in this respect is unrelated with Ding Gangs sophistry that it forms part of the U.S. back to Asia strategy. Q2. Would it benefit China at all to take the same approach as the U.S. - which once funded the KR - and is now helping to fund the tribunal? ANSWER: The United States as a matter of policy never supported the Khmer Rouge directly with any form of material, military, or political assistance. It was U.S. policy to back the non-communist resistance the Sihanoukists, and the Khmer Peoples National Liberation Front who were partners with the Khmer Rouge in the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea formed in 1982.

3 If China attempted to explain its past support for the Khmer Rouge, as Ding Gangs argues, it would only raise an unsavoury past that current Chinese leaders would wish to leave buried. Ding Gang has failed to provide key evidence that current Chinese influence over the Hun Sen regime is hampered by its past support for the Khmer Rouge.

Suggested citation: Carlyle A. Thayer, China and the Khmer Rouge: Coming Clean?, Thayer Consultancy Background Brief, September , 2012. Thayer Consultancy Background Briefs are archived and may be accessed at: http://www.scribd.com/carlthayer.