The government of Cambodia has hired the second largest lobbying firm in the U.S. in hopes of improving relations with Washington, but analysts told RFA that Phnom Penh’s policies are the problem.
The Cambodian Embassy in Washington is paying U.S. $60,000 a month over one year to Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld to “conduct outreach” with U.S. officials to “help to move the bilateral relationship between Cambodia and the U.S. forward,” according to documents submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. Foreign entities must register with the U.S. government when they hire lobbyists to advocate on their behalf.
The decision to retain one of Washington’s most powerful lobbying firms comes as the U.S. Congress weighs legislation to punish Cambodian officials for the country’s poor human rights record.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would place stiff sanctions on Cambodian leaders for alleged human rights abuses four months ago. The Senate must pass its version of the bill — titled the Cambodia Democracy Act — before it can be sent to the president to be signed into law.
Cambodia also wants its Generalized System of Preferences trade status renewed after expiring in 2020. That designation gives Cambodian products duty-free access to the massive U.S. market.
“We don’t regard the U.S. as our enemy. Otherwise, we would not have spent thousands of dollars to make sure the Cambodia-U.S. relationship is good,” Sen. Sok Ey San, spokesman for Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), told RFA’s Khmer Service Thursday.
“We don’t want [Washington] to believe the media that is politically biased with fake news,” he said.
Phnom Penh’s international reputation has plummeted in recent years. In response to increasingly autocratic governance and human rights violations, the European Union has stripped Cambodia of its preferential trade status and the U.S. government has imposed sanctions on powerful figures within Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government.
Political analyst Em Sovannara told RFA, however, that it would likely take more than a prominent lobbying team to fix U.S.-Cambodia relations.
“You can’t speak one way and act another way,” he said. “We need to build mutual confidence and avoid being suspicious. Only then can we have a good relationship.”
Em Sovannara said Cambodia should keep its money and instead respect human rights, democracy, and territorial integrity.
Washington and Phnom Penh re-established full diplomatic relations in 1993. But “since 2017, the pace of democratic backsliding in Cambodia has accelerated,” the U.S. State Department states on its website, pointing to the frequent imprisoning of journalists, human rights activists and members of the political opposition.
“Cambodia has shifted from a flawed but improving multiparty democracy with an independent media and vibrant civil society to a de facto one-party — and increasingly authoritarian — state intolerant of dissent,” the State Department fact sheet on Cambodia states.
Sophal Ear, an associate professor at Arizona State University and an expert on U.S.-Cambodia relations, told RFA that the hiring of Akin Gump shows “the outlook is worsening for Cambodian authorities with respect to Senate bill targeting Cambodia and the possibility of losing GSP trade with the U.S.”
Ear said that Cambodia’s hired support in the U.S. was dwindling after the recent passing in December of Washington state Sen. Doug Ericksen, who had agreed to lobby for Phnom Penh.
RFA reported in September that Cambodia had entered a similar agreement with PR Firm Qorvis Communications, which would “provide strategic communications and media relations services in support of increasing public awareness along with travel and tourism for the Kingdom of Cambodia.”
It had also in 2019 signed contracts with two other lobbying firms, including Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, currently the largest in the U.S.
Bringing in reinforcements in Akin Gump “means going with the big boys and demanding results for money,” Ear said, noting that the fees for services totaling $720,000 per year were insignificant to Hun Sen.
Another source of strain in the relationship between Cambodia and the U.S. is increasing Chinese influence in Phnom Penh.
Washington last month banned the export of military equipment to Cambodia, citing concerns about “deepening Chinese military influence” in the country, the latest in a series of measures targeting the kingdom’s growing ties to Beijing.
Hun Sen denied that the U.S. sanctions on the Cambodian military were a concern and ordered all U.S. made weapons destroyed.
Translated by Samean Yun and Sovanarith Keo. Written in English by Eugene Whong.