How did Cambodia's international alignment evolve since 1989, and how could it have been different?

raharris1973

Gone Fishin'
Donor
Monthly Donor
In the mid-1980s, Cambodia was ruled by a client regime of Vietnam, headed by Hun Sen, who succeeded the Vietnamese' initial client Heng Samrin. Meanwhile, China and Thailand supported the anti-regime factions of Republicans, Monarchists and Khmer Rouge.

In 2016, Hun Sen rules Cambodia, but seems to be mainly a Chinese client. There's no apparent armed opposition.

How did Hun Sen switch patrons and when? And why was the process so quiet?

I've never heard or head anything about Vietnam struggling to keep Chinese influence out of Cambodia since the 1980s. Did the Vietnamese after 1990 just give up without a fight? Why?
 

CaliGuy

Banned
In the mid-1980s, Cambodia was ruled by a client regime of Vietnam, headed by Hun Sen, who succeeded the Vietnamese' initial client Heng Samrin. Meanwhile, China and Thailand supported the anti-regime factions of Republicans, Monarchists and Khmer Rouge.

In 2016, Hun Sen rules Cambodia, but seems to be mainly a Chinese client. There's no apparent armed opposition.

How did Hun Sen switch patrons and when? And why was the process so quiet?

I've never heard or head anything about Vietnam struggling to keep Chinese influence out of Cambodia since the 1980s. Did the Vietnamese after 1990 just give up without a fight? Why?
Aren't Vietnam-Cambodia relations still very good right now, though?
 

raharris1973

Gone Fishin'
Donor
Monthly Donor
Aren't Vietnam-Cambodia relations still very good right now, though?

I don't know their current quality, although their relations don't seem to make news, one way or another, which suggests a lack of conflict.

I just find it interesting that to this day, Vietnamese-Chinese relations in the South China Sea are a zero-sum game as they have been since the late 70s. However, Cambodia was also a contested object in a zero-sum Sino-Vietnamese game till at least 1989. What was the process that allowed all sides to get past that zero-sum mentality, as applied to Cambodia.

And what's been the balance of Laotian relations with Vietnam and China since the 1990s? I know the Pathet Lao were firmly in the Vietnamese camp from the 50s through the 80s, but there's probably a wider array of relations with China now.
 
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