News Analysis Chinese fraud cases have been rampant in Cambodia in recent years. Causes for Chinese fraudsters booming in Cambodia are complex, with some international media suggesting that China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) plays an important role. In April 2015, Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) leader Xi Jinping proposed strengthening infrastructure cooperation, when he met with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen in Jakarta, Indonesia. The BRI is designed for countries outside of China. The following October, Sihanoukville’s special economic zone was established as a “model of cooperation,” which would also be desired as “Cambodia’s Shenzhen.” Shenzhen is one of the richest cities in China bordering Hong Kong to the south—as Hun Sen publicly and repeatedly claimed. Sihanoukville morphing into Cambodia’s largest seaport and foreign trade center partly benefits from the CCP’s Belt and Road Initiative. However, it also opened a pandora’s box in Cambodia: the small seaside city has become …