Will Hun Sen’s US-educated son spell change for China-friendly Cambodia?

US graduate Hun Manet has given rise to hope from some in the West that he might bring political change, as his autocratic father mulls handing over power

But experts say that logic is flawed, pointing to North Korea’s Swiss-educated Kim as an example, and add that Hun Manet isn’t likely to pivot away from China, ‘Cambodia’s main backer’

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Hun Manet, Commander of the Royal Cambodian Army. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 5:37pm, 21 Jul 2023Updated: 1:30pm, 22 Jul 2023

Hun Sen has been Cambodia’s autocratic prime minister for nearly four decades, during which the opposition has been stifled and the country has grown increasingly close to China.

With his Cambodian People’s Party virtually guaranteed another landslide victory in this Sunday’s election, it’s hard to imagine dramatic change on the horizon.

But the 70-year-old former communist Khmer Rouge fighter and Asia’s longest-serving leader says he is ready to hand the premiership to his oldest son, Hun Manet, a graduate of the US Military Academy at West Point who heads the country’s army.

Tens of thousands of supporters packed a central square in the capital before daybreak on Friday to hear the 45-year-old’s 7am kick-off to the CPP’s final day of campaigning before the vote.

With a warm smile and soft tone, a stark contrast to his father’s stern look and military-like cadence, Hun Manet said the CPP had brought peace, stability and progress to the Cambodian people.

“Voting for the Cambodian People’s Party is voting for yourselves,” he told the cheering crowd, promising to return Cambodia’s national pride to a “greater level than the glorious Angkor era” of the Khmer Empire, centuries ago.

Hun Manet, a son of Cambodia Prime Minister Hun Sen, greets supporters in Phnom Penh on July 21. Photo: AP

With the only credible challenge to the CPP barred from participating in the elections on a technicality, Cambodians are being offered little choice but to vote for the ruling party again. The arrests over the past week of several leading opposition figures have served to help stifle visible support for anyone but the CPP on the streets of Phnom Penh.