Advocacy groups based in Australia say the extradition of Chen Zhi from Cambodia without judicial process raises serious concerns about political and economic arrangements between the ruling Cambodian People’s Party and the Chinese Communist Party, which they say grant special privileges to Chinese nationals in Cambodia.
The Cambodia Advocacy Team said in an analysis released on Tuesday that the rapid and forced removal of Chen Zhi without following Cambodian legal procedures appeared aimed at preventing court scrutiny that could have exposed links involving Senate President Hun Sen and Prime Minister Hun Manet.
The group said Chen Zhi held a status equivalent to that of a cabinet minister and was involved in wide-ranging social and economic activities, including scholarship programmes and leadership roles at Prince Bank. These activities, it argued, pointed to what it described as a special and opaque relationship with Cambodia’s top leadership.
Based on his roles and networks, the group alleged that Chen Zhi may have acted as a foreign intermediary, facilitating Chinese capital flows into Cambodia through ruling party elites and serving as a conduit in arrangements allowing Chinese nationals to settle in the country.
The analysis also criticised a statement by Cambodia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the extradition, saying it demonstrated a serious breach of the constitution by prioritising international agreements over domestic supreme law. Cambodia’s constitution states that all citizens have the right to legal defence and are presumed innocent until a final court verdict is issued.
The advocacy group concluded that the extradition violated the constitution and Cambodian law, suggesting there were unresolved elements the government was seeking to conceal in the case involving Chen Zhi.
On January 7, 2026, Cambodia’s Ministry of Interior said that at the request of Chinese authorities, Cambodian police arrested three Chinese nationals, Chen Zhi, Xu Ji Liang, and Shao Ji Hui, and transferred them to the People’s Republic of China under bilateral law enforcement cooperation.
Following the extradition, Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn told Reuters on January 14, 2026, that the arrest of Chen Zhi reflected Cambodia’s commitment to enforcing the law and cracking down on transnational crime, particularly online scams. He said that while Chen Zhi held Cambodian citizenship, an investigation found it had not been obtained legally.
Records show that Chen Zhi acquired Cambodian nationality in 2014, received the honorific title of oknha in 2016, and in 2024 was appointed as an adviser to Hun Sen. All appointments, according to official procedures, were granted following royal approval at the request of Hun Sen.
