The United States government has stepped up its diplomatic pressure on Beijing and imposed sanctions on a Chinese state-owned company for human rights abuses and the seizure of land in Cambodia used in a $3.8 billion property development.
According to a statement from the U.S. Treasury Department, the Tianjin-based Union Development Group (UDG) had been blocked from financial transactions and the provision of goods and services within the United States.
UDG was designated by the department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, which targets perpetrators of serious human rights abuse and corruption, and their supporters.
“This entity’s predatory investment schemes deepen corruption, undermine the rule of law and exploit the resources of other countries,” Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin said.
“The United States is committed to using the full range of its authorities to target these corrupt practices where they occur.”
In 2008, UDG acquired a 99-year lease on 36,000 hectares at Dara Sakor in southwest Koh Kong province and has since built what Treasury says is “ostensibly” a tourism development, complete with a 3.4-kilometer runway.
Analysts have cast doubts over the project, suggesting it could be used for military purposes, an allegation that was dismissed by Prime Minister Hun Sen as “evil rumors.”
Cambodia – and its southern coastline – has emerged as a strategic front line in the trade war between the United States and China, with Beijing investing billions of dollars on infrastructure here.
In return, Phnom Penh has backed Chinese policies in the diplomatic arena, but that has created friction within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), particularly with regard to the hotly contested South China Sea.
https://thediplomat.com/2020/09/us-imposes-sanctions-on-chinese-company-for-rights-abuses-in-cambodia/ 
