David Hutt is a research fellow at the Central European Institute of Asian Studies (CEIAS) and Southeast Asia columnist at the Diplomat. He writes the Europe Meets Southeast Asia newsletter.
My titular question might seem obvious, given Beijing’s self-proclaimed role as the world’s new peace mediator, yet surprisingly few people have asked it. As tensions between Thailand and Cambodia gradually escalated since February before exploding last week with direct attacks on each other’s territory, which has now resulted in at least 35 people dead and another 220,000 displaced, Beijing has consistently expressed neutrality and not much else.
