Speculative land grabs and Chinese investment: Cambodia’s evolving regime of dispossession

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article uses the concept of ‘regimes of dispossession’ to explore how processes of land dispossession are evolving in Cambodia. Focusing on Preah Sihanouk province, which has received an influx of capital from China, we show empirically how non-productive and speculative land uses are thriving, resulting in frenzied and chaotic patterns of land grabbing. Our findings suggest a new phase in the recursive relationship between land control and the Cambodian state. Land previously occupied and farmed by rural villages is now being re-classified and re-packaged for private and non-productive purposes like real estate, tourism, and industrial investment that remain largely speculative, as international capital meets predatory state logics. We thus draw attention to how regimes of dispossession operate at a range of scales to shape how land is valued and grabbed, inviting comparative analysis between countries, particularly in the context of high levels of Chinese investment in the global south.