Cambodia News (Battambang): On 13 January 2023, the General Department of Immigration reported that the Battambang Municipal Inspectorate arrested 4 Chinese male nationals on suspicion of living illegally in Cambodia. The men were detained and are currently under interrogation at the Investigation and Procedure Office of the Battambang Provincial Police.


Police intervened after they received a report of suspicious behavior. According to the police report, the Chinese men had recently moved into the house rented in Borey Romchek, Battambang City, when on Friday, 13 January 2023, at 2:00, a Chinese man was seen jumping out a window from the first floor of the house on to a silver Highlander car (Phnom Penh 2AH-9712), waiting to be taken away. The incident was seen by local residents who reported this to the authorities.

The authorities went to the borey house and arrested the four Chinese they found there:
37 years old HUANG ZHONGZHENG (valid assport )with an expired visa since 12 January 2020.
31 years old WANG SHUAI, (valid passport ), with an expired visa since 11 January 2023.
35 years old ZHANG HAI LONG, no passport.
40 years old CHEN QIANG, no passport.

All four men were detained for being in Cambodia illegally, but the explanation given in the police report does not make it clear if the four Chinese were also kidnappers and/or victims. (Possible clues that this may have been a case of illegal detention: the group came to Battambang from Sihanoukville recently, and a man was seen jumping out of a window into a waiting car at 2am).

It is also possible that they are simply Chinese economic refugees from Sihanoukville, as they seem to imply here, but this does not explain the window-jumping episode.

According to the version of events given by the Chinese nationals, the Chinese man who escaped out the window had come from Sihanoukville with them to Battambang province on 10 January 2023, in order to open up a pawn shop for Chinese people.

The four Chinese nationals have currently been sent to the General Department of Immigration for further questioning and legal proceedings.