The latest Thailand-Cambodia ceasefire arrests a rapidly escalating border conflict driven by failed earlier truces, but its durability remains uncertain as early allegations of violations and unresolved boundary disputes leave the door open for another truce breakdown and return to larger fighting in the coming years. On Dec. 29, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi hosted the Cambodian and Thai foreign ministers in Yuxi city in China’s Yunnan province, where Wang framed China as a friend to both countries that is intent on preventing a relapse into conflict. The summit occurred two days after Thailand and Cambodia signed a renewed ceasefire effective noon local time on Dec. 27, halting a roughly three-week conflict that featured artillery exchanges and Thai airstrikes, and that left more than 100 dead and more than half a million civilians displaced across both sides of the border. The ceasefire commits both sides to an immediate halt in...
