Phnom Penh police say they have solved the killing of a Chinese property businessman initially suspected to have been kidnapped and murdered after a demand for US$2 million in ransom. Police attribute the case to longstanding shareholding and debt disputes between the victim and suspects originating in China, which they say developed into a cross-border revenge attack.On 6/7, in the morning, Phnom Penh police publicly presented four arrested Chinese suspects. Another four Chinese suspects remained at large and were being pursued.
Phnom Penh police chief ជួន ណារិន្ទ said the incident occurred on the evening of 5/29. The victim was a 53-year-old Chinese man named in the report as Yang Weixin, a phonetic rendering, who had long worked in property and lived in an apartment in Phnom Penh’s Chbar Ampov district. Police said he had been involved in a failed-business debt and shareholding dispute with another Chinese man since 2014, and debt-collection problems continued in 2025. Police say the longstanding resentment eventually escalated into kidnapping and revenge.
The victim’s wife told police that her husband disappeared on the evening of 5/29. Apartment surveillance showed three men forcing him into a car in the parking area that night. At about 3 a.m. the following day, messages from his phone demanded US$2 million and continued to pressure the family until a message that morning saying “This ends here”, after which contact was lost.
On 5/30, at 10:30 a.m., police found his body on vacant land in Phnom Penh’s Dangkao district. Investigators said he had been stabbed to death inside the car and linked the case directly to the longstanding business dispute. They were continuing to pursue the remaining four Chinese suspects and investigate further details.
