Its leaders still remember being vilified over their intervention in Cambodia in the 1970s, even though it brought down the ghastly Pol Pot regime.

ECONOMIST: We want to be your friend

He was criticised for acting as the chief apologist for the murderous Khmer Rouge regime and its leader Pol Pot.

BBC: Obituary: Norodom Sihanouk, former king of Cambodia

He was an officer in the army of Pol Pot's ghastly Khmer Rouge regime, fleeing to Vietnam in 1977 to avoid being purged.

ECONOMIST: One of the last (we hope) Asian strongmen