Join Andrew Mertha (associate professor of Government at Cornell) as he discusses his new book, Brothers in Arms: Chinese Aid to the Khmer Rouge 1975-79. When the Khmer Rouge came to power in Cambodia in 1975, they inherited a war-ravaged and internationally isolated country. Pol Pot’s government espoused of self-reliance, but Democratic Kampuchea depended on Chinese foreign aid and technical assistance. In a markedly asymmetrical relationship between a modernizing, nuclear power and a virtually pre-modern state, China was largely unable to influence Cambodian politics or policy.