>> Negative racial stereotype as a definition of racism is the classical definition of racism
>It wasn’t racial stereotyping. It was stereotyping a country’s population as sad and desperate. Saying X country’s quality of life sucks isn’t racist.
>If they’d said or implied Cambodian Americans are also sad and desperate, sure. But they didn’t.
This is a distinction without a difference. A negative stereotype about the people of a country is a stereotype about that country's dominant ethnic group. Their geographic location is irrelevant.
By this logic, saying "All Japanese people are [X]" is not a racial stereotype as long as you're only talking about the ones in Japan. It only magically becomes a racial stereotype when they are "Japanese Americans." This doesn't make sense.
There's a fundamental difference between:
Criticizing a state: "Cambodia's economy is struggling and its government is corrupt." Stereotyping a people: "The people of Cambodia are inherently sad and desperate." The original comment did the latter. That is, by definition, a negative ethnic stereotype.