The past week saw tensions mount among Thais who are becoming increasingly alarmed about China’s growing influence and role in Thailand.
Four issues have emerged that patriotic Thais should, at the very least, be concerned about and contemplate within the larger context of Sino-Thai relations.
First, there is the ongoing crackdown on cases involving children allegedly fraudulently registered as Thai despite being born to Chinese parents. As of press time, dozens of cases have emerged, with several Thai and Chinese nationals arrested. The Thai government has ordered nationwide scrutiny of other potential cases.
One must ask: What is the ultimate goal of such deception? Are these long-term attempts by suspected Chinese criminals to embed Chinese interests driven by economics, or worse, a coordinated political effort to position future Manchurian candidates who could seek to run the Thai government a few decades from now? While the intended goal is inconclusive, it is not far-fetched to consider this a potential threat to national security, and not just the actions of some small-time Chinese criminals. Some have already expressed such concerns.
Then there are the anti-mining demonstrations outside the Chinese Consulate in Chiang Mai and the Chinese Embassy here in Bangkok. Protesters accuse Chinese companies of mining in neighbouring Myanmar that, they say, have caused toxic pollution, rendering the Kok River in northern Thailand unsafe to drink from and its fish unsafe to eat, and potentially affecting hundreds of thousands of people, if not more. The Chinese Embassy has flatly denied that Chinese companies were involved. However, the main opposition People’s Party is taking the matter seriously and submitted a petition concerning it to the Chinese ambassador earlier this week.
These two issues in themselves pose potential problems for Thai-Chinese relations, but the Chinese Embassy further complicated matters last week by “requesting” that the Thai press exercise self-censorship. It did not take long for some Thai journalists to say that the Chinese Embassy had contacted their media outlets in an attempt to have them censor images of Thai protesters wearing masks depicting Chinese President Xi Jinping.
While some Thai media outlets yielded to the “requests”, others did not. One veteran journalist from a major Thai-language mainstream mass media outlet told this writer that the embassy had made such behind-the-scenes approaches.
When this writer noticed that a report by the Thai public broadcaster Thai PBS had blurred the faces of demonstrators wearing masks depicting Xi and posted about it on social media, the post eventually prompted two activists to demand an explanation from the news organisation. They met with the station’s director, Vanchai Tantiwitayapitak. One of the activists who met with Vanchai last Friday later told this writer that the director had acknowledged facing pressure from “Chinese authorities” but decided after the meeting to restore the unblurred photos, adding that no other instances of self-censorship had been found.
The interference by the Chinese Embassy was greeted with silence by the Thai Journalists Association, the kingdom’s largest media association—the same organisation that has, for many years, organised familiarisation trips to China for Thai journalists with funding from the Chinese Embassy.
In Tuesday, a reliable source also confirmed to this writer that, last month, the Chinese Embassy asked Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to intervene and stop the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand (FCCT) from screening a documentary. The film, Blood Copper, was scheduled to be screened on 15 June 2026, and examines the environmental and human rights impacts of a Chinese-backed mine in Myanmar. The censorship attempt ultimately failed.
This record of behind-the-scenes pressure serves as a stark reminder of the ongoing threats to press freedom and freedom of expression, as well as attempts to impose China’s model of media censorship on the Thai press.
Siracha district in Chonburi province, particularly the Bo Win area, is another flashpoint, with local residents and the media paying closer attention to what appears to be an emerging, self-contained mini-Chinatown dominated by Chinese-language shop signs.
While it’s rare for someone to be concerned about signs posted in English as these are obviously important for tourism and travel, it must be noted that these English-language signs are not put up by a single national group and in most cases put up by Thai business operators themselves. These signs primarily serve all customers, not just English-speaking foreigners, while the Chinese case is one that primarily serve Chinese nationals – thus the growing concerns.
Nevertheless, Thais should remain calm and vigilant instead of overreacting. Calls for Thailand to isolate itself from China are unrealistic. Even countries with maritime territorial disputes with China, such as Vietnam and the Philippines, have not done so. Thais in both the public and private sectors will have to become more tactful in neutralising the harmful or coercive forms of Chinese influence.
They must also refrain from the simplistic over-generalisation of all Chinese people as cunning or criminal-minded. China and the Chinese people are not interchangeable, and Chinese people are not inherently malevolent.
And here’s a message to the Chinese Embassy: Please do not interfere with the Thai press. This is counterproductive to good relations between Thailand and China. Recognising this sooner rather than later could prevent bilateral relations from taking an unnecessarily rough road in the foreseeable future.
