Prachatai along with other US NED-funded fronts have played a key role in both promoting recent protests, helping organize and train protesters, as well as defend them.
Together with TLHR member – the above mentioned Anon Nampa – leading protests against the current government and now calling for the government to step down we see a push for regime change being led and organized by individuals and organizations with confirmed links to the US government.
US Targets Thai-Chinese Relations Thailand – with a population of 70 million and the second largest economy in Southeast Asia – has been expanding its relations with China for years.
It has begun replacing its aging US military hardware with new Chinese systems including VT4 main battle tanks, armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles, naval vessels including Thailand’s first modern submarines as well as joint defense projects like the DTI-1 guided missile launcher.
Thailand and China also are now holding joint military exercises in Thailand – balancing out joint drills carried out with the US since the 1980s.
Thailand is also a key One Belt, One Road (OBOR) partner with a section of high-speed rail meant to connect China, Laos, Thailand, and Malaysia already under construction in Thailand and neighboring Laos.
China is also Thailand’s largest and most important import and export partner, the largest source of foreign direct investment and the largest source by far of tourists. Chinese FDI in Thailand is 13 times higher than America’s. Chinese tourists account for more tourism in Thailand than all Western nations – including the US – combined.
It is safe to say that Thailand has much stronger ties with China than it does with the US – a trend the US has sought to rectify not by offering Thailand better economic, political, or military partnerships – but through the sort of political meddling now playing out in the streets of Thailand today and meddling that has destabilized Thailand politically since US proxy Thaksin Shinawatra was ousted in 2006.
US efforts to return Thaksin and his political allies to power have defined Thai politics ever since, including two attempts in 2009 and 2010 by Thaksin and his supporters to take power by force. In 2010 these efforts included hundreds of armed militants with war weapons resulting in nearly 100 dead and widespread arson.
2019 elections saw Thaksin and his allies lose both the popular vote and fail to create a larger coalition than the current ruling government.
Among Thaksin’s allies is fellow billionaire Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit. His party – Future Forward – came in distant third with 2 million fewer votes than the current ruling party. He is openly backed by the US and has openly expressed policies which include abandoning the Thai-Chinese high-speed railway and reducing military spending – parenthetically on Chinese weapons.
US, UK, and EU embassy staff accompany Thanathorn in Bangkok in an open act of support as he faced various criminal charges for corruption and election law violations.
Protests today are designed to either affect regime change – seeking to place either Thanathorn or another nominee of Thaksin’s into power – or to create enough chaos to reduce Thailand’s ability to function as a reliable partner for China’s economic rise regionally and globally.
Thanathorn has previously, openly supported US-backed sedition in Hong Kong and has openly planned to employ similar tactics in Thailand.
The US finds itself attempting to claw back regional primacy in Asia-Pacific and around the globe – leveling a growing number of sanctions against nations like Russia and China, battling Chinese companies directly, sowing chaos in streets in and around China – most recently in Hong Kong – and attempting to sabotage relations between China and its growing list of partners and allies.
In the days, weeks, and months ahead the US and its partners will continue attempting to seek leverage in Thailand to do just this – and the protesters the Western media claims are “pro-democracy” but clearly paid by and working for Washington are just the beginning.
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This article was originally published on Land Destroyer Report.
All images in this article are from LDR