Thread: Conspiracy theorists believe invisible foreign hand behind Thai protests

Thai students holding anti-establishment protests across the country insist their rallies are organic, coming together naturally following years of political discontent.


But suspicions this may not be the case are being fuelled by conspiracy theorists, who see growing foreign interference in Thai politics, particularly from the West.


Leaders of the student-led movement and their supporters, notably opposition politicians, have strongly denied any foreign backing. They insist the rumours are a desperate attempt to deflect attention from years of military coups and misrule.


Conspiracy theorists, meanwhile, name the United States as the main “foreign hand” behind the protesters, who are calling for Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to step down, for changes to the Constitution and reform of the monarchy.


A rich source of the conspiracy theories is China, America’s main rival in the battle for geopolitical influence in Southeast Asia. China is also fighting pro-democracy movements in Hong Kong and Taiwan, which together with the Thai protesters have formed the anti-authoritarian “Milk Tea Alliance”.


A Chinese military analyst claims Thai anti-government forces have colluded with the US and other Western countries in using young people as a tool to overthrow Thailand’s political order.


“Those forces aim to bring in pro-West political proxies to rule the country with Western-style democracy,” wrote Yu Qun in the Global Times, a Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece.


“The Thai young generation are currently being used as cannon fodder by the US and its proxies,” continued Yu, who is deputy director of the Military Diplomacy Research Centre at China’s National University of Defence Technology.


However, there is no credible evidence that Washington is behind the unrest in Thailand.


Writing in the same paper, another Chinese commentator claimed many accounts on US social-media platforms like Twitter and Facebook that “spread disinformation” against the Thai government have survived despite complaints. They also claim pro-government accounts in Thailand have been shut down.


“So, at the very least, Western social media and some mainstream media are taking sides to stand with the protesters,” wrote Xu Liping, director of the Centre for Southeast Asian Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing.


The complaints have been echoed by many pro-establishment Thai netizens, who say Twitter and Facebook have failed to act against what they call “fake news”, mainly involving the Thai government and monarchy.


Thai royalists have also accused the US government of political meddling in the ongoing protests.


A group of royalists, including singer-actress Haruthai “Au” Muangboonsri, gathered outside the US Embassy in Bangkok on Tuesday, holding banners with messages like “Stop hybrid war in Thailand” and “Please return peace to the world”.


A large sign displayed during the gathering read: “Mr DeSombre! Your job in Hong Kong was good, but it doesn’t work for Thailand.”


The message was directed at US Ambassador Michael George DeSombre, who worked for US interests in Hong Kong before being posted to Thailand in July last year.


Haruthai said her group was simply calling for no outside interference in Thailand’s affairs. “Since the student protests began, a lot of misinformation has been spread from outside the country,” she said.


In September, allegations of US interference spiked when photos of a meeting between former US ambassador Glyn Davies and student leader Parit “Penguin” Chiwarak surfaced in Thai social media. The US Embassy issued a statement denying political meddling, pointing out the photos were from 2016, four years before the current protests. Also, they were originally published by the Land Destroyer Report – an English-language blog which poses as a news outlet to disseminate stories alleging US influence in Thailand. The Land Destroyer Report was banned by Facebook last year for engaging in “coordinated inauthentic behaviour”.


But claims of a secret foreign conspiracy have continued. Theorists have pointed to links between Thai and Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters as evidence that both are backed by Western powers.


Thai protesters, meanwhile, have openly said their leaderless strategy was inspired by Hong Kong’s street rallies.


Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam in January hinted at foreign influence in the territory. “What has happened in Hong Kong has attracted disproportionate commentary from Western media, from overseas governments and politicians,” she said.


PM Prayut last week followed suit with allegations of foreign meddling in Thailand’s dispute.


On Tuesday he accused his political opponents of exploiting students for their own purposes and cautioned them against allowing “foreign forces” to interfere in Thai domestic affairs.


“Don’t open the door to foreign forces to interfere with our sovereignty. This is extremely dangerous,” the premier said.


His remarks came just a day after protesters marched to the German Embassy in Bangkok, calling on Germany to investigate whether the King is conducting political affairs from German soil. His Majesty is known to have spent a considerable amount of time each year in Bavaria.


Former politician Warong Dechgitvigrom, who leads the royalist Thai Pakdee group, said the monarchy was being targeted by a foreign conspiracy.


“A group of Thais are conspiring with foreigners to destroy the foundation of Thai identity,” he wrote on Facebook.


The young protesters, however, see these moves as desperate attempts to deflect from reality. The Free Youth group, which organises frequent protests, said people claiming foreign intervention were perhaps recalling the Thai elite’s Cold War alliance with the US from the late 1940s to early 1990s.


By Thai PBS World’s Political Desk

Conspiracy theorists believe 'invisible foreign hand' behind Thai protests | Thai PBS World : The latest Thai news in English, News Headlines, World News and News Broadcasts in both Thai and English. We bring Thailand to the world

"Invisible Hand?" Nah, takkie just wants his money back.

These are the dopey c u n t s listening to chinky propaganda.

“Don’t open the door to foreign forces to interfere with our sovereignty. This is extremely dangerous,” the premier said.

Forgetting to add "I already have some nice deals with the chinkies ".

Lol it says no evidence. While these student "protesters" are getting their picture taken with milania trump and the US ambassador to Thailand.

There is overwhelming evidence of this.

Originally Posted by Backspin

Lol it says no evidence. While these student "protesters" are getting their picture taken with milania trump and the US ambassador to Thailand.

All of them?

^ This is a news thread. You don’t get to give your opinion and state it as fact without a link.

Is that what you call an 'invisible hand' then- advertising it's donations? And a 100k donation to Anfrel would hardly finance these demonstrations, I doubt it would even cover the noodle bill.

SoCal, you nit wit. They aren’t hiring agitators, they are keeping protesters within the law and keeping them out of jail.

No, NED's donation to Anfrel (100k), and Prachathai (50k) are not a conspiracy theory- how could they be? They are publicly advertised. If you want to find this 'hidden hand' you will have to delve deeper than that.
Red shirts have their own funding network- much of it local. I know that for a fact. Takkie often comes up in despatches too, but he seems to be staying pretty much in the background on this one. Probably because Monarchy.

But the real architects of this protest movement are urban uni students, many from affluent families.

There's 2 sides to every political conflict. So why not report both sides of it ?

what compels people to pledge allegiance to one side or the other anyway.

Originally Posted by sabang

No, NED's donation to Anfrel (100k), and Prachathai (50k) are not a conspiracy theory- how could they be? They are publicly advertised. If you want to find this 'hidden hand' you will have to delve deeper than that.
Red shirts have their own funding network- much of it local. I know that for a fact. Takkie often comes up in despatches too, but he seems to be staying pretty much in the background on this one. Probably because Monarchy.

But the real architects of this protest movement are urban uni students, many from affluent families.

There are elements of local funding and support certainly. But the minute one group starts taking money from the NED, an offshoot of the CIA, they lose legitimacy because they are selling out their sovereignty.

From the sanitized Wiki page for the NED

The NED played a role in suporting the Arab Spring of 2011. For example, the April 6 Youth Movement in Egypt, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights and individual Yemeni activist Entsar Qadhi received training and finances the NED.^[11][12] In Egypt, between 2008 and 2102 it also supported Colonel Omar Afifi Soliman, an exiled police officer who opposed both Hosni Mubarak's and Mohamed Morsi's presidencies, as well as secularist activist Esraa Abdel-Fatah's Egyptian Democratic Academy in 2011.^[13]
It has also supported Chinese dissidents. For example, between 2005 and 2012 it gave small grants to the China Free Press NGO^[14] and in 2019 it gave about $643,000 to civil society programmes in Hong Kong.^[15] In response, in 2020 China imposed sanctions on NED president Carl Gershman and Michael Abramowitz, the president of Freedom House.

From a less sanitized source

And Allen Weinstein, who helped draft the legislation establishing NED, declared in 1991: “A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.

Originally Posted by Backspin

There are elements of local funding and support certainly. But the minute one group starts taking money from the NED, an offshoot of the CIA, they lose legitimacy because they are selling out their sovereignty.

Linky poo? Don’t link to another Cartilucci whack job blog site.

I know Thai people who give money to these protesters. Rich Thais giving a lot of money. They don’t need any outsiders help. This is NOT a foreign stirred movement. This is real Thai people who want change.

You can wax on about the other side but you are not appreciating the needed changes and why real Thai people want it.

Well if you want to catch out the protesters being paid for to be there, look for those wearing yellow. There is even an embarrassing photo of them some of them being trucked in on the back of a garbage truck!
This protest movement is real, as are the underlying grievances.

^^ They are not being bought off by the US! You don’t know WTF you are talking about, as per usual. You just pollute threads with your contrary nonsense.

^^ Exactly!

Originally Posted by Backspin

Say what you went about China or Russia , but they both only deal with the government in power. They don't go looking for political entities to fund , to buy a government that they will prefer

Yep, another great point, Backspin. You'd never see Russia meddling in, say, another country's election to try and get its preferred candidate voted in.

If there was a street called stupid street, in stupid town, stupid land, on the planet stupid, skidmark would be its sole occupant.

^ They are not, ding dong. Rich Thais are bankrolling the leaders. REALLY.

Skidmark is so stupid its not worth using words to reply. Meme's will have to suffice.

Originally Posted by misskit

^ They are not, ding dong. Rich Thais are bankrolling the leaders. REALLY.

I never said that the group was getting 100% of its funding from the US government.

But whatever. I also did not know that Teakdoor forum had pledged allegiance to this neoliberal rat pack of students for democracy (sic)

I happen to be a monarchist

Peace out