The Bangkok Post, 30 December 2014

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha was enthusiastic about China after his recent, brief trip to the Middle Kingdom. He felt China offers lessons to the world, and can serve as a model. He isn’t wrong. There are plenty of admirable traits about both Chinese culture and the Chinese government’s drive to excel. There is one field, however, in which China serves more as a bad example than a model, and on which the prime minister is wrong to ally Thailand with China.

The day after Gen Prayut returned from his overnight Beijing visit last week, China announced he had agreed to a joint effort to combat illegal immigration. That is quite a misleading way to put it. China wants Thailand to forget its history of welcoming distressed travellers. China is embarrassed by the current outflow of Uighurs from its northwestern region of Xinjiang. It wants Thai help to mitigate that embarrassment — and along the way to take global blame for mistreatment of the illegal immigrants.

China is one of the world’s worst violators of human rights. But its general record of repression, violence and Big Brother-style surveillance of so-called dissidents and democrats is benign compared with its policies in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. Most of the Xinjiang area is under harsh military-directed rule. Calling it “martial law” understates what is really going on, because the special regime in Xinjiang is in no way comparable to the relatively sympathetic martial law situation in Thailand.

On the day Beijing announced that Gen Prayut intends to cooperate in combating Uighur emigration, Chinese border guards encountered a group of the Muslim people at the Vietnamese frontier. The soldiers challenged the Uighurs under a law that forbids “religious extremists” from leaving China. The Uighurs objected, so the Chinese troops killed one person and arrested all the others.

This is so non-Thai that one struggles with the concept. A group of Chinese citizens — Muslims from the Xinjiang region — wanted to leave China. The army stopped them, killing one and arresting the others. The last time that Thai troops killed a group of people who were trying to leave the country was … never. According to Beijing, Gen Prayut has agreed to side with the Chinese government in actions like this — actions neither he nor any Thai national, political or military leader would ever employ.

Part of China’s push for Thai cooperation in using extreme violence against migrants is Beijing’s knowledge of the group of Uighurs now staying uneasily in the South. Because of their well-founded fear of being sent back to China, the group has been secretive about its origins and destination. The Uighurs are openly fearful of attempts by the Chinese consulate in Songkhla to interview them. China insists they must be returned to face legal proceedings, and it is unfortunate that Thai authorities are likely to do just that.

It must be hoped that Gen Prayut will seriously consider the consequences if he accedes to Chinese pressure to “cooperate”. Acting as China’s partner or proxy in stomping on the rights of helpless migrants will bring heavy criticism against his government, and against Thailand.

China does not need Thailand’s help to be an economic power, a proud country with a rapidly improving standard of living. It will prosper without Thailand returning dozens or hundreds of emigrants. Authorities in Beijing should carefully contemplate why China has become a country that citizens want to flee, instead of a beacon of hope and sanctuary for the oppressed and downtrodden.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/453030/not-in-our-interests