Visas for Chinese tourists entering Thailand may face tightening pressure.
This is the latest by-product of the kidnapping and murder of female students who shocked China and Thailand.
(Image from Google)
On April 4, the Commissioner of the Thai National Police, General Tan Rongsa (a brother of the Thai police), mentioned in an interview with reporters that he would summon the director of the Thai Immigration Department on April 5 to discuss "how to curb and prevent foreigners from committing crimes in Thailand" and formulate solutions.
Most crucially, Admiral Dan Rongsa mentioned a key message - at an internal police meeting, the issue of visas on arrival for Chinese travelers to Thailand will be "discussed".
Is this to cancel the rhythm of Chinese tourists on arrival?
In response to this crucial question, Dan Rongsa did not acknowledge nor deny,
Instead, he said the words in a foggy way: "As for whether the visa on arrival for Chinese tourists will be canceled?" This is a very delicate issue that requires a joint decision between several different departments..."
(Image from NationTV)
On April 5, the Commissioner of the Thai National Police, General Tan Rong Sa, met with the Director General of the Thai Immigration Department to discuss how to solve the problem of visa on arrival (VOA) for foreign tourists and proposed relevant measures.
General Dan Rong Sap stressed that whether it is tourists with 15 sunset visas or foreigners staying in Thailand on tourist visas and work visas, the immigration department must "strictly review and closely follow" their applications to stay in Thailand.
At present, the police, together with the immigration bureau police and the tourist police, are taking active and strict measures to inspect various residences such as rental houses and apartments.
Police Admiral Tanvinh Sa believes that Thailand is a tourist country, allowing tourists to enjoy the visa on arrival policy, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, but at the same time, Thailand must also take more effective measures. The Government has been stressing with public officials that it will also take drastic measures if they are suspected of soliciting benefits from foreign tourists.
Regarding the issue of visas on arrival for Chinese tourists, General Dan Rongsa said that at present, the Thai side has communicated and coordinated with the Chinese authorities to understand the details of tourists and check whether they have criminal records.
In this way, for a while, the visas of Chinese tourists may not suffer immediately.
However, since everyone has mentioned this file, it shows that the Thai side has indeed moved this mind - or rather, some people within Thai society and the Thai government have indeed raised this issue.
The next thing is probably not so optimistic.
(Picture from silent answer)
Will Thai officials really tighten visas to Thailand Chinese, or even cancel visas on arrival for Chinese tourists?
For now, it seems unlikely that it will be temporary.
Because the Thai government's current priority is to revive Thailand's tourism industry as soon as possible, the impetus for "relaxation" of visas for Chinese tourists to Thailand should be greater than the pressure of "tightening". Some Chinese criminals committed crimes in Thailand, which are still isolated incidents in Thailand's position, which is not enough to reverse the overall trend of Thai visas to China.
As for the "anti-gray production" period of time ago, although it also caused some overseas Chinese living in Thailand to be affected by their visas, the Thai police at that time were not actually "tightening visa policies", but cracked down on "illegal visa channels", knocked out some "colleges" and "foundations" that illegally issued visa materials, and cleansed the internal moths of the immigration bureau that colluded with these institutions.
The Thai police did not "tighten the regulations", but found and filled the gaps, and in the process of rectifying and maintaining the current visa regulations, it affected some visas that were legally flawed and did not comply with the current Thai regulations.
In terms of tourist visas and visas on arrival, the Thai government has never "tightened", but has constantly considered and waited on the premise of maintaining and restoring the current regulations.
Some time ago, Thailand's "45-day visa-free" and "30-day visa-on-arrival" reverted to "30-day visa-free" and "15-day visa-on-arrival", which is not an official initiative to tighten the entry policy, but the natural suspension of the special visa preferential policy during the epidemic period in September 2022.
All in all, Thailand has no incentive and signs of tightening the visa on arrival and tourist visa. In some cases, it is not enough to offset Thailand's desire to revive its tourism industry, and the possibility of a significant tightening of Thailand's short-term visas to China is not great.
(Photo by Ctrip)
In fact, let alone that Thailand does not want to do this, and even if it does, it will not mean much to Thai security.
Because, the application for a tourist visa in Thailand is actually a very low threshold. Even if criminals want to enter Thailand for a short time, they can actually apply for a tourist visa to Thailand.
In this "case of female international students kidnapping and tearing tickets", the three Chinese suspects actually came to Thailand with tourist visas, not landing visas.
The 15-day visa on arrival is too short, even for overseas criminals who come to Thailand to commit crimes, it is too hasty.
More "gray industry elements" in Thailand are more inclined to use long-term visas such as study, pension, and volunteering to stay in Thailand for a long time. Whether or not to cancel the visa on arrival does not have much impact on this part of the people.
Therefore, for the Thai government, cracking down on overseas lawbreakers by tightening short-term visas and canceling visas on arrival is a very low-cost option - hurting tourists and failing to really prevent bad actors.
If you really want to crack down on foreign bad guys lurking in Thailand, the Thai government's higher priority option is to clear illegal residents, crack down on illegal visa channels, and clean up buildings, rather than closing doors and windows.
So, is there any other solution to the problem of foreigners committing crimes in Thailand?
(Photo from Red Star News)
Many readers, in our background, have contributed ideas.
It has been proposed that all Chinese coming to Thailand, regardless of visa category, require a Certificate of No Criminal Record.
The Thai police chief's so-called "communication with China to verify criminal records" seems to be similar.
This trick may indeed be able to effectively eliminate many "toxic immigrants". But the problem is that the police station of the jurisdiction needs to be issued for a police certificate of no crime, and then notarization and consular authentication can be submitted to the Thai side as exit materials, the whole process is too cumbersome, migrant students have enough patience to do it, and ordinary tourists are annoyed - travel abroad for a week, but also open a police certificate, then it is better to change places.
Therefore, requiring applicants for visas on arrival and tourist visas to provide a "Certificate of No Police", although valid, is too harmful to the tourism industry.
In addition, requiring passengers from a particular country to provide a police certificate without discrimination involves national discrimination.
Do you ask Chinese travelers to submit certificates, do you want the US, EU, Japan to provide them? Is it considered differential treatment without discrimination?
In recent years, everyone has been sensitive, and if they really want to implement the entry threshold for all employees with no criminal record on China alone, it will definitely cause huge public opinion controversy and attract strong criticism from Chinese people in Thailand and the Chinese people.
Therefore, although it may work, it is not easy to implement.
(Photo from Sina)
It has also been suggested that the security screening of Chinese tourists when leaving the country should be strengthened.
In fact, China and Thailand have been doing this for a long time.
Chinese tourists coming to Thailand are already subject to strict scrutiny when they leave the country - especially in some specific provinces, those who are single men and have abnormal entry and exit records will be subject to almost strict screening and screening.
The Thai immigration bureau is not strict in the review of tourist visas, if you have a record of returning to and from Thailand with a tourist visa in a short period of time, it is possible to refuse your visa directly.
are so strict, if you want to be stricter in this regard, in fact, there is not much room for "stricter".
Moreover, some lawbreakers who go to Thailand are already difficult to identify. There are no scars on people's faces, how can you tell every time, which is the bad guy pretending to be a tourist, and which is the tourist who looks like a bad guy?
(Image from Google)
It's hard to bask in the sun and not want flies to fly in.
For Thailand, "tightening visas to strengthen law and order" and "deregulating to promote tourism" are difficult to achieve both.
Tightening visas, especially the cancellation of visas on arrival, is of little utility and low value for controlling foreign criminals in China, and is unlikely to really become a policy option for Thai officials in the near future.
However, the crimes committed by foreign lawbreakers, especially Chinese ash products in Thailand, are indeed not two cases, but have recently shown a concentrated outbreak. Although extremely cruel and bloody cases such as the "girl kidnapping and murder case" are still rare cases, there are indeed signs of intensifying between Chinese and Chinese, especially between gray products and gray products, violent debt collection, and lynching conflicts.
In the long run, do you want to say that these things will not affect the visas of Chinese tourists at all? Will it not affect the planning and implementation of visa-on-arrival and visa-free (future policies) for China?
I'm afraid that there will still be some impact after all.
(Picture from Ruffian)
It is hoped that China and Thailand can work together to curb the criminal acts of foreign criminals targeting Chinese in Thailand, and crack down on telecommunications crimes and violence against Chinese compatriots committed by lawbreakers using Thailand as a transit station and base.
China, try not to let its own bad guys run to Thailand, and crack down hard on the bad guys who return from Thailand.
As for Thailand, in addition to pondering visa issues, it is also necessary to optimize security in the country and strengthen the integrity building and enforcement capabilities of the Thai police force - after all, it is not all Chinese that hurt Chinese in Thailand.
Between "Chinese tourists traveling to Thailand" and "effective public security in Thailand", I hope that China and Thailand can find a balance.
If the house has been robbed, the doors and windows should indeed be checked.
But you can't close your doors and windows and never see customers again.
Thailand is not the Longtan tiger's den in the mouth of self-media bloggers.
Nor must those thieves who hunt their compatriots turn this place into a Longtan tiger's den.
(Image from Google)
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