Diplomacy with China, a must-see TV series
LINKS BETWEEN Thailand and China can be traced back hundreds of years but diplomatic ties between the two countries were only formally established as recently as 1975 amid Cold War tensions between the communist and Western blocs.
China’s relationship with the outside world has not been exclusively confrontational. Then-US president Richard Nixon had himself decided to visit the Chinese leader Mao Xedong in Beijing (or Peking as it was still known to foreigners) in 1972, a decision so sudden even America’s top diplomats had not known about it.
Thailand, the US’s oldest Asian ally, undoubtedly had to rebalance itself amid fears, domestically and internationally, of spreading communism.
Building Sino-US relationships took a great effort, most famously involving exchanges of table tennis players known as “Ping-Pong diplomacy”, and also centred on discreet backstage talks among envoys.
Formal diplomatic ties between Thailand and China Thai-Chinese relations were eventually penned in an agreement on July 1, 1975, with media among the witnesses in attendance. Among them was Suthichai Yoon, a journalist and a co-founder of the Nation Multimedia Group.
Starting on September 7, Suthichai will tell stories behind this long diplomatic journey in the TV documentary series “The Wind of the East: Tracing Relations between Thailand and China”.
The series will be packed with prominent guests, including two-time former prime minister Anand Panyarachun, former foreign minister Tej Bunnag, CP Group’s executive vice president Sarasin Viraphol, former Chinese premier Zhou Enlai’s adopted Thai children Wanwai and Sirin Phathanothai, table tennis magnate Santipap Techawanit and China’s beloved Thai national singer Suthep Wongkamheang.
At the documentary launch yesterday, Anand recalled his time as the former envoy to the US. “Thailand was striving to become a United Nations member,” he said. “With China being a major UN actor, establishing diplomatic ties with her was a must.”
Nothing came without a price, he noted. It was not only about dealing with a war of information and a dominant Western media putting the public in fear of communism. It also meant that Thailand had to tone down its ties with Taiwan.
“When it comes to diplomacy, we can’t proceed in an extreme way,” the former premier said. “It is an art of balance and vision, combined with a long-term strategy.”
Tej, then-second secretary at the Foreign Ministry’s political department, said that Nixon’s gesture visiting China hinted that Thailand should also reconsider its stance.
The establishment of ties with China also helped with Thailand’s survival soon after, Tej said. By the end of the third Indochina war, the Vietnamese army was stationed close to the Thai border but with China providing arms support to Thailand, those troops were later withdrawn.
The 10-episode series will be aired every Thursday and Friday at 7.20pm on Nation TV 22.