Doesn't sound like a fair deal
Now that the dust is settling and Thai ladies have stopped sweeping the red carpet in front of Premier Li, it's time to see what Thailand gave and received from the Chinese leader's visit.
Li’s interest in the high-speed railway seems one of self-interest. “Vote China” on contracts for the high-speed rail system, he extorted. “We are members of the same family,” he said, asking Thais to support China’s bid for the contracts. That’s a cost of Bt1.5 trillion or more.
This expenditure, envisaged for a high-speed track to Nakhon Ratchasima, is approximately Bt20,000 for every man, woman and child in Thailand – for a four-track railway ending at Korat. Tough if you want to go to Khon Kaen, Udon Thani or Nong Khai, let alone Chiang Mai. It is ludicrous, and will serve a small proportion of Thais at huge expense.
In return, Thailand gets to sell a million tonnes of rice to China in a government-to-government deal over the next five years. Let’s have a look at it: Thailand produces 22 million tonnes of rice a year at a cost of Bt300 billion to the state. In five years it produces over 100 million tonnes. China will take 1 million tonnes. That’s great. China takes 1 per cent of Thai rice production. The rice price-pledging scheme pays out $800 a tonne and can only return half that, maybe $400 a tonne. So, we sell 1 per cent of our rice to China, at a loss, and we get to hand massive but ludicrous rail-building contracts to China.
