Transcript of the above video: 

The question posed by this video is, 'are Chinese Police trying to “sneak” into Thailand'? And we are utilizing for the thumbnail, a photo from the movie Sneakers with Robert de Niro, a very underrated movie that I think most people would enjoy if they watched it today. It was made at a very interesting time in American history, in the early '90s, when we were going through kind of a transition. I don't think you'll ever see a movie like that made again but I think it sort of brings up the issue of, 'are Chinese police trying to sneak into Thailand?' What are we talking about? 

Well first of all I initially found something about this over on the Standard channel here on YouTube. Now this was all in Thai, and we had folks here in the office go ahead and try to give us a rough translation of some relevant excerpts from that video. I'll go ahead and throw up a link to that video in the description below. Again, it's from the Standard, their channel on YouTube. Quoting directly, from our rough translation: "People's Party post exposes Chinese volunteer police training course, cost 38,000THB per person." 

So first off understand, apparently there's some kind of "volunteer" training course that Chinese nationals can come down here to Thailand and attend and apparently, they get all kinds of needs accoutrement or it's being alleged they get some kind of neat accoutrement as if they were Thai Police and I'll get into that here in a moment, but quoting further: "In just three days at this course, one will receive a certificate and card with the Royal Thai Police logo." So now you get an ID card from the RTP. Again, as a foreigner in Thailand, I find this very disconcerting. Quoting further: "It is an open recruitment for Chinese people to come and train. The Chinese Police volunteer officers claim to have the parent organization as the Police Investigation Bureau and Metropolitan Police Bureau 3." Again, in that translation, there seems to be a little bit of vagueness regarding exactly who's under whose umbrella with all of this. Quoting further: "Shooting a gun teaches you how to use a gun, then you will get it, receive a certificate issued by your commander valid for two years, expiring in 2026; the study period is only a short three days." 

So my question is, I didn't fully understand from this translation, from watching this video, are these folks, again foreigners, again foreign presumably operatives, coming into Thailand, are they going to be able to have firearms? As we have discussed in other videos, foreigners are not allowed to have firearms anymore in Thailand; they are not allowed to be granted a permit to own or carry a firearm is the best of my understanding. Again, I believe that was restricted to Thai citizens. I did that video some years back - I want to say probably 4 or 5 years ago - talking about that. In the past, it was possible to get a firearm permit as a Lawful Permanent Resident here in Thailand, but that was extinguished some years ago and now only Thai nationals can possess firearms legally in Thailand, which is my understanding. Is that not the case? So now foreign, or specifically in this case Chinese operatives, are allowed to carry firearms in Thailand and receive police identification? Is that what is going on here? 

Then I went over to another source, Thai Examiner, thaiexaminer.com, the article is titled: Chinese policing programme and a Bangkok university linked by the Interior Ministry to a defense force. So, this is the Interior Ministry, apparently investigating this and linking one to another. Again, I'm just reporting this; I don't know what conclusions to draw yet from this. Quoting directly: "Thai Police and officials investigate Siam University's controversial course linked to Chinese nationals and a military defense force." Involving Chinese nationals here in Thailand. Does no one have an issue with this? Quoting further: "Fears include misuse of police emblems", yeah, "potential impersonation of regulatory breaches." yeah, "Full statement awaited." Okay. "On Saturday, National Police Chief, General Kittirat Phanphet ordered a thorough investigation into the controversial police training course..." Good. The last Police Chief, Mr. Torsak, I think was his name. He was the last head of the Thai Police, he noted that there were serious sovereignty issues with the whole notion of Chinese being involved, of foreign nationals, in this case Chinese nationals, mainland Chinese, directly being involved and wearing uniforms and operating or cooperating with the Thai Police Force. I have serious problems with that. This is Thailand. Thai police patrol Thai streets. Not that hard to figure out. I don't know why this is so difficult except for the fact that if you are a communist and you are really into the whole notion of the Comintern and the international struggle, well in that paradigm, maybe this makes some more sense. That said, quoting further: "..conducted in December for Chinese students at Bangkok's Siam University. The top cop said that any volunteer police program must be in line with strict regulations already in place." God, I hope so. Quoting further: "Furthermore, the use of Royal Thai police emblems and uniforms were strictly controlled." Yeah, because you are either a Police Officer or you are not. I am tired of this gray area nonsense. I'm especially tired of foreigners trying to worm and weasel their way into our domestic Police Force here in Thailand. What is going on here? I mean this stuff is serious threats to the sovereignty of this nation. Why is this not just rebuffed in total, from the outset. No, you can't be doing this stuff. Quoting further: "On Friday, details of the course became even more intriguing when the Ministry of the Interior linked it to a recognized Defense Association under the Ministry of Defense." And let's not forget, a former communist is now the Minister of Defense. I've done the videos on that before. So again, this leads to some very weird questions in my opinion. Quoting further: "At the same time, Minister of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation (MHESU) Miss Supamas Isaraphakdi indicated that a response from Siam University would be forthcoming this week."

Oh, so we are all supposed to be calm about Chinese police trying to infiltrate our local police here in Thailand; just be calm about that. Why did you do this in the first place? Where do you have authorization to do this? Do these people have firearms? Are they now carrying around identification as if they are local Thai Police? These are all very concerning developments that I think reasonable people have a right to have answered. That being said, we'll update you as things evolve with this story here in the Kingdom of Thailand and we’re looking forward to doing so.