Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, is there a crackdown on the Chinese in Thailand? Well I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Visa options for Chinese visitors to Thailand shrink rapidly. Quoting directly, and there is a lot going on in this article. I really urge those who are watching this, if you are interested in this topic go check out that article in detail, a lot of information in there. Quoting directly: "In a separate development, Thai Immigration Offices nationwide are not extending the 30 days visa on arrival now given to Chinese entrants. They are being told they cannot extend by visiting a neighbouring land border but must visit by air a Thai Embassy or Consulate abroad and apply for a 60 day Tourist Visa. However, reports from Thai Embassies in Phnom Penh and Vientiane indicate that this is proving easier said than done and the Chinese applicants are being told to return to China. Chinese Authorities say they are refusing to allow their nationals to board planes for overseas trips if their reason is tourism." 

Now the big question here is what's going on? Is this Thai Immigration perhaps operating at the behest of the Chinese Government? They have sort of said "hey we are going to start letting Chinese folks leave China but we would really appreciate it if you could be I guess hard on them in an Immigration context?" I don't know if that occurred. Could be Thai Immigration, they have their own policies that they are implementing. As we discussed in videos before, the Visa on arrival, the amount of time one gets on arrival in the past it was 15 days, currently during high season it is 30 days so that has been doubled. So that does kind of beg the question why a Border Run might be needed when folks that in the past would only have had two weeks lawful status in Thailand now get 30 days, maybe there's something going on with that. The other thing is it's pretty odd to hear about people being, not odd especially not odd in the last couple of years, but in the past it wasn't usually common place to see folks being told, "oh you need to go to an Embassy or Consulate" wherever that may be, in this case that article mentioned Phnom Penh and Vientiane so nearby here in both Cambodia and Laos respectively, so usually okay you might see that but then people are allowed to do a Visa Run, they get a visa and then come back in. It is pretty rare to hear Embassies saying "No, you probably ought to go on back home." It does happen, I've seen it happen in cases before but to see it happening in mass, Thai is pretty odd, it doesn't happen every day. So interesting to see where this is sort of heading. We will certainly keep you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.