Beijings Expanding Influence and Thai Bureaucracy Entrench Chinese Gray Network: Analysts

Thailand’s entrenched bureaucracy and deepening ties with China are fueling the expansion of Chinese gray networks, experts warn, threatening to worsen the kingdom’s long-standing trafficking and money laundering problems.Police raided a luxury hotel in Thailand’s Nonthaburi province, uncovering gambling, drug-related gatherings, and alleged sex services catering to Chinese clients, according to a July 26 Facebook post by the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB), the country’s national investigative police agency.Investigators found that the entire property was leased by a group backed by a “Chinese gray network”—a term for unregulated or underground business operations run by Chinese nationals—to serve as a highly secure operating base.Officers arrested a 33-year-old Chinese man on charges of possessing and distributing illegal drugs, along with three nationals of Burma on charges of illegally entering and residing in the country.Such gray businesses are far from isolated. In July, authorities raided 18 locations across Chiang Mai and issued arrest warrants for 22 suspects, including nine Chinese nationals, according to Thai PBS World, a publicly funded broadcaster in Thailand, and other Thai news outlets.The suspects were accused of using local nominees to mask foreign business and land ownership, the reports said.Chinese-linked crime now makes almost weekly headlines in Thailand, sparking widespread reactions among locals on social media platforms like Facebook and TikTok under the hashtag “#grayChinese.”But Zhang Jianwei, the Chinese ambassador to Thailand, urged Thai people to avoid the term, claiming it stigmatizes Chinese people, Thailand’s Tourism and Sports Minister Surasak Phancharoenworakul said on June 23.Exploiting Loopholes  Chen Shang-mao, president of the Taiwan Network for Free Democracy, said China’s growing influence in Thailand has accelerated Chinese investment and paved the way for a broader influx of gray businesses.“As illicit Chinese operations face increasing scrutiny in Cambodia and Burma, they are moving into Thailand,” Chen, who is based in Bangkok, told The Epoch Times.“Chinese gray syndicates are taking advantage of legal loopholes, enabled by Thailand’s long-standing corruption problems and deepening bilateral ties.”Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul concluded his official visit to China on July 20, during which he met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The two sides signed a series of cooperation agreements covering areas including trade and technological innovation, according to a joint statement issued by both countries.Thailand’s caretaker prime minister Anutin Charnvirakul arrives at the Government House in Bangkok on Feb. 9, 2026. Chanakarn Laosarakham/AFP via Getty ImagesMatthana Rodyim, a lecturer in the Cultural Studies Program at the Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia at Mahidol University, said the prevalence of such networks in Thailand is largely driven by persistent problems within the country’s bureaucracy.“Gray businesses survive because someone provides protection, ignores the activity, supplies documents, or warns them before an operation,” Matthana told The Epoch Times.Matthana added that the expanding Chinese-language presence in Thailand has made it easier for them to operate.“Most Chinese migrants are not criminals, but the same infrastructure serving ordinary migrants can also be used by gray businesses,” Matthana said.“Thai people generally do not have deep prejudice against ethnic Chinese people, [which] allows Chinese nationals to enter Thai society and business circles more easily.”Approximately 110,000 to 130,000 new Chinese migrants resided in Thailand in 2022, according to the ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute, a Singapore-based research institute.Trafficking and Money LaunderingMatthana said that growing gray activities are exacerbating Thailand’s ongoing human trafficking problems and severely compromising visitor safety.“They [gray activities] create locations where drugs, gambling, sex services, and violence are concentrated,” he said.“They also expose tourists and migrant workers to extortion, debt bondage, document confiscation, and physical abuse.”Victims of scam centers board a boat to cross the river into Thailand on the Burma–Thai border, in Myawaddy, Burma, on Feb. 12, 2025. STR/AFP via Getty ImagesThailand welcomed 32.9 million foreign visitors in 2025, according to data from the country’s Tourism and Sports Ministry.A 2024 U.S. State Department report stated that the Thai government “does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking,” while “corruption and official complicity” continue to hinder anti-trafficking efforts.Matthana said that such ventures also shatter public trust by turning seemingly legitimate storefronts into deceptive covers for organized crime and money laundering.“In some cases, workers may enter what looks like a restaurant but later discover that the business is connected with scams or sexual exploitation,” he said.“Businesses backed by criminal money do not need to make normal profits because their main purpose may be money laundering.”Crime and Control  Matthana said that although closer China–Thailand relations do not directly cause Chinese gray networks, they have fueled a surge in cross-border trade that has overwhelmed the kingdom’s weak regulatory system.“Legal investment and illegal networks can move through the same channels,” he said.“Without serious financial investigation and independent law enforcement, the Thai state may not be able to distinguish between them.”“If Chinese law enforcement gains access to Thailand through closer bilateral cooperation, it could trigger concerns over long-arm jurisdiction,” he said.The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) enacted the Ethnic Unity and Progress Promotion Law on July 1, a move critics warn could be weaponized to silence its overseas dissidents.In 2025, Thailand deported 40 Uyghur Muslims to China, drawing condemnation from Washington, other foreign governments, the United Nations, and rights advocacy groups.Police stand outside an immigration detention center of the Immigration Bureau where Uyghur detainees are held in Bangkok, Thailand, on Jan. 11, 2025. AP Photo/Haruka NugaSystemic Complicity   FBI Director Kash Patel testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee on March 18 that the CCP is supporting scam hubs in Southeast Asia.“They’re literal compounds … fleecing Americans and senior citizens all the way from Southeast Asia because they are backed by the CCP,” Patel said during a hearing on worldwide threats.Chinese syndicates operate scam centers across Burma, Cambodia, and Thailand, forcing trafficked victims worldwide into online fraud.As political ties between Beijing and Bangkok strengthen, Matthana said the rapid expansion of legitimate Chinese commerce inadvertently provides a vast, ready-made infrastructure for these criminal networks to hide within.“Criminal groups can use the same networks to transfer money, recruit workers, rent properties, and establish companies,” Matthana said.“This does not prove state sponsorship, but it increases the number of channels that authorities must monitor.”As long as the deep-rooted collusion within Thailand’s military and police establishment persists, the Chinese gray networks will continue to thrive, according to Matthana.“Foreign criminal networks cannot operate at a large scale through foreign connections alone,” he said.“Without examining the Thai side of the network, blaming China alone becomes politically convenient but analytically incomplete.”