John Drake

Does anyone have a sample of Bangkok Bank's CW account letter for the 800,000 retirement extension option? If so, could you please post a photo?

I should think so, if you've made an investment in family life here and there is a risk of that being destroyed and split up. OTOH, you might be someone who just pitched a tent here in a condo to live cheap and it doesn't matter.

Because eventually, if you live here, they may just kick your sweet ass out of the country.

Sometimes you have to look for subtle shifts in things. Other times, statements about racial solidarity (such as a certain government minister saying Asians are cleaner and Westerners are infection sources) make things more explicit. And the willingness and eagerness to jump on that bandwagon by certain segments, such as Thai conservatives siding with Russia and blaming the US for Ukraine, is something that would not have happened here 15 years ago--although it would have happened right after Vietnam 47 years ago. More fundamentally, look at what is going on in education. "International schools" in Thailand used to mean instruction in English. Increasingly, it's Chinese now (or at least it was in 2020 when I last taught and gave talks at Thai universities, before the Chinese exodus). Entire departments of Chinese have been imported in the space of a few years. Funding and exchange programs had altered their targets to China as well. I could go on about this for pages. But unless you've been a teacher as well as an administrator in a Thai university, you would not be aware of the drastic changes that have occurred.

Not only did Trump not achieve much, he essentially was counterproductive when everything was said and done. Whatever you think about "strategy," to me the most fundamental part of any US strategy should be to stop PLA linked Chinese state owned enterprises from raising capital in the US. And as for the Quad you allude to, I believe that began under Trump. Unfortunately. Because I have misgivings about India's role in it. I think India is as much or more of a threat to the US over the long term than China. I know I'd much rather live with Chinese than Indians any time. So I don't trust the Quad at all. Yes, Trump's discarding the TPP was perhaps the biggest mistake he made in foreign policy. And I hop Biden indeed is able to resurrect something through his Indo Pacific Economic Framework. I wish him success because I'm an American and it's in my personal interest that he succeed in it.

This is the most important question for those of us living here. For years now, things have been on a slow boil making life increasingly more dangerous for Americans and Europeans in SE Asia. Had Xi managed to cancel Pelosi's trip indirectly through appealing to the Pentagon generals or Biden or directly through threats, our position would have been degraded. It may not have been a tipping point, but it would have been a landmark leading to one. I just hope that Pelosi has in fact united a bipartisan position against Xi in the US. BTW, let me hasten to add, that I like China and the Chinese. You could even say I'm smitten with their history. But their leader is a totalitarian dictator who wants to turn the world into a mirror image of his surveillance state. I don't want that.

My guy good! Other guy bad!

Trump seemed to be doing something, but he caved into Xi because he didn't want "his" stock market to go down. I supported Trump's early China stances and actions (btw, remember the export agreements that China signed and never delivered on?), including sanctions and tariffs. But it was all empty air when it came time to act and Trump ended up almost begging Xi to buy American soybeans. That said, Biden's failure to delist Chinese PLA stocks from American exchanges, ban things like Tik Tok, and let Meng Wanzhou go free from extradition show weakness. Biden is a weak and corrupt man. Trump is a corrupt bully with a huge yellow streak. Members of congress are on the PRC payroll too. There simply needs to be an accounting. As far as Pelosi, she did the right thing and has showed up China for what it is, a country going into hysterics over a 24 hour visit by an 83 year old woman. Pelosi comes out strong and Xi looks weak. Frankly, she boxed him in. Had xi done nothing, he loses. But doing what he has done with a blockade of Taiwan makes him look like an impulsive nutcase. I don't side much with Pelosi on domestic matters, but she was masterful in this case.

Yes. Could well be. I have no political party preference in any of this. Speculators and profiteers on both sides are guilty, including Mitch McConnell, btw. As long as people defend "their" party and "their" favorite politicians for the roles they've taken on China, the more the US loses the war that is going on right now.

China has aided Russia against Ukraine. When asked, China also refused to use its influence to keep Myanmar from executing pro democracy activists. There is no need any longer to maintain the fiction that China can be a partner in anything. Flood Taiwan with weapons, kick Chinese companies from listing on Wall Street, indict Americans who have in the past and who are now serving PRC interests.

Ought to try the Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat hospital near Central Pinklao.

It is amazing to see people cheer for China just because it's Pelosi who has belled the cat.

Might want to get a professional opinion, instead of one from Dr. Google.

Then, I assume Thailand will be issuing a condemnation of China's "live fire" exercises surrounding Taiwan, beginning today. Essentially, it amounts to a blockade. Perhaps the US should set a submarine or two off the waters of Singapore and announce a "live fire" exercise for any cargo, container, or tankers going to China.

The author, I believe, is a well known mouthpiece for authoritarian dictators and is hostile to anything American. Pelosi did the right thing, here. I hope China-US relations have been upset permanently, because China is an enemy. If so, Pelosi will have been instrumental in turning policy away from American surrender to the dictator, Xi. There needs to be an accounting in the US for all those alive and dead who were responsible for this disastrous policy. I don't care how old and feeble he is, Kissinger should be in prison, along with the Bushes, especially George W., and the Clintons, especially Bill.

Unfortunately, Trump was all hot air when it came to China. As soon as it hurt "his" stock market, he backed down. Finally, he ended up begging Xi to buy American soybeans. And now today China is still raising capital for its state owned enterprises tied to the Chinese army on Wall Street. The real culprits in all this are the Bushes and the Clintons. They, along with Nixon and Kissinger, gave away the store. And the US businesses that followed lemming-like. Put them all in chains and behind bars.

There is this, but I think there was another larger outbreak more recently, too. https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/30164990

Wasn't there video a few years ago of some bank's employees breaking into safety deposit boxes?

For the past 30 years, "good relations" with China has made that country the economic and military equal of the US. It's resulted in the destruction of US industry and the American middle class. And you want relations back where they were so China can kick the US out of the Pacific and East Asia? I don't know if you're in Thailand, but if the US is humiliated or defeated by China because of the naysayers back in the Us, our lives here are going to take a hit, too.

It was just 12 years ago when I first got here. You could walk into the embassy any time, without an appointment. Make a mistake and you could dash outside to get whatever you needed and come back a bit later. Also preferred to submit documents for a new passport in person and pick up the passport in person. Won't go into the income letter for retirement and how we were contemptuously discarded.

By late August everyone will be going ape shxt.

Looks like a young fogey. He already has jowls.

Both parties have backed themselves into a corner. Pelosi/Biden looks weak if she doesn't go. And, now, Xi looks even weaker if he doesn't significantly respond.

She is going. Word out of Taiwan.

When I taught at Mahidol, I met a taxi driver who had two daughters graduate from MU. One was a teacher and the other an engineer. Right now, my housekeeper is working three jobs to help prepare and put her grandson through college.