Blockbuster movie scares Chinese tourists away from Thailand

[webfact]

For millions of Chinese tourists, Thailand used to be a happy land of water fights, lantern festivals and delicious food.

 

But thanks to social media rumours and a blockbuster movie, the kingdom’s image among many Chinese people is now one of dangerous illegality and seedy scam border compounds — leaving visitor numbers plummeting.

 

Thailand is hugely reliant on tourism, particularly from China. The country welcomed more than 10 million Chinese visitors each year before the Covid-19 pandemic — numbers Bangkok is desperate to see return.

 

But its struggling holiday industry has been hit by viral social media rumours claiming that tourists might be kidnapped and sent across the border to work in brutal scamming compounds in Myanmar or Cambodia.

 

Chinese tourist Jia Xueqiong spent a week in Thailand with her husband and daughter, despite her parents’ disapproval.

 

Full story: Thai PBS 2023-09-23

 

- Cigna offers a range of visa-compliant plans that meet the minimum requirement of medical treatment, including COVID-19, up to THB 3m. For more information on all expat health insurance plans click here.

 

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[webfact]

Box office shocker: Thai trafficking thriller spooks Chinese tourists from coming to Thailand (video)
by Bob Scott

 

 

A Thai box office movie highlighting the real-life dangers of human trafficking in Thailand and Southeast Asia has been blamed for scaring Chinese tourists away from the kingdom.

 

The movie, No More Bets, is a gripping thriller grounded in true events. It follows the harrowing journey of a computer programmer who finds himself ensnared in a violent scamming ring in Southeast Asia, having been trafficked through an unspecified country, widely believed to be Thailand. It is worth noting that the tales of individuals being trafficked to operate call centre scams are rooted in reality.

 

The Thaiger, alongside several other prominent news outlets in Asia, has extensively covered the plight of Asian individuals who are trafficked into call centres in Southeast Asia, primarily in Myanmar and Cambodia, to perform online scams defrauding unsuspecting victims of substantial sums of money.

 

The majority of those enslaved are deceived into this work through deceptive promises of lucrative employment. There have been no reported incidents of tourists being abducted from the streets while on holiday, and no such scam compounds have been uncovered in Thailand. Nevertheless, the film has evoked fear in a number of viewers, consequently casting a shadow over Thailand’s tourism industry.

 

Full story: The Thaiger 2023-09-23

 

- Cigna offers a range of visa-compliant plans that meet the minimum requirement of medical treatment, including COVID-19, up to THB 3m. For more information on all expat health insurance plans click here.

 

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[isaanistical]

at last, some good news.

[retarius]

Can't Thailand sue the producers of this movie for defamation? No, thought not.

[BenStark]

20 minutes ago, webfact said:

But its struggling holiday industry has been hit by viral social media rumours claiming that tourists might be kidnapped

But its struggling holiday industry has been hit by viral social media rumours claiming that tourists might be kidnapped by Chinese nationals

 

There I corrected it

[OneMoreFarang]

When will some people learn that fiction is not the same as reality?

And is it really bad for Thailand if some ignorant people don't visit? 

 

[bob smith]

33 minutes ago, webfact said:

But thanks to social media rumours and a blockbuster movie, the kingdom’s image among many Chinese people is now one of dangerous illegality and seedy scam border compounds — leaving visitor numbers plummeting.

can we play this movie daily in cinemas nationwide for the foreseeable future please ???? 

[dingdongrb]

6 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

When will some people learn that fiction is not the same as reality?

And is it really bad for Thailand if some ignorant people don't visit? 

 

Difficult to do when most people believe everything they see/hear on the Internet is true.

 

One would think that ignorant people would spend more money and perhaps more foolishly than competent folks.

 

Maybe Thailand needs to make more movies like 'Lost in Thailand' which supposedly helped with tourism from China.

[Moonlover]

33 minutes ago, isaanistical said:

at last, some good news.

Why is it good news?

[Walker88]

It isn't fiction.

 

Perhaps it should be reinforced to the Chinese that the border-area scam compounds are all run by Chinese. Myanmar has them in the border near Tak, as well as the Myanmar border east of Lashio.

 

The scams involve crypto scams, love scams, all sorts of things. Make endless calls or get tortured, even killed. Some women are forced into prostitution, especially in the Myanmar-China border areas. There's also some organ harvesting that goes on, the removed organs sold off to HK, Singapore or the Chinese mainland.

 

Some Myanmar friends and foreign expats in Myanmar first told me about this. I assumed it was just urban legend. Then a few news articles began to appear in Western media. I subsequently checked with sources in the intel community and diplomatic corp. It's real. It mostly Chinese run, though there are also russians, especially in Myanmar. The junta takes a blind eye to it, because they're paid off.

 

It involves tens of thousands of captured people. Modern day slavery, right next door.

[Adumbration]

Can't wait for the Koh Tao blockbuster....

[bkk6060]

Sounds like a good movie.

Is it rated on Rotten Tomatoes?

[fondue zoo]

He's wearing glasses to show that the dirt is only on the surface, he's smartest of them all, and will get the girl, after she betrays him and then u-turn rescues him, everyone else dies. The End.

 

[bob smith]

24 minutes ago, Moonlover said:

Why is it good news?

does he need to spell it out for you?

[Artisi]

26 minutes ago, Moonlover said:

Why is it good news?

If you need to ask what was meant, an explanation would probably be lost. 

[Celsius]

I thought it was going to be a movie about Thailand massive fighting cocks 

[owl sees all]

My wife is available. I'll pay any expenses.

[WHansen]

Forget the fiction, the reality of Thailands constant scams from the RTP shaking tourists down to national parks dual pricing takes care of reducing tourist numbers by itself.

[spidermike007]

Perhaps the Chinese should educate themselves on what their own government is doing to the minorities in the West, and Falun Gong members.

 

Falun Gong practitioners across China are subject to widespread surveillance, arbitrary detention, imprisonment, and torture, and they are at a high risk of extrajudicial execution. The party-state invests hundreds of millions of dollars annually in the campaign to crush Falun Gong, while simultaneously engaging in exploitative and lucrative forms of abuse against practitioners, including extortion and prison labor.

 

https://freedomhouse.org/report/2017/battle-china-spirit-falun-gong-religious-freedom

 

The Chinese government has imprisoned more than one million people since 2017 and subjected those not detained to intense surveillance, religious restrictions, forced labor, and forced sterilizations.

 

https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/china-xinjiang-uyghurs-muslims-repression-genocide-human-rights

 

And they are scared of the Thais? This is somewhat bizarre. But, I guess if you are not a minority in China, you simply do not get persecuted, unless you speak out against the CCP, or dictator Xi.

I allow no personal freedom to my people. 

We harvest organs for profit and punishment. 

We oppress our minority populations. 

We barely allow any imports and make it difficult for companies to sell their products in China. 

We ignore territorial boundaries and claim ownership of the South China Sea. 

We are nearly the only nation to have subscribed to a zero covid policy, even if it meant putting millions out of work. 

I have just been appointment PM for life. Or, close to it. 

Impressive, huh? Want to be like us? 

[klauskunkel]

Looks like it's time for "Honest Thai Taxi Driver Returns Money to Chinese Tourist" to become international news...

[Moonlover]

2 hours ago, isaanistical said:

at last, some good news.

 

1 hour ago, bob smith said:

does he need to spell it out for you?

Yes, why not? Why does @isaanistical think it's good news that hoteliers', restaurant owners. tour guides and the likes are unable to make a decent living because of a film?

[IamNoone88]

Chinese economy is depressed. Their property market is in tatters. The scam gangs are all Chinese ... $2.4 billion of illegal funds seized in Singapore and Chinese held. And this is the tip of the iceberg. Look no further.

[stix40]

Looking forward to the 

Prequel and then part

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 etc 

 

[stix40]

Is that what they call 

A Chinese Takeaway? 

[Sydebolle]

Too good to be true - a Thai soap opera with a Chinese booster - always provided this story is true in the first place. 

Thailand's slice of the Chinese tourism case is the cheap zero-dollar part; 10 million (0.007%) among 1'425 million Chinese, really? Yes, not all of those 1.4+ billion will travel but still .......

Thailand has to recompose its tourism industry from scratch; teach languages at school, do not paint everything non-Thai as alien, dirty, and negative, stop with this racism for which Thailand meanwhile is known for. Stop dual pricing, changing visa regulations to absurdity and, for longer-staying guests, facilitate the stay without all that bureaucratic nonsense the immigration is meanwhile well-known for. Do not send people away, if a visa extension is signed in non-blue ink or if photocopied are on both sides of a page. 

 

The Chinese are hordes of monstrous avalanche characters, rude, loud, impolite and selfish. This does not work with the Thais; focus on quality rather than quantity as you cannot handle quantity. Quality was a money spinner 30 years ago - back to the roots! 

[IndomitableSpirit]

Chinese kidnapping other Chinese nationals in different countries is old news. It has been going on for decades in Malaysia and Philippines. Even in Thailand, it started way back but it's not as big as in those two countries mentioned. 

 

I think Thailand should be more welcoming to other Westerners/Europeans/Asians who are also spending a lot of money in the kingdom. Maybe if they stop focusing on Chinese and Indians, they can encourage more tourists from many parts of the world. ????????‍♀️

 

[Bruce Aussie]

2 hours ago, bob smith said:

can we play this movie daily in cinemas nationwide for the foreseeable future please ???? 

show it on Chinese TV every day

[ignore it]

Couple of musings.

 

All films produced in China are reviewed by the  China Film Administration under the Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party which dictates whether, when, and how a movie gets released.  

 

So my personal thanks to them.

 

Was thus film produced with money from a Go Fund Me campaign started by Expats in Thailand?  

 

Can somebody start one for "No More Bets 2"?

 

 

[Bobydog]

54 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

Perhaps the Chinese should educate themselves on what their own government is doing to the minorities in the West, and Falun Gong members.

 

Falun Gong practitioners across China are subject to widespread surveillance, arbitrary detention, imprisonment, and torture, and they are at a high risk of extrajudicial execution. The party-state invests hundreds of millions of dollars annually in the campaign to crush Falun Gong, while simultaneously engaging in exploitative and lucrative forms of abuse against practitioners, including extortion and prison labor.

 

https://freedomhouse.org/report/2017/battle-china-spirit-falun-gong-religious-freedom

 

The Chinese government has imprisoned more than one million people since 2017 and subjected those not detained to intense surveillance, religious restrictions, forced labor, and forced sterilizations.

 

https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/china-xinjiang-uyghurs-muslims-repression-genocide-human-rights

 

And they are scared of the Thais? This is somewhat bizarre. But, I guess if you are not a minority in China, you simply do not get persecuted, unless you speak out against the CCP, or dictator Xi.

I allow no personal freedom to my people. 

We harvest organs for profit and punishment. 

We oppress our minority populations. 

We barely allow any imports and make it difficult for companies to sell their products in China. 

We ignore territorial boundaries and claim ownership of the South China Sea. 

We are nearly the only nation to have subscribed to a zero covid policy, even if it meant putting millions out of work. 

I have just been appointment PM for life. Or, close to it. 

Impressive, huh? Want to be like us? 

Dear Reader,   Abuse from Chinese authorities and prison guards has taken the lives of far too many Falun Gong practitioners. Ms. Mou Yongxia became one of the most recent victims of such violence when she died in custody on July 13 while serving a six-year sentence in Heilongjiang Women’s Prison.    In other news:  A California congressman is calling for the Chinese government to release the mother of a resident in his district who has been jailed for sharing information about the persecution of Falun Gong. The Hudson Institute published a video of a panel discussing the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) problematic influence on U.S. university campuses, including attempts to silence Falun Gong activists. Falun Gong practitioners in Indonesia joined the country’s Independence Day events, garnering support from local officials. A young woman shares the story of her and her mother’s repeated displacement due to the persecution and the negative impact it had on her education. Looking ahead, join us on Monday, September 11 at 1:00 p.m. EST for our live webinar diving deeper into the CCP’s transnational repression on university campuses. Hosted by the Falun Dafa Information Center and moderated by leading Confucius Institute expert, Ian Oxvenad of the National Association of Scholars, this webinar will offer new insight into the key challenges facing universities and recommendations for action to best protect freedom of speech and belief for all students, faculty, and members of the campus community.   Register for the event here.

Sincerely, Levi Browde, Executive Director Falun Dafa Information Center

DOCUMENTED DEATHS 75-Year-Old Falun Gong Practitioner Dies in Custody at Heilongjiang Women’s Prison What's new? Ms. Mou Yongxia, a retired teacher from Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province, died on July 13, 2023, in the hospital at Heilongjiang Women’s Prison. Ms. Mou died after guards and inmates beat and tormented the 75-year-old woman. She was arrested in September 2019, but the exact reason for her detention and subsequent sentencing remains unclear. Ms. Mou is survived by her three sons.   Why does it matter? For over two decades, Falun Gong practitioners have suffered large-scale imprisonment and abuse in custody for their faith or sharing information to combat the persecution of their spiritual practice. Over 5,000 deaths have been documented resulting from abuse in custody, health complications due to mistreatment, or denial of medical care.    Ms. Mou’s death adds to the ever-growing documentation of the CCP’s deadly crimes against Chinese citizens and the need for urgent international action to stop the persecution and save innocent lives.    What else do you need to know? Ms. Mou’s case is exemplary of two common practices that Chinese authorities use in their treatment of detained Falun Gong practitioners: denial of visitation rights and instigating prisoners to abuse practitioners.   Heilongjiang authorities refused to inform Ms. Mou’s family of the location of her detention from the time of her arrest in September 2019 until April 2023. Even after her family was informed of her detention at Heilongjiang Women’s Prison, prison authorities prevented the family from visiting her until she was in hospitalized in June.   In addition to the abuse inflicted on Ms. Mou by prison guards, correctional officers at Heilongjiang Women’s Prison regularly instigated inmates to participate in the torture and harassment of Ms. Mou and other Falun Gong detainees. According to a Minghui correspondent in Heilongjiang, “When it was about time for everyone to brush their teeth, guards would deny all inmates from doing so, with the excuse that the Falun Gong practitioner in the cell did not renounce her faith. This way, guards stirred up hatred towards practitioners.”  Read More

FAMILY RESCUE California Congressman Requests State Department to Call for Release of Falun Gong Practitioner Chinese authorities arrested Ms. Meng Zhaohong, the mother of a California resident, on May 9, 2023, for talking to people about the persecution of Falun Gong at a local fair in Hebei Province. California Congressman Kevin Kiley wrote to the Department of State on behalf of Meng’s daughter, Ms. Ding Yue. He urged the U.S. ambassador to China to raise Meng’s case with Chinese counterparts. The State Department responded with affirmation that they will continue to call for the unconditional release of Falun Gong practitioners and other prisoners of conscience. Read More

TRANSNATIONAL REPRESSION Hudson Institute: Panel Discussing CCP Influence on University Campuses Highlights Transnational Repression of Falun Gong As students across the United States return to campus, Falun Dafa Information Center researcher Cynthia Sun joined Ian Oxvenad of the National Association of Scholars and the Hudson Institute’s Nina Shea to discuss the CCP’s efforts to suppress criticism of the regime, promote CCP propaganda, and steal intellectual property. The discussion, which was published online on August 17, garnered attention from Radio Free Asia which reported on the event. Watch Here

AROUND THE WORLD Falun Gong Practitioners in Indonesia Join 78th Independence Day Events, Receive Government Support Director of the Batam Island Youth and Sports Bureau thanks Falun Gong practitioners for their contribution and invites them to join every year.  On August 13, 2023, Indonesian Falun Dafa practitioners participated in parades to celebrate Indonesia’s 78th Independence Day. Hundreds of practitioners gathered in Bali and Batam to join in parades with marching bands and waist drum performances. Tourists from China, Indonesian citizens, and other onlookers conveyed their support and took photos of the Falun Gong banners. Local government officials and police officers expressed their admiration for the Falun Gong practitioners’ performances. They invited the practitioners back to join the activities every year. Indonesia is one of over 100 countries where Falun Gong is practiced, including by many local residents without prior ethnic or cultural ties to China.  Read More HAVE YOU READ THIS? The Falun Dafa Information Center’s “Statistics and Evidence” presents the scale and severity of the persecution, while offering key evidence of the CCP's rights abuses against Falun Gong practitioners from first-hand accounts and independent documentation.  Read More

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[blazes]

 

The 99.9% of us on this thread who understand the joke about "good news at last" are nevertheless guilty of accepting as "truth" the basic position of the dubious journalism  in the main story.

My own suspicion is that there is no substance to this story whatsoever.   How could a journalist know whether (or not) tourist numbers were affected by this B movie.?

 

If the numbers were affected, it would make for a story about the ignorance of the average Chinese tourist and the sad state of education in the People's Republic.