rescued from the beach?

It all makes sense now. Asylum seekers en route to New Zealand.

So Chinese driving skills are the same on water as on the road. Keep them away from planes!

The brakes failed.

So Chinese driving skills are the same on water as on the road. Keep them away from planes!

The brakes failed.

Bull Shyt on this story and shame on the media source for their reporting. http://www.khaosodenglish.com/detail.php?newsid=1457005278&typecate=06&section=

Edited March 4, 201610 yr by khwaibah

is that the luxury yacht in the picture ?

It's on the left of the photo

Sadly they will be deported expediently to China by the Thai government....Understandable why they tried to leave Thailand and seek asylum in a more accommodating country, such as Burma, North Korea....

Edited March 4, 201610 yr by AlQaholic

Love the way the nature of this story has completely changed overnight...f

What is it about Falan Gong that is so seditious the Chinese authorities want to crush it and its followers ?

One day in 1999, 10,000 showed up at the ChiCom leadership residential compound and did a dance and then a silent protest of CCP disapproval (CCP won't allow any group of any type to flourish, as they're scared it would somehow undermine their authority).

Asians of any stripe in authority won't accept the loss of face entailed by even the least act of defiance, so from that point forward, Falun Gong was deemed 'an evil religion' and has been persecuted worldwide by the ChiComs - all kinds of spy-vs.-spy harrassment stuff involving Falun Gong followers and Guoanbu agents takes place in the US, for example.

So now we all know how the Chinese billionaire made his money !!!

Smuggling Chinese ...

From a family heading to Singapore on a "luxury yacht" for a family vacation to a group

of dissidents on there way to New Zealand. A bit of a head scratcher. Best of luck to them

now they are in Thailand.

That is not a yacht but a poor cabin cruiser, certainly not luxurious.

A yacht traditionally has a mast and sails.

Yachts need highly qualified skipper and crew to sail .

Actually, it can be described as such, although I understand the point you are making here.

At 13 meters (42 ft) it is something the likes of Roman Abramovich would carry on his afterdeck as a runabout. IMHO it ought to have been referred to as a cabin cruiser. But he is, after all, a Chinese billionaire.

YACHT.

Yacht lengths generally range from 10 metres (33 ft) up to dozens of meters (hundreds of feet). A luxury craft smaller than 12 metres (39 ft) is more commonly called a cabin cruiser or simply a cruiser. A superyacht generally refers to any yacht (sail or power) above 24 m (79 ft) and a megayacht generally refers to any yacht over 50 metres (164 ft). This size is small in relation to typical cruise liners and oil tankers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yacht

I think they were at risk of finding that "6 months in a leaky boat" is more that just a song by NZ group Split ENZ, AKA Crowded House. They would probably have died at the hands of pirates or been swept up by the Australian navy & dumped on Nauru Island for the duration of possibly forever. Saying "We were just trying to get to New Zealand" would not have gained sympathy from either folk.

At 42 feet she could have 6-8 berths but after a while the phrase "Crowded house" might have come to mean more that the name of an NZ group. Nauru would be not much more pleasant.

Edited March 11, 201610 yr by The Deerhunter

What is it about Falan Gong that is so seditious the Chinese authorities want to crush it and its followers ?

Equally: What is it about Falun Gong that is so attractive that The Chinese are willing to risk everything in it's name. The Chines say it is a "cult" which makes it "bad".

The Falun Gong claim they area self development club like a meditation circle.

Methinks neither are quite right but the ones I have seen demonstrating outside a Chinese embassy in one country do not make me want to rush to join up.

Possibly they are benign but the sheer size of the following in China frightened the government. If they had aligned themselves with the Chines Communist Party there would have been no problems but perhaps they had delusions of grandeur beyond that. Such independent thinking by large organised groups is not popular in China. They would have known that.

is that the luxury yacht in the picture ?

12 adults and 2 kids all on a 13 metre cabin cruiser , guessing the owner has followed the general trend in Thailand when it comes to overloading vessels

12 adults and 2 children? I'm guessing that you're part of the trend on Thaivisa that deliberately misinterprets reports, or just can't read, in order to have a bash at anyone just for the sake of it.

There were 8 people on board not 14 as you claim.