Asian Angle | Thailand’s treatment of Joshua Wong raises the question: are Hongkongers welcome?

The remarkable thing is that Thai university students got as far they did with their invitation to Joshua Wong. They set up a commemorative forum, scheduled a day of media interviews, and planned addresses on two university campuses. And Wong felt confident enough that he took up the invite, journeying all the way to Bangkok.

In his engagements, Wong planned to share his experiences in the umbrella movement – as he had at universities in Taiwan, Japan, Britain, and the United States. But on this occasion, what was he walking into?

Thailand is one of the few countries in the world today still ruled by a military junta. Animated by the strife between “Thaksin-istas” and monarchists, the generals seized power through a coup in May 2014. They have shown little tolerance since for political activism.

Joshua Wong and the double standards of the Thai junta

Rather, the junta has clamped down on dissent, using a gradated framework of repression. Early on, this involved a diversionary “happiness” campaign mounted by comely lasses in camouflage-patterned skirts, intimating the junta’s tough love. Soon after, this hardened into bleak warnings and “attitude adjustment” sessions, meted out in detention centres. Finally, for those who persisted, the framework was enhanced by arrests for lese majeste, computer crimes, and sedition, swift proceedings in military courts, and rough incarceration.