GMD that led the Siamese authorities to reject attempts by no fewer
than three Chinese missions to establish diplomatic relations. Another
concern was that conflict between Nationalist and Communist
Chinese would be fought out in Siam. All overtures were therefore
rejected.
Siamese nationalist discourse had been encouraged by King
Rama VI Vajiravudh, who dubbed the Chinese ‘the Jews of the
East’,^8 and was further stimulated by the military coup of 1932. One
of the first acts of the military regime was to make communism
illegal. Later, the government of General Phibul Songkram enacted
a number of measures that, though they applied to all foreign
nationals, were deliberately designed to reduce Chinese influence in
Thailand. Education in Siamese was made mandatory. Most Chinese
schools and newspapers were closed, Chinese were excluded from
certain economic pursuits that were reserved for Siamese, new taxes
on foreigners were introduced, and remittance of money made
illegal. At the same time, naturalisation requirements were tight-
ened, so fewer Chinese could claim Siamese citizenship. In June
1939, the nationalist aspirations of the government were symboli-
cally demonstrated by changing the name of the country to
Thailand, and by embracing a pan-Tai ideology to include all Tai-
speaking peoples, notably the Lao of Laos and the Shan of Burma,
and even potentially the Leu of the Xishuangbanna in southern
China.
This anti-Chinese turn greatly agitated the Chinese commu-
nity in Thailand, but as China and Thailand had no diplomatic
relations, there was little the Nationalist government could do.
Chiang Kaishek expressed the hope to General Phibul that Chinese
citizens in Thailand would be permitted to continue to contribute
to the Thai economy. It was an ineffectual intervention, for by this
time Thai attitudes to China had become complicated by the rise
of Japan as a major Asian power, and by the outbreak of the
Sino–Japanese war.
A Short History of China and Southeast Asia