BANGKOK — Thailand has not sent its airplane to pick up Thai people stranded in China pending a green light from the Chinese government, the air force commander-in-chief said.
ACM Manat Wongwat, the air force chief, stressed on the waiting status in response to Paethongtan Shinawatra’s post that her father and former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra had sent a military plane abruptly to evacuate Thai people from Cambodia during an attack and arson on the Thai embassy there in 2003.
In the previous case, Cambodia had allowed the landing of the air force’s C-130 plane. For the present case, China took security seriously as many countries wanted to evacuate their citizens. China took careful consideration on traffic to and from its land, ACM Manat said.
“The cases cannot be compared. It depends on reasons in the destination countries. We cannot make a guess because it concerns internal reasons,” he said.
The air force chief said the air force was on standby for the expected evacuation. He denied the criticism that the government prioritized China’s authority over the lives of Thai people, saying that an unauthorized flight would cause great damage from conflicts and losses of mutual trust.
Thailand and China had close ties and China took good care of Thai people, ACM Manat said.
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