Chinese conspiracy theory about Thai human trafficking fuels tourism concern

As Thailand tries to revive its tourism industry and other related businesses, it is pinning much of its hopes on a return of Chinese visitors. Working against those efforts, however, is a tall tale that’s recently gained traction on the Chinese internet.

On March 9, a video uploaded by content creator @心医林霖 (Psychiatrist Lin Lin) to the Chinese video sharing platform Bilibili claimed that a “full-throated human-trafficking industry” specifically targeting female tourists from China is thriving in Thailand. In the roughly 30-minute video, the person takes aim at Thailand’s alleged attempt to brand itself as “women’s paradise,” saying that behind the marketing campaign is a concerted effort by local human traffickers to draw Chinese women to host clubs, where careless customers get drugged and sent to work for telecom fraud operations. In worst-case scenarios, victims are murdered and have their kidneys harvested.

“Because Thailand hasn’t found new ways to grow its economy, it has to rely on illegal businesses operating in the gray area,” the content creator said. “Why would someone let boys become transgender drag queens if they can make money in a healthy way?” At multiple points during the video, the Bilibili user also accused “anti-China Western forces” of financially supporting human traffickers in Thailand and offering technical consultancy in order to harm Chinese people and acquire a slice of the profits.

The uploader provided no convincing evidence for his outlandish claims, but the video was shared far and wide; the clip had more than 680,000 views on Bilibili before it was deleted on Thursday. On Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, the video received over 2 million likes before his account was suspended.

Fueling the video’s virality were a slew of Chinese influencers, who praised @心医霖林 for “speaking the truth” and shared stories about feeling unsafe when traveling in Thailand. In one video on Bilibili, a woman said she almost fell victim to multiple scams involving a taxi driver and hotel staff when she visited Thailand in 2018. “Before I went there, I had definitely heard some tales about the black market for organ trade in Thailand. I thought I would be fine if I stayed in metropolitan areas,” she said. In another video, a female influencer blamed the deterioration of security conditions in Thailand on its legalization of marijuana, its unregulated sex industry, and its inaction toward international fraud. “You are lucky if nothing bad happened to you when you were in Thailand. But telling others that it’s still safe to visit there is alarmingly irresponsible,” she remarked.

The Thai Embassy in China responded to the scandal in a Weibo post on Thursday. It labeled the claims as “disinformation” and stressed that Thailand attaches great importance to Chinese tourists’ safety in the country, the quality of their traveling, and their impression of the country.

“We completely understand tourists’ concerns about safety,” the embassy said. “Thailand has always been popular with travelers from all over the world, and many Thai cities have been ranked as ‘a safe city to live in’ by various organizations. We are fully prepared to welcome Chinese visitors and have increased communication channels for them so they can promptly file reports and stay informed in emergency situations.”

Still, as the conspiracy theory was spreading, it was the talk of social media. At least three influencers, including @喷十六elf, who has 33 million followers on Douyin, updated their followers on their whereabouts in Thailand and explained that their inactivity on social media wasn’t because they encountered trouble. On Weibo, the “Thailand tourism safety” #泰国旅游 安全性# hashtag has been viewed more than 100 million times, with an overwhelming number of observers vowing to avoid Thailand and citing the conspiracy theory as the reason.

Around the same time as the Thai Embassy’s post, Psychiatrist Lin Lin faced a social media purge. His original video on Bilibili was taken down, and his Douyin account was disabled. In the eyes of his followers, the conspiracy theorist, who introduced himself as a psychiatrist who regularly posts social commentary on a variety of issues ranging from geopolitics to the origin of COVID-19 (which he believed to be invented by Western countries to wipe out the elderly population), was silenced for being a whistleblower. “Apparently he’s getting in the way of some really influential people. If you know you know,” read a cryptic message on Douyin in support of @心医林霖.

Thailand’s economy, the second largest among the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is heavily reliant on international tourism, a once-flourishing sector that was devastated by the COVID-19 outbreak and related travel restrictions. Before the pandemic, Chinese were the largest group of visitors to Thailand, accounting for about 28% of the record 40 million foreign arrivals in 2019.

After Beijing relaxed the country’s strict COVID measures and reopened its borders last December, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha ordered Thai government agencies to introduce attractive tour packages and marketing deals to draw at least five million Chinese travelers this year. According to data from Chinese leading travel service provider Ctrip, Bangkok and Chiang Mai were among the top destinations for Chinese tourists on self-guided trips during January’s Lunar New Year holiday. In February, Thailand saw the arrival of the first tour group from China in almost three years. As a gesture of welcome, senior Thai government officials and Chinese diplomats lined up at Bangkok’s airport.