From Arun, June 29, 2015
Caption: China proposes to sell a submarine to Thailand.
[Recently, Thailand’s navy decided on a 36 billion baht plan to buy three submarines from China. This decision raised questions as to whether those submarines are worth the massive cost.
The submarines are one of the Thai military’s long-wished for purchases and it was inevitable that a junta with absolute power would seek to make them a reality.
Considering the junta’s criticism of the massive spending of the former Pheu Thai government, it is ironic that they are willing to splash out on a submarine project–an unlikely project indeed for a small nation like Thailand.
The Red Shirts capitalized on this and alleged that the military was cancelling the popular universal healthcare plan to pay for the subs.]