Thailand’s government, for so long as it is in power and nondemocratic, will face an uphill fight aligning itself with international norms that would facilitate easy relations with more normative powers. This is especially the case since the government, while presently in power, is not guaranteed to be there forever. Thailand has been through a number of governments and has developed a reputation for coups. Democratic states thus have every reason to think that time and pressure will take things in a more favorable direction. China, on the other hand, will seek to benefit from this government. It makes sense for Beijing to seek to invest in Thailand, from which it can expect to extract a dividend due to the nature of the government in Bangkok and the pressure the struggling Thai economy will place on it. As a result, it is premature to call the return of Uyghur refugees from Thailand to China an act of compulsion; it is, when seen from the perspective of shared history and present governments, an act of friendship between two states that are moving closer together.