democracy and respect for human rights. As a result, the Sino-Thai free trade agreement (FTA) the first between China and a Southeast Asian country, was signed and took effect on 1 October 2003. The FTA, part of the 'Early Harvest Programme’ under the 2010 ASEAN-China FTA, was initiated to slash tariffs for the fruit and vegetable flows in each other's markets. The Thaksin Government, the driving force behind the Sino-Thai FTA, claimed that bilateral trade reached country US$31 billion, a 23 percent increase in 2007 when compared with that of the previous year.
Thailand has been quietly sliding into China's warm, embracing arms. Most Thai cabinet ministers, including many former Prime Ministers and powerful businesses in Thailand,have significant investments in China Thailand's Charoen Pokphand, one of Southeast Asia's largest companies, has been doing business in China since 1949, Bangkok Bank still has the largest foreign branch on Shanghai's Bund waterfront, and only recently have a few other foreign banks gained token footholds on China's preeminent business address, Activities between Thai and Chinese business conglomerates were regularly conducted, with the exchange of visits and the sharing business information, The Thai-Chinese Chamber of Commerce highlights on its website that all business activities must remain apolitical. in the cultural realm, Patrick Jory argued that since the Chinese language has been reintroduced into Thailand's schools and universities after a long period of official sanction, Chinese popular culture is much celebrated, and imported Chin soap operas have been highly popular" New Chinese language schools have been mushrooming in Bangkok and in major cities throughout the kingdom. "Thailand has been taking the Chinese language seriously, Michael Vatikiotis wrote,"so seriously that Thaksin asked China to send teachers'
In January 2006, China's Deputy Education Minister Zhang Xin-sheng was in Bangkok to sign an agreement to help train 1,000 Mandarin language teachers every y r for Thailand-China also offered 100 scholarships for Thai students to study in China, and it dispatched 500 young volunteers to teach Chinese in Thailand According to the Chinese Ministry of Education Thai students studying in China reached 1,554, making them the sixth largest group of foreign students in the country, after South Korea, Japan, the United States, Vietnam, and Indonesia. The number of Thai students studying in Chinese universities has grown six-or seven-fold within the past few years," said Tekhua Pung, director of a local Chinese-language teaching school Ultimately, bending with the Chinese wind seems to correspond with a new surge in the Thai public aware ness about China's rise. A recent poll showed that more than 70 percent of Thais considered China as Thailand's most important external influence and wanted the Government to continue to craft a China-favored policy for a closer relationship with Beijing.
Overall, Thailand's national interests have appeared to be in league with those of China. But at other moments, friction has occurred, although to date none has become severe or damaged Thailand's core national interests and the foundation of its relationship with China. Thailand's policy of exerting influence over its immediate neighbors was sometimes viewed as a deliberate attempt to overcome tense competition from China, which has also been in a similar process of expanding its control over them. For example, Thailand's contract farming program in Laos was said to be initiated to offset similar projects between Laos and China. Currently, Laos produces corn, soybeans, and cardamom under contract farming for export to China, Laos itself has been seeking to reduce its dependence on Thailand and reaching out to China, as well as Vietnam, to help rejuvenate its moribund economy.
After diplomatic normalisation in 1988, China has overwhelmed Laos with financial and technical assistance in an attempt to pull Vientiane into its orbit and out of Thailand's sphere of influence. In another instance, Thailand cooperated with ASEAN in neutralising a perceived Chinese threat, as China and four other ASEAN members (the Philippines, Brunei, Vietnam and Malaysia) have fiercely engaged in territorial claims over various features and ocean space in the