Former Thai PMs Shinawatra spotted in Beijing buying chestnuts

A brother and sister pair were recently photographed in Beijing, snapshots which are now making headlines because the siblings also happen to be fugitive former prime ministers of Thailand.

On Saturday afternoon, a photo was published on the Matichon Online website showing Yingluck Shinawatra and her brother Thaksin buying some chestnuts in the Chinese capital ahead of the Chinese New Year.

That same day, Thaksin’s youngest daughter posted a photo of her father onto Instagram. Here’s how the Straits Times translates the caption:

“My dad wishes all Thais a happy Chinese New Year from Beijing in advance. Although we are far away from each other, I always miss you, don’t you know?”

Yingluck and Thaksin are both of Thai-Chinese descent. They last traveled to China in 2014, visiting a number of popular tourist sites:

During a trip which ended in their ancestral village of Taxia in Guangdong province:

Thai authorities say that they are on the hunt for Yingluck, who fled the country in late August ahead of a court decision that sentenced her to five years in jail for dereliction of duty over a bungled rice subsidy scheme that lost billions of dollars.

While all four of her Thai passports have been revoked, she still managed to make it to London after stopping in Dubai. Since fleeing Thailand, she had been purportedly photographed twice while shopping in London.

It’s not clear how she made it to China, but Thai police are now reported to be seeking the cooperation of authorities there, having already asked Interpol to help locate her.

Meanwhile, Thaksin, who was the Prime Minister of Thailand from 2001 to 2006, has been living in exile for more than a decade — apart from one brief visit to Thailand in 2008 — since being overthrown in a military coup. He was sentenced in absentia to two years in jail for abuse of power back in 2008.

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