It may have been years since members of the famed Shinawatra clan were unceremoniously exiled from Thailand, but they somehow manage to stay in the news. For instance, if you’ve found yourself wondering how former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra is making ends meet these days, you’re in luck.
The one-time PM and businesswoman has apparently been appointed chairman and legal representative of a major Chinese seaport operator, Shantou International Container Terminal (SICT).
Though some sources claim she’s had the gig since mid-December, nothing seems to have been officially made public until several Chinese news websites broke the news on Monday.
Located in China’s Guangdong province — 187 miles from Hong Kong and 214 miles west of Taiwan, for you geography buffs out there — SICT has a registered capital of US$88 million (about THB2 billion), reported Global Times.
Yingluck became Thailand’s 28th prime minister — and first female one — in the 2011 election, but was removed from office in a military coup just three years later. Her brother, former PM Thaksin Shinawatra, had suffered the exact same fate in 2006.
In 2017, she was found guilty of criminal negligence and sentenced in absentia to five years in prison. Yingluck, however, failed to appear at court for the verdict and is thought to have fled the country to avoid prosecution.
Since then, like her brother Thaksin– who also happens to be a former PM of Thailand and was, too, overthrown on a military coup — she’s lived in exile in several countries.
Rumors, social media posts and tabloid news aside, we haven’t heard much about Yingluck’s professional life since she left the country, until now.
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