Karishma Vaswani, Columnist

Thailand’s Most Divisive Family May Have No More Moves Left

The Shinawatras are again in the midst of a political maelstrom. The kingdom doesn’t need more instability.

July 1, 2025 at 8:00 PM UTC

Karishma Vaswani is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Asia politics with a special focus on China. Previously, she was the BBC's lead Asia presenter and worked for the BBC across Asia and South Asia for two decades.

Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra.
Photographer: Valeria Mongelli/Bloomberg

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One man and his family have dominated Thailand's politics since the millennium. Billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra and his political dynasty have survived coups, corruption charges and constitutional court cases. This latest crisis may be harder to recover from.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, Thaksin’s youngest daughter, was temporarily suspended from office until the court rules on a petition seeking her ouster for alleged ethical violations, over the handling of a long-running border dispute with neighbor Cambodia.