Police are investigating a possible new illegal surrogacy movement involving Chinese men marrying Thai women, after a woman complained she was abandoned when her fiance learned the child she was carrying by him was a girl, not the son he wanted.
Deputy national police chief Pol Gen Surachate Hakparn said on Monday he had ordered checks on Chinese visitors who might be involved in a "new form of illegal surrogacy" outlawed by the surrogacy law.
The investigation began with the case of a 36-year-old Thai woman who told police she was dumped by her Chinese fiance after she fell pregnant and he found out she was carrying his daughter, not a son.
The woman, who called herself Noei and said she had about a million followers on social media, met Pol Gen Surachate at the Police Club on Monday to share her story.
She said she worked as a model and lived with her mother and her young sister in a condominium on Rama IX Road in Bangkok.
A well-to-do Chinese woman who lived in the same building had made an effort to get to know her and her family over a few years and had introduced many Chinese men to her. Finally, she had agreed to start seeing a "Mr Zhang".
initially, they communicated via video calls using a chat app. In June they met in Thailand and travelled around the country together. The man proposed and promised to marry her in September. He then returned to China.
In late June, she discovered she was pregnant by him. The Chinese man asked to postpone the wedding until October, saying he was very busy, and he also wanted to know the sex of their unborn child.
In late September she found out the child was a girl. When she informed him, the Chinese man ended all contact with her. The Chinese matchmaker had blamed her for not bearing him a son, as other Thai women she introduced to other Chinese men had done.
The complainant said the woman, who was 42 years old, had also tried to introduce Chinese men to other woman living in the condominium building.
Ekapop Luangprasert, an adviser to the interior minister who took Noei to met Pol Gen Surachate, said he had been told by Thai tour guides that Chinese men were looking for beautiful Thai and Lao women so they could have sons by them, because Chinese women were become less interested in marriage.
Pol Gen Surachate, who is also the head a children's and women's protection centre run by the Royal Thai Police, said he expected the first investigation report into the alleged matchmaker's activities in about five days.
Investigators would look into the woman's stay in Thailand, any property she owned and her relationship with the missing Chinese man. They would also contact other Thai women the Chinese woman allegedly approached, the deputy national police chief said.