Antiforeign

Taken as a whole, however, the riots were anti-foreign, not anti-official. This was dramatically true in the Wu-hsüeh riot of June 5, where two foreigners were killed by an angry mob,⁴⁹ and the I-ch’ang riot of September 2, where responsible officials failed to take action and the collusion of important persons was widely suspected.⁵⁰

With foreigners already wary of investing in Thailand, the last thing the country needed, analysts say, was a new law perceived as antiforeign.