Leader of Thailand's populist movement, a tycoon who ran Thailand between 2001 and 2006. He sought to co-opt the bureaucracy and agencies regulating his companies; media critical of him were banned. The king at the time obliquely criticised these practices, setting the stage for a long-running feud with the monarchy, army and business leaders.
He was removed in a coup in 2006. On the run from criminal charges filed while he was out of power, he chaired meetings of the cabinet nominally led by his sister Yingluck from 2011 to 2014. Her government sought to exonerate him—one reason she was eventually ousted by the courts, with a coup two weeks later.
As part of a rapprochement with the palace and the army, he returned to Thailand from self-imposed exile. But he has been busily reinserting himself in politics and foreign policy—too much for an establishment that has fought him since the turn of the century. He went on trial for insulting the monarchy.
His daughter, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, became prime minister but was suspended by the Constitutional Court.
Perfection is achieved only on the point of collapse.