China Executes Four Members of Scam Syndicates in Myanmar
A gleaming scam compound in Myawaddy, Myanmar (Angshu2193).
China reported on February 2 that it had executed four members of the Bai family, an elite crime dynasty. They allegedly brought about the deaths of six Chinese citizens while running scam centers in Myanmar which stole an estimated $4.2 billion from victims. The Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court sentenced the four to death in November, and a fifth relative died of illness during captivity. China did not announce when these executions took place, but assuming they had already occurred the day of publication, the three month gap between their sentencing and execution marks a far shorter interval than usual. The recent news also comes on immediately after an announcement made last week regarding killing 11 members of the Ming mafia family. Both families are said to have established compounds housing massive networks of casinos and cyberscam centers in the city of Laukkaing, near Myanmar’s border with China.
The occurrences in Myanmar are among the most prevalent of what has been labeled a “scamdemic” across Southeast Asia. Hundreds of thousands of people, mainly foreigners, have been trafficked into facilities where they are brutally forced into scamming and defrauding victims across the globe.The industry generates nearly $40 billion in profits per year according to UN estimates. This number looks set to grow, with AI and the increasing opacity of online transactions having enhanced the capacity and global reach of organized cybercrime. Asian-led centers have been found operating and recruiting in Africa, Europe, Oceania, and the Americas.
Nonetheless, activities are mainly focused on the surrounding area, particularly China. Burmese scam centers first drew heavy social media attention following the publicization of the abduction (and subsequent rescue) of Chinese actor Wang Xing in January 2025. Tens of thousands of Chinese are thought to be involuntarily working in Burmese and Cambodian compounds. The primary scam tactic in such centers is referred to as, “pig butchering,” a translation from the Chinese term shā zhū pán. Pig butchering entails gradually “raising” a victim for “slaughter” by gaining their affection through romance or good financial advice (initially). Once enough money has been entrusted to the scammer, they vanish.
Special rapporteurs of the UN have described the situation as a humanitarian crisis, in more ways than one. One report highlights, “There are multiple types of victims, the people who are being scammed around the world, but also the people who are trafficked here held against their will and who are exposed to violence.”. Testimonies from those who escaped have laid bare the torture they underwent, citing punishments ranging from electrocution to rape to kidney removal. Many admit that they were lured in by smart advertisements and the prospects of better jobs. The victims later employ these tactics to swindle others, and in this way the butchered pig becomes the next pig butcher.
Despite the abuses committed against both Chinese workers and victims, China’s government, at first, applied surprisingly limited pressure to neighboring countries to shut down their compounds. An American congressional committee published a report in July arguing that China was exploiting the situation to, “increase its leverage over Southeast Asian governments… and expand its security footprint in the region.” Further, it accused China’s government of cultivating ties with the leaders of these criminal syndicates. Indeed, pig butchering “is typically carried out by Chinese organised crime groups,” and the four clans who dominate Laukkaing’s underworld (two of whom are the Ming and the Bai) are all ethnically Chinese.
China’s crackdown on these scams as of late is due to a variety of reasons.Longer-term factors include the increased public attention brought to the issue due to Wang’s kidnapping, as previously mentioned, as well as the syndicates aiming more at Chinese citizens as they grow comparatively richer compared to Westerners.
China has realized that Burmese lawlessness does not work to its advantage. Since a military coup in 2021 by General Ming Aung Hlaing, Myanmar’s junta has been engaged in a brutal civil war with resistance forces. Borderlands, including the province of Kokang, of which Laukkaing is the capital, remain outside the government’s control, a fact that China has slowly begun to grasp. In 2023, it supported a rebel insurgency in the area and compelled the government to capture and hand over members of the Bai and Ming clans. However, China’s rapprochement with Myanmar’s internationally-shunned junta has deepened in the past year. It successfully pushed for the country to hold a sham election in December following a year of victories on the battlefield. Now, other neighboring countries are also beginning to contemplate normalizing relations with the junta.
China’s immediate actions may also have to do with the US’s conduct in Latin America. This past month, along with the announcements of the executions, it also secured extradition from Thailand and Cambodia, respectively, of She Zhijiang and Chen Zhi, two kingpins of scam empires. This demand might have sought to match America’s capture and extradition of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. Just as Donald Trump sees the Americas as his backyard, some have claimed that Xi Jinping views Southeast Asia as his own sphere of influence. Arguably, Trump’s erratic behavior in Greenland, Venezuela, and more have legitimized Xi’s efforts to dominate his own region. China’s defense ministry announced on January 24 that generals Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli were under investigation for corruption. Zhang, China’s most senior uniformed officer and a veteran of the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War, was seen as a dissuading voice regarding the recapture of Taiwan, a goal Xi has reportedly ordered the People’s Liberation Army to be capable of by 2027.
The purge could be an attempt to intimidate the United States ahead of a meeting between Trump and Xi in Beijing in April. To set the scene, the two had a, “long and thorough call,” in Trump’s words, on February 5—a call in which Taiwan was discussed. China’s crackdown on scam compounds could be intended to appease America, which has complained about Chinese crime organizations, ahead of the visit. Of the same accord, China has so far acceded to American demands to reduce the supply of fentanyl since Trump took office, with the knowledge that it can always renege on its actions if the time calls for it. Whether through the carrot or the stick, China is ruthlessly effective at wielding various strategies to advance its own interests in Southeast Asia and across the world.