In January 2025, a little-known Chinese actor was swept up in an international controversy revolving around and exploited in other Asian countries.
The 31-year-old Wang Xing, who also uses Xingxing as a screen name, traveled to for what he believed to be a job casting by a major entertainment company.
Once there, he was allegedly met by armed men who forced him into a car and took him across the Thai border into Myanmar.
His captors shaved his head and reportedly started training him to scam Chinese while working in a call center.
Wang later alleged seeing many other people, all with shaved heads, at the site, including at least 50 other Chinese nationals who suffered a similar fate.
Meanwhile, Wang’s girlfriend turned to social media after losing contact with the actor on January 3. Her plea for help was picked up by major Chinese celebrities, and Wang was rescued and returned to Thailand four days after his kidnapping, appearing before Thai media alongside local police.
On camera, Wang seemed to downplay security concerns for tourists visiting Thailand, thanking the police and saying the country was “quite safe.”
“If there is a chance in the future, I would want to return to Thailand,” he said.
The fate of other Chinese captives in the call center remains unclear.
Myanmar: Most deported scammers are Chinese
Myanmar is in the grips of civil war and has become a hotbed for scam centers .
In recent years, Beijing has been working and the anti-junta rebels to crack down on crime syndicates.
“However, the general lawlessness in parts of Myanmar make such crackdowns difficult,” Ian Chong, a political scientist in Singapore, told DW.
“Gangs just relocate to areas where the PRC and its proxies find it difficult to reach,” he added.
Myanmar’s military administration has deported 55,711 foreigners involved in the scamming activities since October 2023. A lion’s share of them — more than 53,000 — were Chinese, according to Myanmar state media.
No way out for trafficking victims
But Myanmar’s call centers are only one piece of the puzzle.
Last summer, a report by the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) revealed that hundreds of thousands of people have been lured into working for scammers worldwide, with billions of dollars swindled. Many of the trafficking gangs operate in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and the Philippines.
The types of scams include illegitimate schemes revolving around online gambling, and financial investment.
In many cases, those luring people into scams are victims themselves. They are often drawn in by false business opportunities and then forced into illegal labor.
They tend to be held in quiet, rural areas, with their captors physically punishing them if they try to escape.
Beijing puts pressure on Bangkok
Thailand shares borders with several other countries, making it the for trafficking gangs.
Beijing has been pressuring Thai officials to step in and help deal with the issue, according to Chong.
“Unless [China] wishes to directly intervene in a foreign jurisdiction, there is little the state can do,” he said.
Thailand helped transfer about 900 Chinese nationals who had been trapped in scam operations in Myanmar last year, but reports say around 1,200 Chinese nationals are still missing in Myanmar.
Chinese blockbuster as warning against scammers
To prevent its nationals being lured into these compounds, China has repeatedly tried to warn its citizens against travelling to Southeast Asia.
“There was a point in 2022 where a narrative started to emerge that going to Thailand could result in getting trafficked into Myanmar and losing your kidneys,” Jason Tower, Myanmar country director at USIP, said.
“Later on, you started to see that the police will make phone calls to people when they book tickets to ask them what they’re doing in Southeast Asia,” he added.
In another sign of Chinese unease with traveling to the region, a 2023 blockbuster movie, No More Bets, depicted Chinese tourists trafficked into scam compounds.
Did Beijing encourage scammers outside China?
Phone scams are nothing new to Beijing. In December 2022, a special law against telecom and online fraud law came into effect in the country, which has struggled with the issue for many years.
But outside China’s borders, Chinese gangs had been given more room to operate. Beijing only started taking action more recently, said Zachary Abuza, a professor at the National War College in Washington.
“China not only turned a blind eye to them but seemed to actively encourage the development of these special economic zones across Southeast Asia, where scamming, gambling, drug, human, and wildlife trafficking, and money laundering were just growing exponentially,” Abuza told DW.
“China always saw these zones as splinters of Chinese sovereignty; and while criminals may be running them, they all want to return to China at some point, so they have an incentive to serve as assets for China security forces.”
“That really changed during and after the pandemic, when Chinese themselves were being targeted. Now that China is in an era of much slower growth, its citizens are looking for get rich schemes and falling prey. With legitimacy on the line, the [Chinese Communist Party] has cracked down,” he added.
China ‘looking for an in’ for its law enforcement abroad
In November, it was revealed China had agreed with Myanmar to create a joint venture that would see Chinese private military contractors operate in the country to protect its own assets.
And since Wang’s disappearance refocused public attention on the issue, and Thailand have agreed to set up an anti-scam centers, with Chinese authorities operating one in Mae Sot, near the Myanmar border.
Abuza sees this as part of Beijing’s plans for security expansion.
“China has been pushing for law enforcement cooperation, but basically it’s really looking for an in, so it can have a physical law enforcement presence in the region,” he told DW. “While they may work on some anti-transnational crime operations, their primary responsibility will be to pursue China’s more immediate security interests.”
Edited by: Darko Janjevic
The post Why is China clamping down on scammers in Southeast Asia? appeared first on Deutsche Welle.
