Last month, Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra visited China and met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). The two leaders discussed several issues, including cross-border telecom fraud. Xi expressed his approval of the Thai government’s efforts to combat online gambling and telecom fraud, emphasizing that both countries should continue to bolster law enforcement, security and judicial cooperation to safeguard people’s lives and property.
However, the effectiveness of these measures is questionable — fraudulent activity continues to thrive along the Thai-Myanmar border and the number of people who have been affected is steadily rising.
Meanwhile, the Malaysia International Humanitarian Organisation (MHO) on Feb. 12 organized a peaceful petition in front of the Thai embassy in Malaysia, where the family members of more than 50 people taken by human traffickers called on the Thai government to assist in rescuing Malaysians trapped in scam operations in Myanmar.
The MHO says that the majority of the people taken are lured into traveling to the Thai border before being transferred to scam compounds in Myanmar or Laos.
More than 99 percent of the masterminds behind the scammer organizations are Chinese, it says.
That echoes several external reports highlighting that many core operators of cross-border scammer organizations are from China, particularly those in the Kokan region of Myanmar’s Shan State, a region ruled by the “four big families” — Bai (白), Wei (魏), Liu (劉) and Ming (明) — who have established large-scale scam compounds.
Using internal Chinese networks, they attract and recruit people to cross the border for work, only to use them as slave labor for their scammer organizations — some are even subjected to abuse or trafficking.
The Thai government has recently launched several measures in response, including cutting off power supplies in some border areas to weaken the operational capabilities of scam sites.
However, collaboration between scammer organizations and local armed rebel groups has led to significant obstacles for cross-border law enforcement operations and limited the effectiveness of their efforts to combat scams.
As the governments of Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia and China face increasingly severe challenges, curbing fraud and human trafficking through international cooperation has become a critical issue in regional security.
Elliot Yao is a reviewer.
Translated by Kyra Gustavsen
China has not been a top-tier issue for much of the second Trump administration. Instead, Trump has focused considerable energy on Ukraine, Israel, Iran, and defending America’s borders. At home, Trump has been busy passing an overhaul to America’s tax system, deporting unlawful immigrants, and targeting his political enemies. More recently, he has been consumed by the fallout of a political scandal involving his past relationship with a disgraced sex offender. When the administration has focused on China, there has not been a consistent throughline in its approach or its public statements. This lack of overarching narrative likely reflects a combination
Behind the gloating, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) must be letting out a big sigh of relief. Its powerful party machine saved the day, but it took that much effort just to survive a challenge mounted by a humble group of active citizens, and in areas where the KMT is historically strong. On the other hand, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) must now realize how toxic a brand it has become to many voters. The campaigners’ amateurism is what made them feel valid and authentic, but when the DPP belatedly inserted itself into the campaign, it did more harm than good. The
For nearly eight decades, Taiwan has provided a home for, and shielded and nurtured, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). After losing the Chinese Civil War in 1949, the KMT fled to Taiwan, bringing with it hundreds of thousands of soldiers, along with people who would go on to become public servants and educators. The party settled and prospered in Taiwan, and it developed and governed the nation. Taiwan gave the party a second chance. It was Taiwanese who rebuilt order from the ruins of war, through their own sweat and tears. It was Taiwanese who joined forces with democratic activists
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) held a news conference to celebrate his party’s success in surviving Saturday’s mass recall vote, shortly after the final results were confirmed. While the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) would have much preferred a different result, it was not a defeat for the DPP in the same sense that it was a victory for the KMT: Only KMT legislators were facing recalls. That alone should have given Chu cause to reflect, acknowledge any fault, or perhaps even consider apologizing to his party and the nation. However, based on his speech, Chu showed
RSS