Public security authorities from East China's Shandong Province and South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region coordinate police efforts to escort more than 1,500 fraud suspects back to China. Photo: Screenshot from Ministry of Public Security

In a joint China-Myanmar-Thailand operation to dismantle gambling and fraud hubs in Myawaddy, Myanmar, Chinese police forces have escorted more than 1,500 criminal suspects  back to China, according to Ministry of Public Security (MPS) on Monday, marking a phased achievement in the cross-order crackdown. 

As of now, more than 630 buildings in the Myawaddy KK Park have been completely dismantled, and all related suspects involved in telecom fraud crimes have been escorted back to China. 

For a long time, a large number of gambling and fraud criminal groups have been entrenched in the Myawaddy area of Myanmar, carrying out serious criminal activities such as telecom and online fraud, causing severe harm.

In early 2025, China, Myanmar and Thailand established a ministerial-level coordination mechanism for jointly combating telecommunications and online fraud crimes, and have continued to carry out multiple rounds of crackdown operations. 
Since this year, task forces dispatched by the MPS to Myanmar and Thailand, with strong support from China's embassies in Myanmar and Thailand, have conducted multiple rounds of consultations and talks with relevant departments in the two countries. They have continuously promoted centralized clearance work and carried out 10 joint repatriation operations in succession, delivering a powerful deterrent to criminal elements, per the report by the MPS.

An official from the MPS stated that public security organs will continue to deepen international law enforcement cooperation, promote more joint crackdown and clearance operations, eradicate criminal dens, make every effort to apprehend criminal suspects and continue to consolidate and expand the achievements in combating and governing these crimes.

From multiple dimensions and perspectives, telecom and online fraud has dealt a heavy blow to the regional economy, state relations and regional security for China and related ASEAN countries, Ge Hongliang, a deputy director of the College of ASEAN Studies at Guangxi University for Nationalities, told the Global Times on Monday.

With the Ming and Bai criminal gangs now all brought to justice, this series of actions fully demonstrates China's firm resolve and clear stance in eradicating the social cancer of telecom and online fraud, Ge added.

China has carried out the death sentences of four leading members of the Bai family criminal group based in northern Myanmar for crimes including intentional homicide, telecom fraud and drug trafficking, according to the report by the Xinhua News Agency on February 2.
 
The 11 defendants of the northern Myanmar-based Ming family crime syndicate case were also executed, Xinhua reported on January 29.

As of now, all four major crime syndicates, Ming, Bai, Wei and Liu families, in the Kokang region of northern Myanmar have entered judicial proceedings.

"It is of great significance for China and ASEAN to jointly eradicate regional telecom fraud parks and eliminate this social cancer," Ge added.

When asked to elaborate on efforts to clamp down on the scam centers in Myanmar, Lin Jian, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, said on February 2 that for some time, China has worked actively with Myanmar and other countries in fighting against cross-border telecom and online fraud to jointly eradicate the scourge of online gambling and telecom fraud, protect the safety of the people and their property and uphold the order of exchanges and cooperation between regional countries. The efforts have achieved good results, Lin added.  

China will continue to deepen international law enforcement cooperation, step up effort to fight telecom fraud, online gambling and other related cross-border criminal activi