Movie Exposes Chinese Cybercrime in Burma

People arrive at the Muse town border gate in Burma's Shan State to cross into China, on Jan. 12, 2019. Ye Aung Thu/AFP via Getty Images

The crime action movie “No More Bets” has been a hit in Chinese theaters this summer for portraying Chinese cybercrime in Burma. Criminal syndicates reportedly lure and kidnap Chinese citizens and force them to work for cybercrime groups, which allegedly have ties with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), according to a U.S. report.

According to data released on Aug. 28 by Maoyan, China’s most prominent movie box office analysis platform, “No More Bets” has consistently topped ticket sales for the fourth consecutive weekend with gross revenue exceeding 3.4 billion yuan (about $467 million).

The movie struck a chord with the Chinese audience, as cases of Chinese people being lured out of the country and trafficked to Burma (also known as Myanmar) to work as scammers have been widely reported.

On June 7, the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) issued an orange bulletin to its 195 member countries, warning human trafficking-fueled transnational fraud.

“Just about anyone in the world could fall victim to either the human trafficking or the online scams carried out through these criminal hubs,” said Jürgen Stock, secretary general of Interpol.

Based on real cases of cyber fraud, the movie reveals that cyber fraud companies often lure in job seekers by offering lucrative pay. When trapped, the victim would be forced to become a telecom or online fraudster to scam internet users. Victims are at risk of being abused or losing their lives.

Such companies are primarily located in Southeast Asia, including Burma, Cambodia, and the Philippines.

In particular, many Chinese cybercrime centers are in Burma due to its political instability, local armed forces, and lawlessness in many areas. Burma borders China’s southwestern province of Yunnan.

Jian Kunyi, director of Finance and Economics Law School at Yunnan University, told China Newsweek on June 24 that Burma’s armed forces use illegal activities—such as smuggling, drug trafficking, and human trafficking—as funding sources.

Preliminary estimates by Chinese police stationed in Yunnan indicate that there are hundreds of industrial zones engaging in cyber fraud in Myawaddy alone and at least 1,000 such industrial zones across Burma, with hundreds of thousands of workers, reported China News on June 24.

Cyber Slave

Chinese media reported a trafficking case involving a millionaire who owns a travel company in Guizhou city. Xing Weilin, who also owns 142 stores, was allegedly tricked into going to Thailand on a study tour in September 2022. After leaving the airport, he said he was knocked unconscious, kidnapped, and trafficked to Burma, where he was forced to work as a telecom fraudster for over three months until he escaped.

Mr. Xing wanted to tell the world about his ordeal. He said in a video that his captor wouldn’t set anyone free because the company made 28 million yuan (about $3.84 million) through cyber slaves in one year. The telecom fraud industry is more lucrative than drug trafficking and faces less risk, which is one of the reasons for its rapid growth, he said.

A man walks past a branch of the Myawaddy Bank in Yangon, Burma, on Feb. 3, 2021. STR/AFP via Getty Images

Mr. Xing mentioned an influential figure in the casino industry named She Zhijiang, also known by numerous aliases, including She Lunkai. Mr. She was arrested by Thai police in August 2022 on suspicion of running casinos and online gambling businesses in Burma.

Mr. She’s casino in Burma is known as KK Park. Although he was arrested, KK Park is still operating, said Mr. Xing, adding that the casino has 9,000 workers and makes a profit of 100 million yuan (about $13.7 million) a day, “and if it doesn’t meet that target, everyone will be punished.”

Mr. She has a $15 billion casino mega-project in Shwe Kokko, a town in Myawaddy, which has become a bastion of illegal activity, including human trafficking and drug trafficking, according to Radio Free Asia (RFA).

Mr. Xing believes that Mr. She is merely a scapegoat and that there are other powerful figures behind KK Park.

CCP Ties

Mr. She, 41, is a naturalized Cambodian national born in China’s southern Hunan Province. Official reports show that Mr. She attended top-level meetings in Beijing in 2019 hosted by the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, a United Front organization, according to RFA. The United Front Work Department oversees the CCP’s foreign influence operations. It coordinates and supports thousands of overseas organizations to spread propaganda, influence local elites, and suppress dissident groups.

The tycoon served as the executive vice president of the China Overseas Chinese Chamber of Commerce. In 2018, Mr. She was featured on the cover of China Overseas Chinese Entrepreneurs, a state-run Beijing-based magazine.

Mr. She allegedly had close ties with Chinese officials and had been recruited by China’s state security, as reported by RFA on July 26.

The report disclosed that Mr. She was arrested because he had lost the protection of the CCP. With the secret support of the Chinese authorities, he had developed a substantial illegal cross-border gambling syndicate on the Burma-Thailand border. However, Mr. She began to build a 5,000-strong security force under the authorization of local warlords in an attempt to break away from the CCP’s control, which ultimately led to a fallout with state security and retaliation, the report said.

Moreover, Mr. She is waiting to be deported back to China, where he could face severe punishment from Beijing, according to RFA.

CCP’s Role in Transnational Criminal Networks

In July 2020, the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) published a special investigation report titled “Myanmar’s Casino Cities: The Role of China and Transnational Criminal Networks.”

The report said that some Chinese nationals with citizenship in other countries are involved in building resort towns in Burma’s Karen State to satisfy China’s lucrative but illegal gambling market.

“They [Chinese nationals] have co-opted Chinese government institutions and agencies to present their activities as central to China’s Belt and Road Initiative,” the report said. The Belt and Road Initiative is Beijing’s infrastructure development strategy aimed at expanding the CCP’s influence worldwide.

The report mentions three large-scale projects under construction in Karen State: Saixigang Industrial Zone, Yatai New City Project, and Huanya International Project. They were built with funds from Chinese state-owned enterprises or Chinese businessmen.

The developer of Saixigang Industrial Zone is the Dongmei Group, which is owned by Wan Kuok-koi, a member of the CCP’s Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and head of the criminal organization 14K Triad. Mr. Wan was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2020 for his role as “a leader or official of an entity, including any government entity, that has engaged in, or whose members have engaged in, corruption.”

The leading partner of Yatai New City is the Hong Kong-incorporated Asia Pacific International Holdings Group, registered to Mr. She.

The construction of a new casino near Mongla, Special Region Four, in eastern Shan State, Burma, on April 19, 2019. - Bentleys and BMW convertibles roll up to the brash "Venetian Casino" in Mongla on the Burma-China border, a melting pot of sex, drugs, and gambling on a frontier that has become a "supermarket" for illegally traded wildlife. Ye Aung Thu/AFP via Getty Images

The report raised questions about the role of the CCP in these projects, which allegedly support gambling and telecom fraud companies.

USIP said in a July analysis that the Burmese military government could not control its border defense forces, which benefited organized Chinese crime groups.

USIP revealed Beijing’s real motive in Burma: “While it has backed the junta, China has also hedged by supporting some of Myanmar’s most powerful ethnic armed organizations, extending Chinese influence in the country,” it reads.

USIP pointed out that Beijing and Chinese enterprises “have taken even bolder steps to cooperate with the junta regime” for their economic interests; moreover, Beijing’s partnership with the Burmese military regime would “neutralize Western support for democracy in the country [Burma].”