NAIROBI, Kenya- China has executed 11 people linked to sprawling telecom scam operations, marking one of Beijing’s harshest moves yet against an industry it now openly calls a global “cancer” draining billions from victims worldwide.
State media reported that the executions were carried out on Thursday after a court in Wenzhou, eastern China, sentenced the suspects to death in September.
The ruling follows years of growing pressure on Chinese authorities to dismantle transnational fraud networks operating largely out of Southeast Asia’s lawless border regions.
A ruthless crackdown on scam networks
According to China’s state news agency Xinhua, the executed individuals were convicted of a range of serious crimes, including intentional homicide, unlawful detention, fraud, and running illegal casinos.
Among them were key members of the notorious “Ming family criminal group,” which authorities say was responsible for the deaths of at least 14 Chinese citizens and injuries to many others since 2015.
China’s Supreme People’s Court approved the executions, saying the evidence presented against the suspects was “conclusive and sufficient.”
Five additional suspects received death sentences with a two-year reprieve, while 23 others were jailed for terms ranging from five years to life.
Inside the fraud compounds
The executions shine a spotlight on a shadowy scam industry that has flourished across parts of Myanmar and neighbouring countries.
In these fraud compounds, victims are lured into fake romantic relationships or cryptocurrency investments.
Investigators say the scams have since expanded into multiple languages, ensnaring victims across Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas.
Some of those running the scams are willing participants; others are trafficked foreign nationals forced to work under threat and violence.
Experts estimate that fraud networks centred in Myanmar’s border regions alone have siphoned off billions of dollars globally, often under the control of Chinese-led syndicates working with local militias.
Global concern, global reach
“China will continue to deepen international law enforcement cooperation” against gambling and fraud, foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime warned earlier this year that the cyberscam industry is rapidly spreading beyond Southeast Asia, with new hubs emerging in Africa, South America, Europe, and parts of the Pacific.
The UN estimates that hundreds of thousands of people are now trapped in scam centres worldwide.
