China intensifies crackdown on telco fraud
Chinese nationals rescued from illegal call center scammer operations in Myanmar during a repatriation at the Thai-Myanmar border in Mae Sot district, Tak province, Thailand, on March 7.PHOTO: EPA-EFE via The Straits Times/Asia News Network
BEIJING – China has deepened its crackdown on telecommunications fraud, as cases surged 26.7 percent in 2024, compared with the year before.
Some 40,000 cases of telco fraud, involving 8,200 suspects, were concluded in 2024, the latest Supreme People’s Court report on March 8 showed.
Telco fraud also featured in the latest Supreme People’s Procuratorate report – released on the same day – with prosecutors highlighting a case in which they are charging 39 suspects and which has been dubbed one of China’s most egregious examples of the crime.
READ: China captures scam center suspect with Thailand’s help
The case, now before a court in eastern Jiangsu province, involves members of a Chinese family surnamed Ming who are alleged to have “occupied the Kokang region of Myanmar, developing and relying on armed forces to set up multiple industrial parks”.
The suspects brought in and housed in these industrial parks cross-border online fraud criminal groups, which carried out their activities in these enclaves, the report added.
These activities allegedly included illegally detaining people, including Chinese nationals who had been tricked and trafficked to these centers, and forcing them to work as online scammers.
The report said the Ming family members “have colluded with these groups to commit crimes such as intentional homicide, intentional injury and illegal detention, resulting in the deaths of several Chinese nationals”.
READ: Dozens of Kenyans rescued from scam centers stuck in Myanmar
Local media outlets have called the case one of China’s most high-profile takedowns of the masterminds behind scam centers, known for their brutal treatment of those tricked into working there.
The reports by China’s highest courts and top public prosecutors were released during the country’s annual meetings of parliamentarians and advisers, also known as the Two Sessions, or lianghui.
The meetings, which started on March 4, will end on March 12.
During the meetings, delegates also called for tighter regulation of artificial intelligence, which they said was being used to commit scams.
Mr Lei Jun, a member of the National People’s Congress – China’s Parliament – and chief executive of technology firm Xiaomi, said that face-swopping and voice-changing technologies have been misused for crime, presenting risks to social governance.
Mr Lei spoke from personal experience. Netizens had impersonated him in 2024 and used his image and voice to mouth profanities in short videos that had gone viral.
READ: Q&A: Southeast Asia’s latest scam center crackdown
He subsequently went on his social media account to say that the videos caused him “significant distress” and asked netizens to stop.
On March 7, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters at a press conference held on the sidelines of the lianghui that the authorities are determined to eliminate the “cancerous tumor that is telco fraud”.
China is working with Thailand, Myanmar and Laos to crack down on scam centers along the Thai-Myanmar border – where Chinese nationals have reportedly been trafficked to – and rescue its “distressed citizens”, Mr Wang said.
He added that the scam centers in northern Myanmar, which borders China’s south-western Yunnan province, have been stamped out.
Alleged scam centre workers and victims from China, handed over by Myanmar, boarding a plane at Mae Sot airport on Feb 20.PHOTO: EPA-EFE via The Straits Times/Asia News Network
In 2025, China will continue deepening security cooperation with other countries, particularly those that are part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and provide 24/7 immediate consular consultation and assistance, Mr Wang said.
Many BRI infrastructure projects hire workers from China.
The latest work report of China’s highest court also pointed to the speedy resolution of two high-profile deadly attacks that took place in late 2024.
In one case in southern Guangdong province’s Zhuhai city, Fan Weiqiu, 62, drove his sport utility vehicle onto an exercise track at a sports stadium in November 2024, killing 35 people and injuring 45 others, after an acrimonious divorce.
In the second case, Xu Jiajin, 21, killed eight people and injured 17 others in a knife attack at a vocational school in Yixing county in southern Jiangsu province in December 2024.
Both men have been executed, according to state media reports on Jan 20.
Chief Justice Zhang Jun said during the delivery of the report at the Great Hall of the People: “For those who commit heinous crimes and challenge the legal and moral boundaries, we will resolutely punish them strictly, severely and swiftly according to the law.”
In 2024, 49,000 cases of serious violent crimes, including intentional homicide, involving 58,000 individuals were closed, marking a 5.8 percent decrease from 2023.
Such cases had gone down by 28.7 percent compared with 10 years ago, the latest figures showed.
