China has executed eleven members of a powerful crime family accused of running a vast online scam empire from neighboring Myanmar, in one of Beijing’s strongest crackdowns yet on cross-border fraud networks.
According to Chinese state media, the convicted individuals belonged to the Ming family, a notorious clan that controlled scam centers, gambling operations, and illegal detention facilities in the border town of Laukkaing, in Myanmar’s Shan State. The executions followed death sentences handed down last September by a court in China’s Zhejiang province for crimes including murder, large-scale fraud, illegal imprisonment, and operating gambling dens.
Chinese authorities say the Ming family played a central role in transforming Laukkaing from a poor frontier town into a hub of casinos, red-light districts, and scam compounds that generated enormous profits over nearly a decade.
The family’s criminal empire collapsed in 2023, when ethnic armed groups battling Myanmar’s military seized control of Laukkaing and detained key figures. The suspects were later transferred to China, where prosecutors pursued what officials describe as landmark cases against scam bosses operating beyond China’s borders.
State media says the Ming syndicate earned more than 10 billion yuan—roughly 1.4 billion U.S. dollars—between 2015 and 2023. China’s Supreme People’s Court ruled that the group’s activities led to the deaths of at least 14 Chinese citizens and injuries to many others, rejecting final appeals late last year.
More than 20 additional members of the Ming family received prison sentences ranging from five years to life. The clan’s patriarch, Ming Xuechang, died by suicide in 2023 while attempting to evade arrest, according to Myanmar’s military.
The trials were largely conducted behind closed doors, though families of victims were allowed to attend sentencing hearings. Chinese state television later aired confessions from arrested suspects, underscoring Beijing’s message of zero tolerance for online fraud.
The Ming family is the first group of Myanmar-based scam leaders to be executed by China—but officials say they will not be the last. Five members of another powerful clan, the Bai family, were sentenced to death in November, while cases involving the Wei and Liu families are still pending.
Online scam operations have plagued Southeast Asia for years. The United Nations estimates that hundreds of thousands of people—many trafficked or kidnapped—have been forced to work in scam centers across Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos. Victims worldwide, many of them Chinese nationals, have lost billions of dollars.
Beijing has grown increasingly frustrated with Myanmar’s military for failing to shut down the operations. Analysts say China quietly supported an ethnic insurgent alliance that launched an offensive in late 2023, capturing territory along the border and overrunning Laukkaing.
Despite the executions, experts warn the scam industry has not disappeared—only shifted. Many operations have reportedly relocated closer to Thailand’s border and deeper into Cambodia and Laos, where China’s influence is more limited.
Still, Chinese authorities are signaling that those responsible for trafficking, torture, and mass fraud will face the harshest possible consequences.
Reporting by Carl Montel.
