Myanmar, China, and Thailand will form a joint task force to combat online scam operations on the Thai and Chinese border.
In a meeting with the Myanmar police chief, high-ranking police officers, and police chiefs from Karen and Shan states in Naypyitaw on Monday, Home Affairs Minister Lieutenant General Yar Pyae said the three countries will design an action plan to combat scam syndicates through trilateral cooperation.
Yar Pyae, who also chairs the Supervisory Committee on Prompt Legal Action and Deportation of Foreigners Who Enter Myanmar Illegally, called for shared responsibility among countries where scammers come from, transit through, and operate.
The operators are typically Chinese gangsters who traffic their employees through Thailand across the porous border into Myanmar.
The junta has claimed that scam centers also thrive on infrastructure and internet connections fed by “a neighboring country,” apparently referring to Thailand.
On Jan. 20, it complained that the scam centers are also supplied with weapons and building materials from across the border.
Thailand’s Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) insists that electricity sold to Myawaddy and other border areas in Myanmar follows protocol and pledged to halt distribution across the border if any contracts are breached.
Myanmar’s Transport Minister General Mya Tun Oo attended a meeting in Thailand last week on combating fraud syndicates on the border.
Soe Win, the regime’s second-in-command, also hosted a Thai delegation led by General Direk Bongkarn, head of the Thai Army’s Neighboring Countries Coordination Center, in Naypyitaw to discuss the crackdown.
Yar Pyae also recently attended a meeting in Laos to discuss plans for cooperation on tackling telecom fraud and cybercrime, drugs, and human trafficking.
Regional media outlets reported that China, Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand would conduct joint patrols along the Mekong River to combat illegal border crossings, smuggling, and drug trafficking.
China has said that a second phase of the anti-phishing-scam Operation Seagull involving five ASEAN countries including Myanmar and Thailand is in the offing.
Online scam centers have mushroomed in the border trade hub of Myawaddy in Karen State since the 2021 coup. Many that were based in northern Shan State near the Chinese border relocated to Myawaddy after a crackdown last year.
But while cooperating with China, the regime is also protecting Saw Chit Thu, the leader of the junta-aligned Karen National Army (KNA), which is heavily involved in scam operations in Myawaddy.
Saw Chit Thu announced his own crackdown on scam centers after the border town made headlines this month for the trafficking of minor Chinese celebrities including actor Wang Xing.
Following Wang’s cross-border rescue, many Chinese tourists canceled their trips to Thailand, and the Chinese embassies in Thailand and Myanmar issued travel alerts. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has urged ASEAN countries to join hands with Beijing in combating call center gangs.
China’s assistant public security minister, Liu Zhongyi, is now in Thailand seeking support in suppressing Chinese scam gangs in Myawaddy. The Bangkok Post quoted him as saying there are 36 major Chinese scam outfits employing more than 100,000 callers.
All eyes are on whether Saw Chit Thu, who has amassed huge wealth from the scam operations, will really cooperate—and if the regime is willing to pressure him if he does not since the KNA is crucial for the junta to keep hold of the border trade hub.
