Chinese authorities have issued an arrest warrant for an official from the junta-backed Kokang Self-administered Zone who owns a scam compound where several Chinese nationals were killed last month.
Shan State’s Kokang, which adjoins China in the north-eastern tip of Myanmar, is infamous for hosting Chinese-run telecom scams run by trafficked workers. The border area is governed by the junta-backed Kokang Administrative Committee.
On Sunday, Wenzhou city police in Zhejiang Province issued a warrant for Ming Xuechen, accusing him of involvement in a telecom scam syndicate in Kokang Region. The 69-year-old is a former member of Kokang Self-Administered Zone and used to represent the regime’s proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) in the Shan State parliament.
Chinese police also issued warrants for his son, Ming Xiaoping, aka Ming Guoping; his daughter, Ming Julan; and his granddaughter Ming Zhen Zhen. Ming Xiaoping is the leader of Shiyuanzi Village militia in Kokang SEZ.
The warrant viewed by The Irrawaddy offers rewards of 100,000 to 500,000 yuan (US$13,700-68,800) for information leading to his arrest while warning of legal action against anyone who harbors him.
The warrants against Ming Xuechen and his relatives are the latest move in China’s crackdown on crime syndicates that prey on its citizens from Myanmar’s border. Beijing has been pressuring the regime to take action against the syndicates since May but with little progress.
Chinese authorities took action last month by detaining 11 people from Kokang in Lincang City, Yunnan Province. Among them was Liu Zhengqi, CEO of Fully Light Group, one of the most notorious Kokang scam compound operators. Liu, who also happens to be a business crony of Myanmar regime boss Min Aung Hlaing, is a prominent junta official as well as a member of the Kokang Self-Administered Zone (SAZ)’s governing body and the USDP.
China also issued arrest warrants last month for two top officials related to Wa State leader Bao Youxiang, accusing them of being kingpins behind crime syndicates in Kokang’s neighboring Wa territory. They detained the deputy commander of the United Wa State Army (USWA) – the favorite nephew of the Wa leader – while he was visiting China.
Then came the arrest warrants for Ming Xuechen and his relatives.
October 20 Massacre
Ming Xuechen is the owner of Crouching Tiger Villa, a telecom scam compound in Kokang.
On Oct. 20, workers at the compound were gunned down by guards while trying to flee. According to some estimates, more than 60 Chinese nationals were killed or wounded in the massacre. Those killed allegedly included undercover Chinese police officers and Thai nationals, according to the latest report by United States Institute of Peace (USIP).
Infuriated by the incident, Beijing responded by demanding an immediate investigation and verification of casualties in the Kokang SAZ, according to a letter sent to Kokang authorities that was viewed by The Irrawaddy.
Since then, Ming Xuechen is believed to have gone into hiding, prompting the arrest warrant from the Chinese authorities.
On Saturday, Chinese authorities released video confessions by three of the 11 men who were arrested in Lincang City in October. The video shows Liu Zhengqi from Fully Light Group and two others confessing and appealing to scam compound leaders to release victims.
“Please don’t harm Chinese nationals anymore. While the scam business exists, the Chinese government will never cease its operations [against the scams],” Liu Zhengqi said in the video.
Meanwhile, an ethnic alliance of Kokang armed group the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), Arakan Army (AA), Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and resistance allies have seized dozens of junta bases across northern Shan since late last month.
The alliance said it had launched “Operation 1027” in response to the junta’s failure to crack down on the criminal enclaves on China’s border.
USIP said Beijing may have prevented the attacks had the alliance and resistance allies not painted their offensive as an effort to serve Chinese interests in curbing the criminal compounds.
“Tacit Chinese support was therefore essential to the operation’s success,” the USIP report says.
