Myanmar’s military regime handed over six alleged online scam bosses to China on Tuesday after it was accused of sheltering criminals wanted in China for operating online scam empires in the Kokang region of Shan State along the Chinese border.
The transfer of the suspects to China followed a statement by an alliance of ethnic armies accusing the junta of sheltering the suspects.
Chinese media reported that Bai Suocheng, Bai Yingcang, Wei Huairen, Liu Zhengxiang, Liu Zhengmao, and Xu Laofa and four other prime suspects were handed over to Chinese authorities on Tuesday night. They were named in an arrest warrant issued by Chinese authorities in December for alleged involvement in online scams in Laukkai, the capital of Kokang.
They were escorted from Naypyitaw to Kunming, China that night on a chartered flight from China Eastern Airlines.
Laukkai has been under the control of the anti-regime Kokang armed group the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) since early this month.
The MNDAA, Arakan Army and Ta’ang National Liberation Army – commonly known as the Brotherhood alliance – launched coordinated attacks against the regime in northern Shan State in late October, claiming that eradication of scam centers in Kokang was one of their objectives. They seized Laukkai after about two months fighting regime troops and its allied militias.
Peng Deren, the leader of the MNDAA, said earlier this month that Myanmar’s military regime used helicopters to rescue leaders of the cybercrime syndicates – all members of “four big families” – in Laukkai when it was attacked. Myanmar’s military and the four families have been engaged in industrial-scale drug production and cybercrimes in Kokang for 14 years – 2009 to 2023 – turning it into a hub for cybercrimes, he added.
“The four big families have been very arrogant because they are backed by the regime,” Peng said in his New Year’s message. Earlier this week, the Brotherhood Alliance recently reiterated Peng Deren’s claim that junta transport helicopters were used to evacuate scam bosses from Laukkai in early November.
Among the six leaders handed over by the regime on Tuesday include members from two of the four families: Wei Huairen (Wei San) from the Wei clan and Liu Zhengxiang from Liu family.
Chinese media dubbed the six leaders handed over Tuesday as six important leaders of the Kokang wire fraud criminal group in northern Myanmar.
One, Bai Suocheng, is the former chair of the Myanmar military-backed Kokang Special Administrative Zone and Min Aung Hlaing’s ally. The junta usually issues arrest warrants for anyone wanted by China for involvement in online scams, but when Bai Suocheng was named in a warrant issued by China in December, the regime stayed quiet. Bai used to be a lawmaker in the military’s proxy political party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party.
His son, Bai Yingcang, who was among the six handed over to China on Tuesday, is a local militia leader who has frequently attended regime-organized events in Naypyitaw.
Another leader Wei Huairen (Wei San) is the head of the Kokang Border Guard Force, a junta-backed local militia.
Liu Zhengxiang owns Fully Light Group of Companies, the biggest conglomerate in Kokang. He and his conglomerate were among Min Aung Hlaing’s top go-to crony companies. The conglomerate is involved in major projects across Myanmar, including key real-estate and energy projects. It had also been a key player in cross-border trade with China.
The handover of the alleged scam leaders to China on Tuesday was the junta’s latest attempt to comply with China’s pressure to crack down on the syndicates.
Beijing has pushed Myanmar’s junta since last year to crack down on the scam syndicates operating along its border. It did not receive a strong response from regime officials and those it arrested for alleged involvement in cybercrimes have been described as low-level criminals.
Analysts have said that the junta’s weak response to the issue infuriated officials in China to such an extent that China – which has influence on the members of the Brotherhood Alliance – gave the alliance the green light to launch Operation 1027 in late October.
The junta usually uses state media to announce that it has handed over scam suspects to Beijing, but on Wednesday there was no mention of the transfer of the suspects to China.
