Beijing ups pressure as regime scrambles
Chinese ambassador to Myanmar Chen Hai met with junta foreign minister Than Swe in Naypyitaw on Thursday, five days after he visited the Golden Triangle borderlands of Myanmar, Thailand and Laos to check on progress in the joint crackdown on online scam operations.
Chen and Than Swe discussed measures to combat the border telecom fraud, which is luring Chinese citizens with the promise of high-paying jobs and extracting huge amounts of money from China and other targeted countries.
The crackdown came as frustration mounted in Beijing at scam operations reportedly run by four families that were raking in up to 100 billion yuan (US$ 14 billion) per year under Myanmar military protection.
Over the past 10 months, the junta has transferred over 49,000 online scam suspects to Chinese authorities. It recently fired deputy defense minister Major-General Aung Lin Tun for suspected involvement in scam operations in northern Shan State.
Last month, Beijing awarded the Golden Great Wall Commemorative Medal to junta home affairs minister Yar Pyae during his trip to China for talks on combating cybercrime operations.
After carrying out a large-scale crackdown on online scam syndicates in northern Shan State through the hands of ethnic rebels, Beijing is now targeting cybercrimes in southern Shan.
During the crackdown in northern Shan, allegations emerged that Myanmar military top brass including junta boss Min Aung Hlaing were involved in the lucrative business.
Min Aung Hlaing’s ‘cool’ idea
Junta boss Min Aung Hlaing visited Chauk in central Myanmar on May 25 to offer a wild idea for keeping cool in the global hotspot. Chauk claimed the title of world’s hottest city in April with a temperature of 46.4 degrees Celsius (115.5F).
Min Aung Hlaing’s bizarre solution? Build hollow pagodas and kill two birds with one stone by allowing people to take shelter in their shade and simultaneously make merit with good deeds.
Locals should make donations to build the heat-beating pagodas, he added.
Shadier still, he boasted his regime would plant at least two acres of trees in every village in Chauk Township.
Though not an offense to Buddhism, building pagodas will only heap more financial burdens on a public already suffering soaring inflation and low employment since Min Aung Hlaing seized power in 2021.
Locals should also be forgiven for skepticism over his plan to grow a forest in each Chauk village. Wild economic plans the junta chief inherited from his predecessors, such as producing biodiesel from castor oil, launching large-scale oil palm production in Tanintharyi, and running a metro rail system and electric buses across Myanmar, have proven nothing more than castles in the air.
Security personnel mobilized as losses mount
Myanmar junta chief issues full-time military service order deploying all security personnel in eight regional commands to frontline. Read more
Deputy defense minister jailed, training chief takes over
Maj Gen Ko Lay has been appointed as deputy defense minister, replacing Maj Gen Aung Lin Tun, who has reportedly been jailed over northern Shan State’s online scams. Read more
Economics minister purged
Loyalist Aung Naing Oo’s more than 20-year career in Myanmar’s civil service came to an end on Monday when the former military officer was pushed out of his post in the junta’s Cabinet. Read more
