China has executed 11 members of a notorious mafia family that ran scam centres in Myanmar along its north-eastern border, state media report.
The Ming family members were sentenced in September for various crimes including homicide, illegal detention, fraud, and operating gambling dens by a court in China's Zhejiang province.
The Mings were one of many clans that ran the town of Laukkaing, transforming an impoverished backwater town into a flashy hub of casinos and red-light districts.
Their scam empire came crashing down in 2023, when they were detained and handed over to China by ethnic militias that had taken control of Laukkaing during an escalation in their conflict with Myanmar's army.
With these executions Beijing is sending a message of deterrence to would-be scammers. However, the business has now moved to Myanmar's border with Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos, where China has much less influence.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been trafficked to run online scams, with many victims being Chinese citizens who have lost billions of dollars due to these schemes.
Frustrated by the Myanmar military's failure to dismantle scam operations allegedly profiting them, Beijing supported an offensive by ethnic insurgent alliances in late 2023, which captured significant territory, including control over Laukkaing.
Who are the Ming family?
The eleven members of the Ming family are the first of the Myanmar scam bosses to be executed by China — but likely not the last. Five additional members of the Bai family received death sentences in November, while the trials of other groups from the Wei and the Liu families are still ongoing.
The Ming family's operations brought in over 10 billion yuan (approximately $1.4 billion) in profit between 2015 and 2023, with their crimes resulting in the deaths of 14 Chinese citizens.
The saga of the Ming family highlights the serious and alarming extent of cybercrime rooted in organized crime networks in the region, and the Chinese government's commitment to combatting it.
