China says Myanmar scam parks have been largely eliminated

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said that telephone internet scam parks near the northern border of Myanmar have been completely eliminated after a joint effort by China, Thailand, Myanmar and Laos to crack down on the problem.

Wang was speaking at a press conference on Friday at China’s Two Sessions about the situation of Myanmar’s fraudulent areas. He said that China has been working with neighboring countries to launch cross-border cooperation to crack down on the scam parks.

“China, Thailand, Myanmar and Laos are working together to crack down on Internet and telephone fraud in the northern border region of Myanmar,” he explained, expressing his confidence that all such camps in the area had been eliminated.

In early January, Chinese actor Wang Xing was lured to a scam park on the Myanmar border after traveling through Thailand. The incident made headlines across mainland China.

Subsequently, the Thai government announced in early February that it would cut off electricity supply to five areas in Myanmar along the Thai-Myanmar border, with the aim of severely impacting the operations of the scam parks.

China, Thailand and Myanmar have launched a series of operations together to gradually rescue and repatriate scam victims trapped in the area. Last month, more than 620 Chinese suspects involved in fraud were successfully repatriated.