"The horrendous account of a businessman who says he escaped from “cyber slavery” in Myanmar made headlines in the Chinese mainland last week. The man, using the pseudonym Li Wei, told the Metropolitan Channel of Henan TV in April that he was lured by a client to the Southeast Asian nation late last year when he tried to chase a payment he was owed. His story is becoming a familiar one. Like many other victims, the man says he was trafficked by a criminal syndicate and forced to engage in so-called pig butchering scams. More Chinese victims plucked from cross-border cyberscams in Myanmar This common form of cyber fraud sees scammers, many of them trafficked, seeking to win the trust of victims by developing romantic or business connections – “fattening the pigs” before they are “butchered” by swindling money from them. Li told the broadcaster that some of the cyber slaves had even been put in what their captors called a water prison. He said they were locked in rooms filled with water up to their mouths, with sharp nails on the floor that made it hard to stand. Such accounts have been appearing more frequently in Chinese state media recently as the government seeks to warn the public about these scams. In what the media called “a very big case”, a court in Chengdu, Sichuan province convicted 34 people late last month over their involvement in a scam ring based in Myanmar. But the case only involved fraudulent proceeds of several million yuan – meaning the syndicate was just one of the many small operators in the crime hubs that have sprung up along the Moei River in Myanmar. Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang in May called on the Myanmar government to work harder to stop the scams, but it is unclear whether this type of pressure is having any effect. One of the most infamous of the scam hubs is Shwe Kokko in the restive Kayin state. Originally a casino city co-developed by Yatai International Holdings – owned by Chinese-born businessman She Zhijiang – and the Kayin State Border Guard Force (BGF), it became a centre for online scams during the Covid-19 pandemic. Shwe Kokko is also the headquarters for the BGF, which is made up of former insurgency troops from Kayin who were integrated into Myanmar’s military, the Tatmadaw, during a ceasefire in 2010. In 2020, the Myanmar government – then a power-sharing arrangement between the civilian government and the military – launched an investigation and halted the controversial project, called Yatai New City. But local NGOs and media pointed out that the military coup that came the following year reversed the project’s fortunes, as the military government needed the BGF to fight rival armed groups. The Tatmadaw has neither the capacity nor the incentive to stop the BGF from restarting this project and turning it into a hub for cybercrime. The BGF is a loose group of former ethnic militias. Two small battalions reportedly defected from the military government recently, further undermining the Tatmadaw’s incentives to upset the remaining BGF forces on its side. She has been a long-time fugitive from China and was arrested in Thailand last year for running a cross-border gambling business. He is waiting to be extradited to China, and according to Myanmar media reports the BGF has filled the void left by She. Chinese, Malaysians among 2,700 victims rescued in Philippines cyber scam raid 30 Jun 2023 These schemes are a concern across the region, with Association of Southeast Asian Nations members vowing to work together to combat them. There have been reports of rescues, crackdowns and trials in recent months – it is progress, but they are just the tip of the iceberg. Getting to the root of the problem will be difficult and complicated, but there is an opportunity now for cooperation between Beijing and Asean members, since they face a common enemy. Stopping these criminal syndicates and their protectors can only be done with regional cooperation, and with strong political will..."