As Chinese tourists cancel trips to Thailand due to safety concerns, Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra will visit Beijing next week to reassure the Chinese public, who are alarmed by the high-profile abduction of Chinese actor Wang Xing from Thailand to the Myawaddy telecom fraud park in Myanmar.
Bloomberg reports that Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra will visit Beijing. She stated that she will meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping to request China's help in curbing negative rumors about Thailand's safety and to express her concerns about the neighboring country's telecom fraud parks to Xi Jinping.
Tourism is a pillar industry in Thailand, accounting for about 12% of the GDP and providing nearly one-fifth of the nation's jobs. China is Thailand's largest source of tourists. In 2024, of the 35.5 million tourists visiting Thailand, 6.7 million are expected to be Chinese.
Chinese male actor Wang Xing was lured into Thailand to "film" on January 3 this year, then went missing at the Thai-Myanmar border, and was kidnapped to the Myawaddy telecom fraud park in Myanmar. After his girlfriend's post calling for public attention, Wang Xing was fortunately rescued back to China in the early hours of January 11. Thai police stated that initial investigations showed Wang Xing was a victim of human trafficking.
After the scandal of Wang Xing being kidnapped to Myawaddy in Myanmar was exposed, under strong public pressure, the Chinese government cooperated with Thai police and rescued Wang Xing within a few days.
Analysts suggest that the Chinese authorities intended to stage a drama of the government cherishing its people and rescuing kidnapped citizens abroad, but Wang Xing inadvertently revealed that there were dozens of other Chinese people with him in the park, and possibly more in the surrounding buildings, exposing the horrifying scene of more people being deceived into the Myanmar telecom fraud center, leading to increasing public skepticism about the presence of a "national role" of China in the persistent Myanmar telecom fraud parks.
Despite years of crackdowns, the telecom fraud parks in the China-bordering northern Myanmar have been largely eradicated, but the crime syndicates have moved their centers closer to the Thai border in eastern Myawaddy, continuing to engage in large-scale telecom fraud. The Wang Xing incident exposed the truth of the Myawaddy KK Park on social media, leading to over 1500 victims' documents circulating on Chinese social media, and generating massive public outrage over the annual tragedy of over 70,000 Chinese being kidnapped to Myanmar's telecom fraud parks.
According to some online statements from victims who were kidnapped to the Myanmar telecom fraud parks and either luckily escaped or were ransomed, these people had to engage in telecom fraud for long hours daily, and if their performance was poor, they would be subjected to various punishments, including beatings, and could be killed if they resisted, and some even had their "waist cut," meaning their internal organs were harvested for organ trafficking.
In Southeast Asia, the billion-dollar online fraud activities have been expanding in recent years, especially in Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar. They are usually operated by fugitives who fled China after the domestic crackdown on telecom fraud in 2020. In Myanmar, they seek refuge in areas controlled by rebels where the military government has lost control.
Affected by the Wang Xing incident, Thai tourism authorities estimate that tens of thousands of Chinese tourists have canceled their trips to Thailand.
Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra has ordered law enforcement agencies to intensify the crackdown on telecom fraud gangs and ensure the safety of tourists, also promising Chinese tourists that their safety will be guaranteed. She convened a meeting with Thai foreign affairs, police, and tourism departments to discuss response policies and measures, and requested relevant units to combat transnational crime.
To communicate directly with Chinese tourists, Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra personally took action, assuring the safety of tourism in Thailand in a video released by the Thai Prime Minister's Office on January 22, using artificial intelligence (AI) technology to allow non-Chinese-speaking Paetongtarn to speak in Chinese, striving to regain the confidence of the Chinese public in Thai tourism, which attracted attention on the Chinese internet.
According to Thailand's "The Nation" newspaper, Liu Zhongyi, Deputy Minister of Public Security of China, led a delegation to Nakhon Pathom Province in Thailand to meet with officials of the Thai Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau on January 27, revealing that there are 36 large-scale telecom fraud gangs operated by Chinese in Myawaddy, Myanmar, employing over 100,000 people to defraud others of their money.
Liu Zhongyi also said that many Chinese citizens were lured or deceived into working for these criminal gangs in Myanmar, some of whom were reportedly beaten, and some even lost their lives.
The Chinese Ministry of Public Security urged the Thai Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau to arrest the leaders of the fraud gangs living in Thailand as soon as possible, and to apprehend about 20 suspects involved in the abduction of Chinese actor Wang Xing, and to extradite them to China.
China also urged Thai officials to help confirm the Chinese victims still detained in Myanmar and to press for their quick release; at the same time, it requested Thailand to block the channels through which these fraud gangs obtain funds. Liu Zhongyi also proposed setting up a Thai-Chinese coordination center to jointly combat the telecom fraud gangs.
The report indicates that Thailand agreed to the Chinese proposal, suggesting that both sides exchange information about the fraud gangs and proposing that China lead a regional meeting, inviting Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia to discuss how to resolve the issue of telecom fraud.
