Singapore (Commonwealth Union)_ Criminal syndicates from China are spreading their tentacles across the Asia-Pacific region, setting up bases in countries like the Philippines, Australia and Singapore to launder their ill-gotten gains.
Police in Australia arrested nine Chinese nationals in February 2023, in a series of raids across Sydney. The gang in Australia is said to have been operating a shadow banking system for criminal groups.
Steven Xin, the Australia-based business partner of Macau gambling kingpin Alvin Chau, was among those arrested. He was jailed in China for 18 years in January for illegal gaming and other crimes.
The country director for the Myanmar program at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), an American federal institution that was established by the US Congress in 1984, Mr Jason Tower, said that these criminal networks are believed to have billions in capital.
Mr Tower told The Straits Times that it had reached the point where they control territory in Myanmar through partnerships they have with border guard forces under the Myanmar Army, and with other militias there. He said these criminal organizations also operate out of Laos and Cambodia, and are targeting financial hubs across the world, including Singapore, Dubai and London.
The United Nations said in a report in August that hundreds of thousands of people are being trafficked by criminal gangs and forced to work in other illegal online operations and scam centers that have sprung up across South-east Asia.
Mr Tower, who co-authored a report tracing the history of these criminal groups, said these criminal groups mainly offered offshore gambling services up till 2019, but with restrictions and crackdowns following the Covid-19 pandemic, their focus shifted to large-scale scam operations first moving in the early 2010s to the Philippines and setting up online gambling sites and casinos there, aimed at attracting fellow Chinese countrymen. Online gambling is illegal in China.
A chilling video in May 2019 showed the extent of their influence, a Chinese gang leader with cigarette in hand, surrounded by shirtless and tattooed men, issuing a warning to other groups.
The gang leader declared in Mandarin that “In the next three years, we Chongqing people will have the final say about whether Sihanoukville is stable or not”.
Cambodia’s then Prime Minister Hun Sen issued a directive banning online gambling on 18th August, 2019, By October that year, several of the gangs had left for Myanmar.
The report by Mr Tower highlighted three cities of concern in Myanmar that operate in special economic zones (SEZs): Saixigang Industrial Zone, Huanya International City and Yatai International City in Myawaddy township in Karen state.
Saixigang Industrial Zone was built by investments from a triad leader “Broken Tooth” Wan Kuok-Koi, who was sentenced to 13 years’ jail in Macau in 1999 for money laundering, criminal association and attempted murder.
Wan founded the World Hongmen History and Culture Association, after his release in 2012, and established the now-dissolved Dongmei Group in 2013, which was a key investor in Saixigang Industrial Zone.
The US Treasury slapped sanctions on Wan in 2020, alleging he was expanding his criminal activities throughout South-east Asia and using Hongmen as a front for criminal activities.
Joint operations
Chinese law enforcement agencies have recently stepped up cooperation with their South-east Asian counterparts to tackle transnational crime, which includes money laundering, human trafficking and cyber-scams.
Professor Zachary Abuza, of the National War College in Washington, who specializes in South-east Asian security issues said that China’s proactive approach also reflects the fact that there are now enough Chinese citizens among the 120,000 trafficked people in Myanmar’s SEZs and the 100,000 in Cambodian scam centers, and that the authorities are being forced to act.
In August 2022, Thailand authorities in arrested China-born She Zhijiang, the 41-year-old Cambodian owner of Yatai International City, who is currently fighting deportation to China who has been linked to a vast network of global companies including in Britain used to launder the billions he made since starting out as a small-time businessman in Hunan, China.
Prof Abuza said the information provided by China led to arrests in Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia.
Chinese law enforcement, working with Myanmar’s rebel United Wa State Army, raided 11 scam centers accused of swindling victims out of 120 million yuan (S$22.5 million) in September.
A total of 269 people were arrested, including 186 Chinese nationals including 21 ringleaders who were immediately deported to China.
Xinhua news agency, said, citing a statement by China’s Ministry of Public Security, that Myanmar later transferred 1,207 suspects, including 41 fugitives, to China.
