"China vows closer security ties with Mekong states as cyber scams, Myanmar unrest have cross-border impact" 8 December 2023

China and its five Southeast Asian neighbours along the Lancang-Mekong River have agreed to focus on security cooperation, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said.

“We will resolutely combat cross-border crime in the [region], especially cyber fraud and gambling,” Wang said after the annual Lancang-Mekong Cooperation foreign ministers’ meeting with Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam...

China has been pushed to step up crackdowns in the region after news of forced labour and online scams made headlines in the summer...

China is also facing the fallout of continued unrest in northern Myanmar, as the military junta there grapples with one of the biggest rebel challenges to its rule.

Multiple armed groups launched a coordinated offensive in late October across the northern Myanmese states of Shan and Kachin, and the upper Sagaing Region. Fighting has closed in on China’s border towns several times, forcing locals to evacuate...