"China raises stakes in cyberscam crackdown in Myanmar, though loopholes remain" 6 December 2023

China is ramping up a crackdown on online scams operated by criminal syndicates in border areas of military-ruled Myanmar in an effort that has included a shootout, confession videos and national TV broadcasts of arrests of high-profile suspects...

On Nov. 18, China’s Ministry of Public Security announced that authorities in northern Myanmar had handed over some 31,000 suspects. Among them, police said, 63 were key players of scamming groups, the police said.

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The crackdown has become a factor in Myanmar’s conflict. On Oct. 27, three ethnic armed groups launched a new offensive in northern Shan state against the army... they include fighters from the Arakan Army, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, or MNDAA...

The MNDAA said the offensive has two main objectives, first, to defeat government-backed forces in charge of Kokang. The second, to vanquish cyberscammers...

Still, it’s unclear how comprehensive China’s crackdown will be. Bai Suocheng, the main military commander in charge of Kokang, is also said to have been involved in scams, but none of his family are known to have been arrested...