It’s called “pig butchering.” Armies of scammers operating from lawless corners of Southeast Asia—often controlled by Chinese crime bosses—connect with people all over the world through online messages. They foster elaborate, sometimes romantic, relationships, and then coax their targets into making bogus investments. Over time, they make it appear that the investments are growing to get victims to send more money. Then, they disappear. In recent months, China has unleashed its...

Human Rights;  Democracy & Governance

A week ago, one of Myanmar’s most powerful ethnic armed alliances launched a coordinated attack on a dozen military outposts in northern Shan State, along the country’s eastern border with China. Code-named Operation 1027, the plan is to assert and defend territory against Myanmar military incursions, eradicate “oppressive military dictatorship”, and combat online fraud along the border, according to a statement from...

Conflict Analysis & Prevention

Zhang Hongliang, a former restaurant manager in central China, took various gigs in and outside China to support his family after losing his job during the COVID-19 pandemic.In March, a job offer to teach Chinese cooking at a restaurant led him into a cyber scam compound in Myanmar, where he was instead ordered to lure Chinese into giving up their savings for fake investment schemes via social media platforms. Zhang is one of tens of thousands of people, mostly but not all Chinese, who have...

Human Rights;  Justice, Security & Rule of Law

As the civilian death toll from the bloodiest Israel-Gaza conflict in decades climbs ever higher, analysts warn that Asia must be on guard against deep divisions over the war tearing at the region’s social fabric – and the consequences of an increasingly distracted United States turning the bulk of its attention elsewhere. Some observers have cautioned that China could seek to take advantage of Washington’s...

Violent Extremism

The Chinese government has issued arrest warrants for a minister and a mayor in the Wa Self-Administered Zone (SAZ) for their alleged leading roles in telecom fraud gangs in the autonomous region of Myanmar’s northern Shan State near the Chinese border. The Hanzhou City Police Department in Jiejiang province and the Kunming City Police Department in Yunnan province issued warrants for the arrests of...

Democracy & Governance

“The town belongs to them,” Lae said, referring to the Chinese investors running a special economic zone (SEZ) at the train’s final stop, where she was visiting a childhood friend for the day. “Boten is famous for child trafficking,” her daughter Ellie warned. “They take young Lao girls to China.” The Boten SEZ, nestled next to China’s Yunnan province, has cycled through...

Democracy & Governance

The United Nations has cast a harsh spotlight on the cyber trafficking industry that has blossomed in Southeast Asia in recent years, estimating that the trade has ensnared some 100,000 victims in Cambodia alone. In a sweeping new report on online scam operations in the region, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights seeks to frame the online trafficking networks as an...

Human Rights

China is gearing up to mark the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), its vast international infrastructure scheme and brainchild of President Xi Jinping, next month. It claims to have...

Mediation, Negotiation & Dialogue