Why China moved so quickly to execute 11 members of a notorious mafia family
Jonathan HeadSoutheast Asia Correspondent
No one should be surprised that China has quickly executed all 11 members of an organized crime family from northeastern Myanmar sentenced to death in September.
China executes more people than anywhere else in the world, according to human rights groups – the exact figure is a state secret. Officials are often executed for corruption. The charges against the Ming family were much more serious.
The Ming, Bau, Wei and Liu clans have dominated the isolated border town of Laukkaing in Myanmar’s impoverished Shan state since 2009.
They rose to power after General Min Aung Hlaing, the current coup leader in Myanmar, led a military operation aimed at ousting the MNDAA, the ethnic insurgent army that had dominated Laukkaing and its surrounding areas since the 1980s.
The four families, as they came to be known, took over and began to transition from the old reliance on opium and methamphetamine production to a new economy based on casinos and, ultimately, online fraud.
They remained close to the Burmese army; In December 2021, after seizing power in his coup, Min Aung Hlaing feted Liu Zhengxiang, patriarch of the Liu clan, in the capital Nay Pyi Taw and awarded him an honorary title for “extraordinary contributions to the development of the state”.
His Fully Light conglomerate had lucrative operations throughout Myanmar. Other members of the four families were candidates for the military-backed USDP party.
The fraud schemes they ran in Laukkaing were brutal, however, far more so than the fraud schemes in other parts of Asia. Torture was commonplace.
Tens of thousands of workers, mainly Chinese, were lured there by the promise of well-paid jobs, only to find themselves imprisoned in these complexes. They were forced to run in elaborate ways “Pig butchery” scamswhere most of the victims were also Chinese. Complaints from victims and families of those locked in the compounds have multiplied on social networks.
The most famous resort in Laukkaing was called Crouching Tiger Villa, run by the Ming family. In October 2023, during what appears to be an escape attempt, guards killed several Chinese nationals. Chinese authorities felt compelled to act.
With China’s apparent blessing, the MNDAA and its allies attacked and recaptured Laukkaing, as part of their offensive against the Myanmar military in the ongoing civil war. The MNDAA is committed to completely eradicating this scam.
They arrested the heads of the four families and handed over more than 60 of their relatives and associates to Chinese police. Ming Xuechang, the family patriarch, or warlord, committed suicide after being captured, authorities said.
During interrogations by Chinese police, one of the family members reportedly admitted to killing someone at random, simply to demonstrate his strength.
These details were made public by China to justify its harsh treatment of families. Five members of the Bau family are also awaiting execution, while the trials of the Wei and Liu families have not yet concluded.
All four families are of Chinese origin and had close ties to authorities on the Chinese side of the Yunnan border. Their abuses hit too close to home for China, and the action against the scam in Laukkaing was the most decisive yet.
China also convinced Thailand and Cambodia to extradite two Chinese businessmen accused of running fraudulent empires, She Zhijiang, who built an entire city in Myanmar’s war-torn Karen state, and Chen Zhi, who amassed wealth and power with his conglomerate Prince Group in Cambodia. The Chinese government also brought tens of thousands of its citizens who worked in fraudulent complexes back to China to face trial.
The scam industry, however, has simply adapted and evolved. It is still believed to be by far the largest company in Cambodia, despite pressure from China and the United States on the local government to shut it down.
And it continued to move to new parts of Myanmar, even as the biggest scam resorts like KK Park and Shwe Kokko on the Thailand-Myanmar border were forced to close.