4/29/24, 2:31 PM China Forces Myanmar Scam Syndicates to Move to Thai Border | United States Institute of Peace corrupt coup regime in the face of a rising, multi-front revolution and, perhaps more importantly, an aggressive push by China’s law enforcement authorities. China’s campaign has forced many scam centers along its border in northern Shan State to close and more to migrate to Karen State. Repatriation of almost 45,000 people from the scam syndicates’ compounds, including major crime bosses, has provided Chinese authorities with new intelligence on the Myanmar military’s profitable involvement with the centers. That has resulted in China’s demand for the arrest of a number of senior officers, shaming of the junta and eroding the army’s ability to protect its criminal interests. With the demise of scamming enclaves like Kokang in northern Shan State, some of the syndicates have relocated to Laos and Cambodia, and others have regenerated in Myanmar. Some of the criminal activity persists in eastern Shan around Tachileik and in the territories controlled by the United Wa State Army and the National Democratic Alliance Army (Mongla). But the vast majority has been absorbed by criminal zones in Karen State on the Thai border, while the Karen militia forces harboring them have realigned to distance themselves from the junta to better secure their criminal empires. These moves have played into escalating conflict on the Thailand border, as various armed groups in Karen now see the coup regime as more liability than protector for illicit business. Curiously, neither Chinese nor Thai law enforcement seem willing or able to challenge these operations, and the Karen armed groups protecting them remain openly defiant. As these criminal gangs increasingly turn to lucrative U.S. victims, it is time for the United States to encourage Myanmar’s neighbors to form a multi-country task force that can tackle the Karen sanctuary and cut the inter-state ties that connect the criminal networks and allow them to sustain their malign activities. China Moves Against Chinese Criminal Networks https://www.usip.org/publications/2024/04/china-forces-myanmar-scam-syndicates-move-thai-border 2/11