4/29/24, 2:31 PM China Forces Myanmar Scam Syndicates to Move to Thai Border | United States Institute of Peace in Northern Shan State As USIP reported earlier, between May 2023 and January 2024, China took action against the many scam centers operating along its borders in the Kokang, Mong La and Wa areas of northern Shan State. Chinese law enforcement pressured local armed groups and the Myanmar army’s Border Guard Forces (BGF) hosting the centers to close them down and release their largely Chinese slave labor workforce. This operation had a direct effect on the course of internal conflict in Myanmar: It gave the Kokang Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), aligned with other anti-coup forces, the opportunity to expel the rival Kokang BGF that was operating the scam centers and eradicate the centers in one blow. This victory for the MNDAA — with Chinese acquiescence — became the opening shot for a coordinated assault on military posts along all of Myanmar’s borders over the next few months. Today, anti-coup forces, having overrun hundreds of military posts around the country’s periphery, control all the major border crossings with Bangladesh and India on the west, and increasingly with China and Thailand on the north and east. Most recently, China has begun to implicate senior members of the Myanmar military with involvement in the Kokang scam centers, based on information gained from interrogation of Kokang BGF leaders taken to China under arrest for operating the centers. Chinese authorities are reportedly pressing the Myanmar regime to arrest these individuals. In Karen State, Chinese authorities have worked closely with the military regime and Thai authorities to secure repatriation of over 900 Chinese nationals held in compounds around Myawaddy but have refrained from the direct action they took in Shan State and have not issued arrest warrants for the Karen BGF or other militia leaders involved in criminal activity targeting China. Cracking the Complex Crime Syndicate Problem https://www.usip.org/publications/2024/04/china-forces-myanmar-scam-syndicates-move-thai-border 3/11