Chinese authorities clamp down on cross-border crimes in northern Myanmar

Police urged Chinese nationals in northern Myanmar to register their identities to crack down on cross-border crimes.

China.- China continues its fight cross-border crimes and is now turning its attention to Chinese nationals in northern Myanmar involved in telecommunications fraud, gambling and money laundering.

Police have urged Chinese nationals to register their identities at designated sites by July 31. Those who crossed the border illegally or are engaged in cross-border crimes related to gambling and money laundering or internet fraud, must return to China as soon as possible and confess their crimes, they said.

According to Global Times, police have repatriated 2,620 fraud suspects from Southeast Asian countries since 2020.

A few weeks ago, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) announced four new measures to fight cross-border gambling.

The proposal includes enhancing precision strikes on overseas gambling groups, strengthening supervision of blockchain services and related platforms and forming an effective structure within responsible authorities.

Authorities will punish online platforms that provide paid promotion services for overseas gambling. The CAC will also monitor blockchain services, including cloud storage and virtual private network services (VPN) to have more extensive control. 

After authorities declared a form of amnesty in February, 914 residents of mainland China confessed to involvement in cross-border gambling crimes.

The Ministry of Public Security said that police have investigated more than 18,000 cross-border gambling cases and arrested 110,000 people since 2020.

According to Zhao Kezhi, the minister of public security, police also detected 2,800 illegal payment platforms, more than 3,400 gambling platforms and over 2,200 gambling promotion platforms.

Police also raided underground banks and 1,400 illegal technical teams connected to cross-border gambling.