Chinese Media Exposes Atrocities in Myanmar's Bai Family Telecom Fraud Parks: Beatings, Finger Severing, Forced Prostitution

The People’s Procuratorate of Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China, has filed public prosecution against Bai Suocheng and 20 others, key members of the Bai Family crime syndicate in northern Myanmar, on charges including fraud, operating illegal casinos, extortion, intentional homicide, intentional injury, kidnapping, drug trafficking and manufacturing, among others. The report also exposes how the Bai Family gang brutalizes and controls "employees" tricked into coming to these parks.

According to CCTV News, Chinese police stated that the crackdown and punishment methods for employees in the Bai family’s telecom fraud parks are not only extremely brutal, but have also become systematic. From violent control and financial exploitation to psychological destruction, the park’s management model has already formed a complete "disciplinary system":

For lower-level telecom fraud workers, corporal punishment, beatings and scoldings, reselling and trading are common.

For technical staff, if they refuse to help develop new scamming technology, they are locked up in iron cages or dark rooms, deprived of water and food until they give in.

For management, if the team's overall performance falls short, team leaders have to bear joint responsibility, suffering both physical and mental torture.

A Chinese returnee named Liao recounted: "They beat me inside the dark room, 7 or 8 people together, with sticks, PVC pipes, whips—they even used pliers to pull out my fingernails on four fingers, and later used a kitchen knife to chop off two of my fingers."

The report notes that to expand operations, telecom scam parks in northern Myanmar all set up specialized "recruitment teams", using hometown, acquaintances, or friendships as networks. Promises of high salaries and full reimbursement of accommodation and travel are used as bait. With code words like "carrying jade" or "carrying watches", they trick and traffic large numbers of Chinese citizens to cross into northern Myanmar.

A returnee scam victim surnamed Zhu said, "An old acquaintance tricked me. He said if I helped bring back watches and jade, I’d get (RMB) 20,000 to 30,000. As soon as I got to the border I was kidnapped and sold. He said if you can’t make targets, you’ll get sold, or else be buried alive."

According to the report, protected by the Bai family’s armed forces, threats, beatings and abuse are standard practices in managing scam parks not just in northern Myanmar, but they also fuel the growth of other crimes. To wring every last drop from low-level scam operatives, the closed-off parks exhaust all imaginable means to create their own internal “economic cycle.”

Li Juanjuan, Deputy Team Leader of the Legal Task Force of the Shenzhen Public Security Bureau’s Bai Family Crime Syndicate Task Force in Kokang, northern Myanmar, said, "For example, we found a site in the park forcing over 20 women into prostitution. There are armed guards outside, making it impossible to escape or resist. Through reviewing the files, we can see the desperation and the extent of their deprivation of freedom."

Zheng Chao, a police officer from the Shenzhen Public Security Bureau’s Bai Family Crime Syndicate Task Force in Kokang, northern Myanmar, pointed out: Once brought to the park, all IDs and communication devices are confiscated, all external contacts are severed, and people are forced to sign IOUs.

It is reported that women who are victimized are coerced by armed guards to work as prostitutes, forced to serve for at least a year, or until they hand over “travel money” ranging from RMB 30,000 to 80,000 before being allowed to leave. During this period, harsh rules apply, with frequent “fines”, increasing the amount owed and thus extending the period of prostitution service, ultimately achieving indefinite control over these women.

A Chinese national woman who was smuggled to northern Myanmar and forced into prostitution said, “If you want to leave, you have to pay. We have no money, and it’s so far we can’t get back.” “If you refuse clients, you get locked in a dark room, with armed guards on the door every day.” (News Source: United Daily News)