A Chinese court has sentenced 11 members of one of the region’s most notorious crime families to death for running large-scale scam operations across Myanmar, according to The Times UK. The Ming family syndicate, which had long exploited migrant workers in telecom scam centres, was also implicated in prostitution, illegal gambling, and drug trafficking.
The sentences follow the arrest of 39 ringleaders in a joint operation by Chinese and local forces in Kokang, northern Myanmar, an area long plagued by civil conflict. Authorities were compelled to act after public outrage in 2023 over the growing lawlessness and the exploitation of Chinese nationals and others in scam operations.
At the height of its operations, the Ming family employed up to 10,000 people across its “business parks” in Kokang. Victims were often lured with promises of legitimate work, only to be forced into scam centres under slave-like conditions. Attempts to raid one site, Wohu Villa, ended in a mutiny when 600 operatives realized they were not being repatriated to China. Four were killed when the gang’s private militia opened fire.
Ming Zhenzhen, granddaughter of the syndicate’s late patriarch Ming Xuechang, was among those sentenced to death on Monday in Wenzhou, eastern China. Ming Xuechang, who reportedly committed suicide during the authorities’ 2023 cross-border raid, had at one time been a local MP for Myanmar’s ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party. Ming Guoping, his son, was also sentenced to death. Additional sentences included suspended death penalties and prison terms ranging from five to 24 years.
The Ming family had earned an estimated 10 billion yuan (£1 billion) since 2015. Thousands of Chinese nationals remain missing in surviving scam centres, with family members continuing to press authorities for action. High-profile rescues, such as that of television actor Wang Xing in January, have highlighted the scale of human suffering.
Authorities say the crackdown is part of a broader effort to restore law and order in the porous border region and to dismantle criminal networks that had previously been tolerated as a counterbalance to local rebel groups.
