In eastern Myanmar, bordering China, is the region of Kokang. Once an impoverished hinterland, it was transformed by the mafia-esque Kokang crime families into a lawless hub for scams, gambling, and prostitution. One prominent family was the recently apprehended Ming family. Its kingpin, Ming Xuechang, who took his own life while in custody in 2023, ran the infamous scam centre Crouching Tiger Villa. Recently, 39 other Ming family members were sentenced, 11 of them to death.
It is a blunt and decisive conclusion to a family mired in national controversy.
The Kokang families were pivotal actors in Chinese-Myanmar relations. They cultivated a complex web of relationships with the economic and political elite across China, granting them virtually free rein under the protection of both Chinese officials and Myanmar’s military government.
The Ming family’s scam centres, such as Crouching Tiger Villa, held at least 10,000 workers. Many were victims of human trafficking. Lured by easy work and generous pay, upon arrival they were held prisoner and routinely tortured. One worker, Chi Tin, described how he was coerced into ‘pig-butchering’ , a type of scam where fraudsters gain the victim’s trust over time, often under the guise of romance, and then deceive them out of large sums of money.
I was forced to make 15 friends every day and entice them to join online gambling and lottery websites … The manager told me to work obediently, not to try to resist or escape or I will be taken to the torture room.
Online scams were just one element of a criminal enterprise that spanned from illegal casinos to drug trafficking and prostitution, generating more than 10bn yuan ($1.4bn; £1bn). The Ming family was also found responsible for the deaths of scam centre workers. In one incident, which supposedly prompted the crackdown, a number of Crouching Tiger Villa workers tried to escape. The scam centre guards opened fire, killing several. Some accounts say that undercover Chinese police were among the dead.
The court’s decision signals a dramatic shift in Chinese politics, with government officials finally forced to turn on their underworld associates.
