China and Thailand detain 12 crime ring members suspected of trafficking actor to Myanmar

News of the joint crime-fighting effort comes after top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi urges Asean countries to crack down on cross-border fraud

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Chinese actor Wang Xing has returned home after being trafficked to a Myanmar fraud compound by a crime ring. Photo: Weibo/ 你的秘密是love幂吗

Published: 4:07pm, 17 Jan 2025Updated: 6:48pm, 17 Jan 2025

Chinese and Thai police have worked together to detain 12 members of a crime ring accused of kidnapping six victims in Thailand and trafficking them to Myanmar as part of an employment and telecoms scam, state news agency Xinhua reported on Friday.

The report came a day after Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to crack down on cross-border telecoms fraud.

The victims in the case include Wang Xing, a Chinese actor who earlier this month flew to Bangkok where he expected to work on a film production but instead was kidnapped to the city of Myawaddy in Myanmar, a notorious hub for scams.

A model and a lighting engineer were among the other victims, according to Xinhua.

Wang’s case caused public outcry after his girlfriend posted on social media that he was missing. Several celebrities shared her post, which drew wide attention to the actor’s ordeal. Wang was later rescued and returned to China.

Wang’s story sparked a flood of reports on Chinese social media about similar cases, with many users claiming their friends and relatives had also disappeared near Myanmar’s border after being tricked into travelling to Thailand.

In response, China’s Ministry of Public Security said earlier this week that it had deployed security authorities to investigate the cases of citizens who had gone missing abroad.