China sentenced five people to death on Tuesday for their involvement in a violent criminal gang with fraud operations in Myanmar’s Kokang region along the border, according to media report.
Scam compounds have flourished in Myanmar’s lawless borderlands, staffed by foreigners — many of them Chinese — who often say they were trafficked and forced to swindle people online, part of a multibillion-dollar illicit industry.
Beijing has stepped up cooperation with Southeast Asian nations in recent months to crack down on the compounds, and thousands of people have been repatriated to China.