Rescue of Chinese actor sheds light on fraud centers

A young Chinese actor had been missing for two days in Thailand when his girlfriend decided to turn to the internet for help.

“We have no choice but to borrow the power of the Internet to amplify our voices,” Wang Xing’s girlfriend wrote on the Chinese social media platform Weibo on January 5.

The prayer went viral after being shared by some of China’s biggest celebrities, including singer Lay Zhang and actor Qin Lan.

Wang, 31, had the country’s attention — as well as his government’s.

On January 7, Wang was rescued from a fraud center across the border in Myanmar – the news was greeted with a wave of relief.

But the quick but mysterious rescue has also led to questions about the fate of those who remain trapped inside the fraud centers. The case is a grim reminder of the thriving criminal businesses that still trap hundreds of thousands of people, forcing them into cybercrime.

Families of Chinese nationals who may be held in one of these compounds have started a petition asking their government to help them too. The petition document is distributed online for anyone to fill in the cases of those who are missing. The number of cases has now climbed to more than 600 from the initial 174 and is still rising.

Wang told the police that there were about 50 Chinese nationals held in the same place as him alone.

“We are desperate to know if it is the remaining Chinese nationals [who were] with it they are saved,” says a liked comment on Weibo.

“Other people’s lives are lives too.”

Wang disappeared on January 3 in the Thai border town of Mae Sot, which has become a hub for people-trafficking into Myanmar.

He had flown to Bangkok for an acting job offered to him on WeChat. The person claimed to represent a large Thai entertainment company, according to Thai police.

The actor later told reporters that he had been on a shoot in Thailand around 2018 and didn’t suspect this was any different. But he was caught in a car and taken to Myanmar, where his head was shaved and he was forced to undergo training on how to trick people into phone calls.

His girlfriend wrote on Weibo that she and his brother had tried to track him down and get the police involved, but “there had been few results”: Chinese police had yet to register a case, while the embassy in Thailand had merely advised Wang’s family that to approach. the police in Mae Sot.

But as discussions about Wang’s whereabouts grew louder on Chinese social media, authorities began to act. The case was finally registered and the embassy told the media that they were taking the case very seriously.

The next day, Thai and Chinese officials announced that Wang had been rescued.

His first public appearance was alongside Thai police, but he said little, leaving officials to explain what happened.

Details of the rescue itself have been scant. Officials have not even revealed which fraud center he had been in as conflicting versions of the story circulated.

One reason may be that withholding more information was part of the deal that led to his release, according to a source who has previously rescued people from fraud centers, who did not want to be named.

He told the BBC that these fraud centers are keen to avoid attention. This meant that releasing Wang was the best option, compared to jeopardizing the entire operation due to the attention his disappearance was attracting.

Beijing also wanted to end the discussion of Wang’s case. It wants its citizens to believe it has done enough and that the fraud centers along its border are no longer a problem.

A joint operation by China and ethnic insurgent groups in 2023 aimed to shut down fraud centers in Myanmar’s Shan State.

But those on the ground – NGOs and independent rescuers – tell the BBC that scams are still on the rise, with construction expanding to even more remote regions.

These days, the area along the border with Thailand is the main center of international fraud in Myanmar, benefiting from partnerships with various armed groups vying for power there.

New fraud compounds have been built south of the town of Myawaddy, near the Thai border, where the worst cases of forced labor and other abuses are now being reported.

This has put a lot of pressure on Thailand, whose economy relies heavily on tourism, especially from China.

Wang’s case has caused some Chinese to question how safe it is to travel to Thailand. “It feels like after this Wang Xing incident, there will be less people going to Southeast Asia, including Thailand,” said one popular Weibo post.

His rescue may be a success for Thai officials and a victory for Beijing, but it has not ended the debate, or attention, on the fraud compounds.

On Thursday, lines from a recent interview of his were trending on Weibo: “actor Wang Xing claims he couldn’t eat much food in Myanmar and didn’t have time to use the toilet.”

His brief disappearance has only exposed how common the risk has become: others in the Chinese film industry have since shared their own accounts of being scammed by scammers offering them work in Thailand.

Thai police are reportedly now investigating the case of another Chinese model who went missing on the Thailand-Myanmar border after he was promised a job in Thailand.

The China Radio and Television Federation Association said in a statement on Tuesday that “many actors” have gone abroad on false promises to film and have suffered “serious damage to their personal and financial security” as a result.

“We are very concerned about this,” the statement said.

“Please save [Wang] out of danger and bring the story of No More Basts to life, Wang’s girlfriend urged in her Weibo post — a reference to the 2023 film’s protagonists who were rescued after being trafficked into fraud centers.

Wang – like those in the film – is among the lucky few.

Hundreds of thousands of victims from China, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore remain stuck in multiple fraud complexes with little hope of escape.

But ahead of the Lunar New Year, when hordes of Chinese tourists are expected to visit Thailand, the Thai government is keen to stress that the country is a safe destination. Thai police also insist that no Thais were involved in Wang’s trafficking.

Wang, recently released from his probation, has no concerns about returning to Thailand, a police officer told reporters on Wednesday.

In fact, he added, Wang has promised to return.