Chinese actor’s rescue sheds light on scam centers

A small-time Chinese actor had been missing in Thailand for two days when his girlfriend decided to ask 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 Chinese social media platform Weibo on January 5.

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

Wang, 31, attracted the attention of the country and its government.

On January 7, Wang was rescued from a scam center across the border in Myanmar; The news sparked a wave of relief.

But the quick but mysterious rescue has also raised questions about the fate of those who remain trapped inside the scam centers. The case is a grim reminder of the thriving criminal enterprises that still trap hundreds of thousands of people, forcing them to commit cybercrimes.

Families of Chinese citizens who may be detained in one of these complexes have started a petition urging their government to help them as well. The petition document is shared online so anyone can complete missing persons cases. The number of cases has already increased to more than 600 from the initial 174, and continues to rise.

Wang told police there were around 50 Chinese nationals held in the same location as him alone.

“We are desperate to know if the remaining Chinese citizens (who were) with him have been rescued,” reads a much-liked comment on Weibo.

“The lives of others are also life.”

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

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

The actor later told reporters that he had been on a shoot in Thailand around 2018 and did not suspect this would be any different. But they picked him up in a car and took him to Myanmar, where they shaved his head and forced him to undergo training on how to scam people using phone calls.

His girlfriend wrote on Weibo that she and her brother tried to locate him and involve the police, but “there were few results”: Chinese police had not yet registered a case, while the embassy in Thailand had simply advised Wang’s family to would 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 had given it great importance.

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

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

Details of the rescue itself have been scarce. Officials have not even revealed which scam center he had been to as conflicting versions of the story spread.

One reason could be that withholding more information was part of the deal that led to his release, according to a source who previously rescued people from scam centers who did not wish to be identified.

He told the BBC that these scam centers want to avoid attention. That meant that releasing Wang was the best option, compared to risking the entire operation due to the attention his disappearance was attracting.

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

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

But those on the ground – NGOs and independent rescuers – tell the BBC that scams continue to increase and that construction is expanding to even more remote regions.

Today, the border area with Thailand is the main center of international scams in Myanmar, taking advantage of associations with the various armed groups that compete for power there.

New scam complexes 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 reported.

This has put enormous pressure on Thailand, whose economy relies heavily on tourism, especially China.

Wang’s case has some Chinese wondering how safe it is to travel to Thailand. “It seems that after this Wang Xing incident, there will be fewer people going to Southeast Asia, including Thailand,” reads a popular Weibo post.

Their rescue may well be a success for Thai officials and a victory for Beijing, but it has not ended the discussion or the attention on scam compounds.

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

His brief disappearance has only exposed how common the danger has become: others in the Chinese film industry have since shared their own accounts of being duped by scammers who offered them jobs in Thailand.

Thai police are now reported to be investigating the case of another Chinese model missing on the Thai-Myanmar border, after she was promised a job in Thailand.

The Chinese Radio and Television Federation said in a statement Tuesday that “many actors” have gone abroad with false promises of film shoots and suffered “severe damage to their personal and financial security” as a result.

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

“Please save (Wang) from danger and bring the story of No More Bets to life,” Wang’s girlfriend urged in her Weibo post, referring to the 2023 film’s protagonists who were rescued after being trafficked to scam centers.

Wang, like those in the film, belongs to a fortunate minority.

Hundreds of thousands of victims from China, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore remain trapped in sprawling scam complexes with little hope of rescue.

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

Wang, newly freed from his ordeal, has no concerns about returning to Thailand, a police official told reporters on Wednesday.

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