Shanghai music teacher Wang Qi, 33 years old, flew to Bangkok, Thailand on September 24th and lost contact with family and friends the next day. His phone’s IP address showed up in southern Karen State, Myanmar twice, and his TikTok account attempted to call his mother and friends but the calls were not answered. As of October 2nd, Wang Qi remains missing.
According to a report from the Thai Chinese media “Thailand Headline News” on October 2nd, public information about the search for Wang Qi indicated that he graduated from the Music School of East China Normal University and currently works as a music teacher at an international bilingual school in Shanghai.
Family members mentioned that on September 24th after work, Wang Qi drove alone to Shanghai Pudong International Airport, parked his car in the underground parking lot, and then took Spring Airlines flight 9C8755 to Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport. Before leaving, he did not inform family or friends about his trip to Thailand or his specific itinerary.
On September 25th, Wang Qi was still able to communicate with family and friends via WeChat during the day. However, that evening, two friends were unable to reach him, and subsequent calls to his phone went unanswered.
The school where Wang Qi works stated that he left work as usual on September 24th but did not return to work after the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday ended on September 28th. The school contacted his family only to find out that he had been missing.
As reported by “Red Star News,” Wang Qi’s high school classmate, Ms. Zhang, saw a missing person notice in their class group on October 1st. And after contacting Wang Qi’s mother, it was confirmed that he was indeed missing.
One of Wang Qi’s university classmates mentioned that classmates and university teachers have been sharing the missing person information on social media, with high school and university classmates all assisting in the search efforts.
A student of Wang Qi stated that before the Mid-Autumn Festival, they played basketball together at school, and Wang Qi seemed distracted at the time. Wang Qi did not mention any plans to travel abroad to the student, and the post-holiday classes have been covered by other teachers.
According to information provided by his family, Wang Qi’s phone’s IP address showed up in southern Karen State, Myanmar on the evenings of September 26th and midday on September 27th. However, the IP location is not definitive proof that Wang Qi himself has entered Myanmar.
On the morning and afternoon of September 27th, his TikTok account made voice calls to his mother and a friend. Before the calls, the account left a message urging his mother to answer the call, but both calls went unanswered. Despite multiple callbacks and messages from family members, there was no response.
“Thailand Headline News” quoted the family as saying that the police preliminarily suspected that Wang Qi was “highly likely to have been deceived out of the country.” This assertion is yet to be verified publicly by the police, and the exact circumstances of Wang Qi’s situation remain unclear.
The family has reported the case to the Shanghai police and has entrusted others to report the case in Thailand. The Chinese Embassy in Thailand announced on October 2nd that they have informed the Thai police about the situation, and the case is currently under investigation.
Since the beginning of this year, there have been continuous incidents of mainland Chinese citizens going missing after traveling to Thailand. In March of this year, 21-year-old student Wang Shuoxiang from Shandong lost contact with his family after arriving in Bangkok. In mid-May, Chinese media reported that Wang Shuoxiang had been missing for over two months. However, there has been no official progress or reports of his location to date.
In May, Zhang and three others from Kunming went missing while on a survey trip to Thailand. Zhang’s wife later received a call from her husband, during which he sounded choked up, and there were other voices in the background urging him to “explain the situation as requested.” The Kunming police reported on June 9th that the four individuals had returned to China.
Karen State in Myanmar is adjacent to Thailand, where areas like Myawaddy have long been known for online scam operations. In January 2025, Chinese actor Wang Xing was lured to Thailand under false work invitations and ended up being taken to a scam location in Myanmar before being rescued.
In June this year, Reuters cited data from non-governmental organizations stating that there are still over 5300 people, around 1600 of whom are Chinese nationals, trapped in the scam areas near the Myanmar-Thailand border.