Recently, a large number of Chinese people gathered outside the Chinese Embassy in Phnom Penh, most of whom had escaped from fraudulent parks and were unable to return to their home country due to lacking passports. While the Chinese authorities have been extensively publicizing their joint efforts with neighboring countries to combat fraud, their role in the background of telecom fraud parks has been exposed.
According to reports from Cambodian media outlets such as “Khmer-China Times” and “Khmer Post,” after several telecom fraud parks in Cambodia were raided recently, a large number of trapped members were allowed to leave on their own and fled the parks. Outside the Chinese Embassy in Phnom Penh, a large number of Chinese individuals lined up on the streets, waiting to process their return procedures. Most of them were Chinese citizens who had escaped from fraudulent parks in Cambodia and, lacking passports, could only seek legal ways to return home through applying for return certificates or travel documents.
Cambodian news website “Cambojanews” quoted several Chinese people waiting in line saying that they had escaped from a telecom fraud park in Sihanoukville and wished to return to China before the Chinese New Year.
Online videos showed a large number of Chinese individuals who had escaped from fraud parks lying outside the Chinese Embassy in Phnom Penh, most of them looking tired, dressed lightly, and sleeping directly on the ground, in a bleak situation.
On January 21, a Douyin account “On the Cliff” posted a video stating that many Chinese compatriots were lying on the ground outside the Chinese Embassy in Cambodia, and with the upcoming Chinese New Year, many compatriots were unable to return home.
In the video, a woman asked two Chinese men, “Which park did you come from? Which place?” The man in black replied, “It seems like Park 9, Mu Pai (fraud park).” The woman then asked, “How did you come to Phnom Penh?” The man said, “By taxi.” The woman asked again, “Do you have passports?” The man shook his head and said, “No.”
At the end of the video, a woman reassured the stranded Chinese individuals outside the embassy, saying, “It’s okay, these questions will be explained to you by intermediaries during the day, there will be many intermediaries here.” A man asked, “Do we need to go through the immigration department to return home?”
Based on their conversation, they seemed to be inquiring about the procedures and processes for returning home.
According to Chinese media “Litchi News,” staff at the Chinese Consulate General in Sihanoukville responded that there are two ways for those coming out of fraud parks in Cambodia to return to China: either go to the Chinese Embassy in Phnom Penh to obtain a return certificate, complete the process, and then go to the immigration bureau in Phnom Penh to handle the relevant procedures for returning home; or surrender at the local police station, where individuals will be sent to an immigration center to await repatriation. However, the process in Phnom Penh is relatively faster, whereas the repatriation process through local police stations may take longer.
Some knowledgeable netizens have mentioned that many of these people were initially victims of deception, but now returning to China might lead to imprisonment for their involvement in fraud activities.
Previously, a single mother named Fei from China went to Cambodia last year to find her son, who had been missing for several months, and openly sought help from the Chinese Ambassador Wang Wenbin. However, after failing to locate her son and returning home, there were reports of her being restricted from leaving the country. Authorities announced on January 19 that her son was actively involved in illegal border crossing for quick money, and upon returning to China after being released from a fraud park, he was detained. However, some netizens questioned the official narrative.
Regarding the large number of Chinese people stranded in Cambodia, many mainland Chinese netizens have criticized the Chinese government for being incompetent and indifferent to the well-being of its citizens: “Finally understand why they targeted Chinese, no one cares.” “Finally managed to escape, but passports are withheld, unable to return home.” “The one who starred in ‘Wolf Warrior,’ come out and explain.”
Some netizens even expressed gratitude towards Thailand and the United States for aiding the surviving victims of deception who managed to escape the fraud parks.
In December last year, the Thai military conducted intense military strikes in border areas with Cambodia, specifically targeting well-known telecom fraud parks, forcing many parks to disband.
On social media platforms, some netizens mentioned, “The Thai military, with support from the United States, purged the evil for the people. Kudos! These telecom fraud parks and organ transplantation centers are rooted in China and are part of the Belt and Road projects. They export corruption from China.”
While the Chinese authorities have been heavily promoting joint efforts with neighboring countries like Myanmar, Cambodia, and Thailand to combat telecom fraud, for many years, despite Chinese citizens being the main victims of telecom fraud in Southeast Asia, the Chinese government did not carry out substantial rescue operations.
In February 2025, media reports from mainland China cited a woman named Yu from Yueyang, Hunan, used social media platforms to search for her son who had been missing for two months: on December 7, 2024, her son Zhang Jinke, who was working in Changsha, claimed to be going to repair a phone and subsequently lost contact with no further communication. In efforts to find her son, Yu and her husband reported to the police in both Changsha and Nanning. Investigations revealed that Zhang Jinke traveled from Changsha by train to Nanning and was later tracked to an area where he was previously seen in Cambodia. However, there was no further information about Zhang Jinke’s case.
Some survivors even indicated that the embassy staff were complicit with the fraud parks.
As reported by The Epoch Times on January 12, a young man from Sichuan, using the alias Li He, was deceived into staying at the Baolong S4 fraud park in Cambodia (also known as “New City Dream”) for three months, enduring various inhumane tortures. In August 2025, after his parents had exhausted their savings and went through hardships to rescue him back to China. The survivor revealed that in early July 2025, after contacting his family, they sought help from the Chinese Embassy. However, instead of being rescued, he was “hanged for three days and nights” by the fraud company and then sold to an adjacent fraud company.
Recently, Cambodia deported Chen Zhi, the founder and chairman of the Tai Zi Group involved in telecom fraud crimes, back to China. Chen Zhi was wanted by the United States and was also revealed to be a “pawn” of the Chinese Communist Party, leading to skepticism about his sudden deportation back to China.