The plot of kidnapping and cross-border rescue embodies elements of an action movie script, but 22-year-old Chinese actor Wang Xing was not cast as an actor or celebrity in this real-life scenario. He was deceived by a job opportunity and ended up in Thailand, becoming a victim of the Meowadi scam park in Myanmar.
Wang Xing’s experience has ignited public opinion in China. Even though he has been rescued and returned home, more and more similar cases of disappearances have come to light. Chinese netizens questioned whether the mastermind behind the “Spring Breeze Blows Again” scam park in Myanmar is the Chinese Communist regime.
During the course of Wang Xing’s case, his girlfriend Jiajia meticulously outlined the timeline of Wang Xing’s disappearance, publicly revealing the details of his kidnapping process. She launched appeals on social media, tagging A-list actors Wang Xing had worked with, to amplify the impact of the issue. Jiajia’s actions have garnered widespread attention and prompted the Chinese authorities to collaborate with Thai police to rescue Wang Xing under strong public pressure.
Reuters noted that unlike Wang Xing, who had a strong advocate in his hometown, most families of deceived and trafficked Chinese individuals have been silently enduring the agony, waiting for news.
Wang Xing also revealed that there were dozens of other Chinese individuals with him in the park, and there might be even more people trapped in the surrounding buildings, painting a grim picture.
After Wang Xing’s kidnapping scandal in Meowadi was exposed, relatives of other Chinese individuals still detained in scam parks in Myanmar began sharing details of their family members’ cases on social media. They consolidated the information in a Google document named the “Star Return Home Plan,” hoping to attract attention to their loved ones’ plight.
Within days, this rare grassroots effort had compiled a list of nearly 1,800 Chinese citizens who had been trafficked. Families of these people stated that they were transported from the border areas of China and Thailand to Myanmar.
Since the military coup in Myanmar in 2021, amidst escalating civil war and chaos, scam parks have proliferated in Myanmar, where people working there often face brutal treatment.
The United Nations stated that since the COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of people have been trafficked to scam centers across Southeast Asia, where they deceive victims worldwide. Criminal organizations operating in this industry rake in billions of dollars in profits each year, with many of them having Chinese ethnicity ties.
Reuters reported that the organizers of the victim’s family grassroots movement have provided statistical data to the Chinese authorities, serving as detailed survey information on Chinese victims.
In a statement last Monday, the Chinese Ministry of Public Security declared they would crack down on fraud syndicates and “make every effort to coordinate the rescue of stranded individuals.”
On Tuesday this week (January 21), Chinese state media announced that officials from China, Myanmar, and Thailand reached a consensus to eradicate Myanmar’s scam centers during a meeting in Kunming, China.
Beijing previously took action in 2023 to combat fraud syndicates in northern Myanmar, leading to the arrest of tens of thousands of Chinese citizens suspected of involvement in illegal activities. Anti-human trafficking organizations noted that this reflected China primarily viewing trafficked individuals as criminal suspects rather than victims.
Mina Chiang, founder of the Humanity Research Consultancy, a anti-human trafficking organization, mentioned that “it’s challenging to obtain precise figures on the number of Chinese people trafficked to scam parks.”
According to Reuters, after contacting and interviewing four families of missing individuals in Myanmar from the “Star Return Home Plan” document, it was revealed that they all refused to disclose their names out of fear of angering authorities and jeopardizing rescue efforts.
Out of the nearly 1,800 victims recorded in the document, about 93% were men, with an average age of 27 and mostly ranging between 15 and 45 years old. Most of them were lured into the scam parks due to economic hardships.
Around half of the families stated that they were unable to file reports with local authorities. Additionally, Chinese law does not consider men as potential victims of human trafficking.
“I initially wanted to report to the police, but they said missing persons reports only apply to women and children,” a woman said, explaining how her husband disappeared after accepting a job invitation due to debt repayment.
Another woman, the wife of a missing 22-year-old electrician, mentioned that Chinese authorities informed her they could not accept a missing report regarding her husband because he traveled with a passport.
Relatives of the missing men expressed hope that the attention drawn to these cases would push the Chinese authorities to take action to bring human trafficking victims back home.
(Translated from Voice of America)