Chinese actor Wang Xing (right) with Thai police officers after returning from Myanmar, at the Thai-Myanmar border district of Mae Sot, on Jan 7. - Photo: EPA-EFE
CHONGQING/BEIJING: A Chinese TV actor’s swift rescue from a fraud farm on Tuesday (Jan 7) after going missing at the Thai-Myanmar border has reinvigorated hopes for the families of those who remain captive, as they mount fresh pressure on the authorities to do the same for their loved ones.
Wang Xing, 31, had disappeared on Jan 4 from Mae Sot, a Thai town bordering Myanmar, after travelling there for what he believed was a role in a filming project, Chinese media reported.
The Chinese embassy in Thailand confirmed that he was rescued from a scam centre on Jan 7.
His speedy rescue is casting a fresh spotlight on the scourge of scam centres that have sprouted in parts of Indochina, while drawing mixed feelings from the families of those who have disappeared suddenly, frustrated by the lack of any progress in tracing them. Some have gone missing for years.
Several private WeChat groups consisting of people who have family members believed to be trafficked have quickly emerged since Wang’s case gripped China.
In these groups and on Chinese social media platform Weibo, a crowd-sourced document with statistics on people believed to be trapped in northern and eastern Myanmar has been circulating.
By the evening on Friday (Jan 10), The Straits Times noted information about 850 missing people in the document, which began circulating on Jan 9 with more than 170 names.
Netizens in China have also pressed the authorities to provide details on the 50-plus Chinese nationals that Wang – a relatively unknown artiste before this incident – said were held captive with him.
ST reached out to China’s Ministry of Public Security, the Thai embassy in Beijing and the Thai consulate in Hong Kong for fresh comment on this story late on Jan 10.
He Sheng, who made a police report in September 2024 after his son went missing, said that he was both relieved and disappointed when he heard about Wang’s successful release from a fraud farm in Myanmar.
“I was happy that Wang Xing was safe, but also frustrated that my son remains missing until today, with no news about whether he is alive or not,” said He, who works as a ride-hailing driver in south-western Chongqing.
He said his teenage son had gone to southern Guangxi autonomous region on Aug 29, 2024, with a friend for job opportunities after he graduated from vocational training school. Their friend from school had introduced the job to them, He told ST.
But since then, He has only received one video call that lasted less than two minutes from his son in October 2024. His son had simply told him that “all was fine” before hanging up quickly.
He has been uncontactable since. His son’s friend is also missing, He said.
Local police who tracked the call said it originated from Bangkok, a lead which led He to believe that his son had been abducted and placed in a fraud farm.
He said that his son was not drawn to any high salary but “simply wanted a job to help out with household expenses”.
“He is a good boy. He decided to go because he found it hard to land a job here,” He said, refusing to disclose any more personal details for fear of putting his son’s safety at risk.
Since Myanmar plunged into a civil war after a 2021, cybercrime syndicates have been thriving there, often running billion-dollar cyberscam operations.
Such operations have been expanding in South-east Asia, particularly in Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar, according to a recent report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
These are often run by Chinese fugitives in areas of Myanmar where the military regime is losing control to rebels.
Most people working in the centres are victims themselves, forced to work as scammers to avoid beatings, among other forms of punishment, by their captors.
Another parent whose son has been missing since November 2024 told ST that he hopes that the authorities can work quickly to save other victims.
“This case gives me hope that my son can return home safely. I really hope that the authorities can help the others who are stuck, whether they are a popular actor or not,” said Mr Yang, who is from south-western Sichuan province. “A life is a life.”
He declined to give his full name for fear of risking his son’s safety.
News of actor Wang Xing’s disappearance in Thailand made headlines in China after his girlfriend posted a plea on popular microblogging platform Weibo on Jan 5.
“We need to borrow the power of the internet to amplify our voices,” she said in the post that was later re-posted by some of China’s top-billing celebrities, including Lay Zhang.
Lay Zhang, who has 50 million followers on Weibo, was the main actor of No More Bets, a 2023 blockbuster warning the Chinese about the dangers of fraud farms in South-east Asia.
Little is known about the Wang’s rescue, except that the Chinese embassy in Thailand had been working with the local authorities.
In pictures released by the authorities after his rescue, Wang is shown with his head shaven. He was reportedly due to fly back to China late on Jan 10.
Following his rescue, Thai National Police Inspector-General Thatchai Pitaneelaboot on Jan 9 said his country is investigating two more cases of Chinese nationals going missing there.
One is a male model named Yang Zeqi, who went missing in late December under circumstances similar to Wang’s, and another is a young woman named Wu Jiaqi, whose case was brought to the attention of Thai police on Jan 9.
In Hong Kong, former Yau Tsim Mong district council vice-chairman Andy Yu Tak-po told ST he has received appeals from six Hong Kong families about people trapped in South-east Asian countries for forced labour since September 2024.
On Jan 8, Yu accompanied a man whose family member is one of the missing six to the Thai consulate in Hong Kong to submit a joint petition for help.
Yu consolidates these cases and uses his political experience to engage the Hong Kong authorities.
“After the news of Wang Xing’s rescue, the families realised that it could actually be done in three days, so they were quite urgent about sending in a new petition,” said Yu.
“This time, (the response) seems quite positive as the Thai deputy consul assured us that all cases are treated equally, and they will provide assistance,” he said.
“Previously, when the families sought help from the Thai consulate, they were told that since the missing people are not Thai nationals, the request would not be processed.”
These six missing Hong Kongers are largely young people in their 20s and 30s who are tech-savvy and speak good English, said Yu.
“For normal people, like our residents in Hong Kong, it’s a struggle because they hope they can get help, but they also know they’re just nobodies.
“In Wang Xing’s case, he is a popular person who got a lot of government and media attention. We don’t want it to be a different situation, but the fact is, it’s a different situation,” he said.
The families have urged the Hong Kong authorities to ask Beijing for help to speed up rescue efforts, he said.
In November 2024, China’s Ministry of Public Security said that China and Myanmar have been working together and have arrested more than 53,000 Chinese suspects involved in fraud.
The ministry had declared at that time that all large-scale telecom fraud centres located near the China-Myanmar border in northern Myanmar had been wiped out.
In a press conference on Jan 10, the Public Security Ministry said its campaign has achieved significant results so far, leading to a sharp decline in telecom fraud cases and related losses nationwide.
The ministry has been involved in cross-border law enforcement cooperation to fight telecom fraud originating from northern Myanmar since July 2023, following an uproar on Chinese social media.
Netizens had expressed their frustrations that the Chinese government was not doing enough to help families rescue their loved ones.
Those rescued from fraud farms in Myanmar told ST that they have been working to raise public awareness on how such farms operate and to discourage the Chinese from being lured to work overseas or even other provinces. Some have become rescuers themselves.
Hao Zhendong, who was held captive in a Myanmar fraud farm for 59 days in 2023, told ST that “a few thousand people” have reached out to him for help to find their missing family members.
Hao, who has 147,000 followers on Douyin, China’s TikTok, said: “It’s very difficult. The most successful rescue cases so far have required victims to send their locations to family members.”
“I then help contact the Chinese military, who will go and rescue them,” he said.
He declined to go into details of his time in Myanmar, and would only say that he suffered nightmares for a month after returning home.
“My time there was so bleak I wanted to die,” he said.
But, for the majority of victims, Hao doesn’t see any other way to help them.
“That’s the hardest part for families, to wait for news. There’s really nothing they can do in the meantime.” - The Straits Times/ANN
[Additional reporting by Magdalene Fung in Hong Kong.]
[Aw Cheng Wei is The Straits Times’ China Correspondent, based in Chongqing.]
[Michelle Ng is China Correspondent at The Straits Times. She is interested in Chinese foreign policies, property trends, demographics, education and rural issues.]
