China Executes 15 Members of Myanmar Scam Families in Crackdown on Billion-Dollar Networks

Two Criminal Networks Face China's Harshest Penalty

China announced the execution of 15 members of the Ming and Bai criminal groups between January 29 and February 2, 2026, targeting two families accused of building vast fraud operations in Myanmar's border region of Kokang. Their businesses combined online scams, illegal gambling and armed detention, with combined criminal proceeds exceeding $5.6 billion.

The Wenzhou Intermediate People's Court in Zhejiang province executed 11 members of the Ming group. Four days later, the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court in Guangdong province announced the execution of four Bai group leaders. China's Supreme People's Court approved the death sentences following judicial reviews.

Chinese courts attributed the deaths of 14 Chinese citizens to the Ming group and six to the Bai group, with numerous other people injured. The cases involved intentional killing, assault and illegal detention, alongside financial crimes that reached victims far beyond Myanmar.

The executions marked an unprecedented escalation in Beijing's campaign against the leadership of Myanmar's scam compounds and its most severe judicial response to their operators to date. Human rights organizations have raised concerns about the transparency of China's judicial process and the fate of people trafficked into those compounds.

Kokang's criminal networks operated facilities that combined workplaces with places of confinement. Some people lost their savings to scams conducted from inside them; others were trapped there and forced to carry out the fraud. The United Nations estimates that the wider criminal enterprise generates $40 billion annually and has trapped hundreds of thousands of trafficked workers in conditions resembling prisons.

The Ming Group's Operations and Death Sentences

The Wenzhou court executed 11 core members of the Ming family criminal group on January 29. They included Ming Guoping, a leader in the Kokang Border Guard Force aligned with Myanmar's ruling junta, and his daughter, Ming Zhenzhen.

Ming Xuechang, the family's patriarch and a former member of Myanmar's state parliament, killed himself while in custody after his arrest in late 2023. His family's operations had begun years earlier: the court found that the group established bases in Laukkai, Shiyuanzi and Chinshwehaw, all in Myanmar's Kokang autonomous region, beginning in 2015.

The Ming organization employed 10,000 people at its peak at the Crouching Tiger Villa compound and other facilities. Telecom fraud and illegal gambling generated more than 10 billion yuan, equivalent to $1.4 billion. Telecom fraud means using telephone or online communications to trick people into handing over money.

The Supreme People's Court reviewed the case after two defendants appealed their death sentences, which had been handed down in September 2025. It confirmed that the group used its influence and access to weapons to provide armed protection for criminal financiers while using lethal violence to maintain control.

The court found that Ming group members intentionally killed, injured and illegally detained workers, causing the deaths of 14 Chinese citizens and injuring numerous others. It described the crimes as "exceptionally heinous" and their circumstances as "particularly serious circumstances."

One incident in October 2023 involved allegations that Ming operatives opened fire on captive Chinese nationals during a transfer, killing four people to prevent their rescue. Authorities had been tipped off about an impending raid. Workers were being moved from a cyberfraud park under armed guard when the shooting occurred.

The Bai Group's Fraud, Drugs and Violence

The Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court announced the execution of four Bai family gang leaders on February 2. Bai Yingcang was among those executed. The family's alleged patriarch, Bai Suocheng, had died of illness after his conviction in November 2025.

The Bai group established industrial parks in Kokang, near the Chinese border. The court said its operations defrauded victims of more than 29 billion yuan, equivalent to $4.2 billion. That figure was more than twice the Ming group's reported proceeds of over 10 billion yuan, although the Ming total covered both telecom fraud and illegal gambling.

The Bai organization's crimes extended beyond fraud and gambling to kidnapping, extortion, forced prostitution and drug manufacturing. Its operations included the production of approximately 11 tonnes of methamphetamine.

The Supreme People's Court said the group's activities caused the deaths of six Chinese citizens and injuries to others. It approved the death sentences after the Guangdong Provincial High People's Court dismissed the defendants' appeals in December 2025. The court said the scale and brutality of the crimes posed "a tremendous threat to society."

The Bai family was one of the dominant forces in Laukkaing, Kokang's capital, where it operated sprawling casino complexes and red light districts alongside cyber scam businesses. Its industrial parks were fortified compounds, with trafficked workers held under constant armed guard.

The two cases together account for at least 20 Chinese citizens killed, according to the court findings. Their financial scale ran into billions of dollars, while their control over workers depended on detention, violence and the threat of further abuse.

How the Cases Reached the Execution Stage

China's pursuit of the families developed over several years, from warrants and arrests to convictions, appeals and approval of the death sentences. The principal dates were:

• 2015: The Ming group began establishing operational bases in Laukkai, Shiyuanzi and Chinshwehaw.
• October 2023: Ming operatives allegedly killed four captive Chinese nationals during an armed transfer intended to prevent their rescue.
• November 2023: Chinese authorities issued arrest warrants for Ming family members and offered rewards ranging from $14,000 to $70,000.
• Late 2023: Ming Xuechang killed himself in custody following his arrest.
• September 2025: Death sentences were handed down in the Ming case; two defendants appealed.
• November 2025: Bai Suocheng was convicted. He subsequently died of illness.
• December 2025: The Guangdong Provincial High People's Court dismissed appeals in the Bai case.
• January 29, 2026: The Wenzhou court executed 11 Ming group members.
• February 2, 2026: The Shenzhen court announced the execution of four Bai group leaders.

The courts in Wenzhou and Shenzhen carried out the executions following approval from the Supreme People's Court. The two announcements came less than a week apart, bringing a swift conclusion to the death sentence proceedings against these members of the networks.

The executions targeted senior figures in organizations that had combined business operations, political influence and armed enforcement. Their public announcement also formed part of Beijing's message to other criminal groups operating across its borders.

From Promised Jobs to Forced Online Scams

Traffickers recruited people, primarily from China and other Asian countries, with advertisements promising lucrative jobs in the technology industry. After arriving in Myanmar's border regions, recruits found their passports confiscated and themselves confined inside heavily guarded facilities.

The compounds functioned as a mixture of call centers and detention centers. Workers used phones and computers to contact potential victims abroad, while armed guards controlled their movements. People who failed to meet financial targets faced physical abuse, torture or sale to another criminal group. Escape attempts could end in death.

One major method was the romance and investment scam commonly called "pig butchering." Workers created false online relationships and gradually gained a victim's trust. They then directed that person toward a fraudulent investment platform, often involving cryptocurrency, designed to steal the money deposited there.

The relationship was the route into the fraud: someone who believed they had found a romantic partner was encouraged to trust that person's financial advice. Inside the compound, the person sending those messages could themselves be under coercion and facing punishment for failing to bring in enough money.

Workers described conditions resembling prisons, with guards routinely abusing and torturing people who missed financial quotas. The Ming and Bai cases exposed the lethal violence behind that control. China's Supreme People's Court confirmed intentional murder, assault and illegal detention of people involved in the fraud operations.

The recruitment system also drew on migrants left stranded by COVID-19 border closures and economic disruption. Interpol has expressed particular concern about the trafficking networks supplying scam centers, where hundreds of thousands of people are estimated to be working worldwide.

Why Kokang Became a Base for Criminal Families

The Ming and Bai groups were two of the "Four Families" that dominated Kokang's criminal economy, alongside the Liu and Wei syndicates. Their power rested partly on close relationships with local militias and Myanmar's military junta.

Laukkaing became known for unregulated casinos, red light districts and cyber fraud parks. Chinese law enforcement had limited reach across the border, while Myanmar's central authority was weak. Family members held positions in local government and militia structures, giving their businesses political protection and access to armed enforcement.

The Ming family used its position within the Kokang Border Guard Force, which was aligned with Myanmar's ruling junta, to protect scam compounds. Criminal financiers could operate behind armed guards, while detained workers faced the same weapons as a means of control.

Myanmar's civil war followed the military coup in February 2021. As central governance collapsed in border areas, criminal groups exploited the loss of authority to expand. Kokang's autonomous status and proximity to China helped create a setting in which businesses serving foreign victims could operate with protection from local power holders.

The families' influence amounted to a parallel system of rule shaped by organized crime. Casinos, fraud businesses and other illegal operations existed alongside official positions and militia ties, allowing an industry dependent on forced labor and violence to function openly for years.

China Expands Cooperation Across Borders

Beijing's judicial action followed years of increasing pressure on Myanmar and neighboring countries to dismantle scam compounds. The November 2023 arrest warrants and rewards for Ming family members were part of that campaign, which has led to the repatriation of thousands of suspected fraud operators to China.

More than 7,600 Chinese nationals were repatriated from the Myanmar town of Myawaddy alone in 2025. Joint operations involving China, Myanmar and Thailand, launched in February, were also aimed at repatriating fraud suspects.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun, responding to a question about the executions, said Beijing would continue strengthening cooperation with other countries and its action against crimes across borders.

For some time, China has been actively working with Myanmar and other countries in combating crimes of cross-border telecom and online fraud, eliminating the scourge of online gambling and telecom fraud. These efforts have achieved remarkable results. China will continue deepening international law enforcement cooperation, step up efforts of combating telecom fraud and online gambling and other related cross-border crimes and eradicate the problems of gambling and scams.

The campaign has also reached Cambodia. Earlier in 2026, Cambodia extradited Chen Zhi, an alleged scam kingpin and head of the sanctioned Prince group, to China. His transfer showed the widening geographical scope of Beijing's pursuit of these networks.

Legal observers view the public announcements and the targeting of criminal leadership abroad as a message intended to deter other syndicates. Amnesty International says China carries out more executions annually than any other country. Human rights organizations have raised concerns about the transparency of the judicial proceedings surrounding this crackdown.

A Criminal Industry Reaching Far Beyond Myanmar

The United States Institute of Peace estimates that scam operations in Southeast Asia steal more than $43 billion annually. The United Nations estimate of $40 billion a year also places the wider enterprise in the tens of billions, far beyond the proceeds attributed to the Ming and Bai families.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime warned in April 2025 that Chinese and Southeast Asian gangs were taking in tens of billions of dollars each year through these operations. It also warned that the industry was spreading globally, including to South America, Africa, the Middle East and Pacific Islands.

Criminal groups have expanded beyond targets who speak Chinese to run scams in multiple languages. Victims now include people in North America, Europe and Australia. A worker confined in a compound in Southeast Asia can be forced to contact someone thousands of miles away and persuade them to transfer their savings.

Myanmar's continuing civil war complicates enforcement because criminal businesses operate in border areas where authority is fragmented. Reaching their leaders, closing facilities and returning people to their countries requires cooperation across jurisdictions, as the Chinese, Myanmar and Thai operations illustrate.

The executions remove members of two major networks, while the broader industry spans multiple countries and continues to expand. The effectiveness of severe criminal penalties against that industry remains uncertain.

The People Still Inside the Compounds

Thousands of trafficking victims are still believed to be held in compounds across Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos. The dismantling of the Ming and Bai leadership offers hope to those trapped, but their release depends on reaching the facilities and securing their freedom.

Human rights organizations are pressing regional governments to prioritize rescue alongside prosecution. They want people forced into fraudulent work to receive protection rather than punishment. That concern is central to an industry in which someone carrying out a scam may also be a victim of trafficking, confinement and violence.

The number of people still captive in compounds connected to these two families, and their prospects for release, had not been established by February 2. The criminal cases documented the leaders' offenses, while the fate of remaining workers continued to be a concern.

China's campaign combines arrests, transfers across borders and severe sentences. For people held inside compounds, the immediate need is different: freedom from armed guards and protection after leaving. Prosecution of the organizers and rescue of those forced to work are separate tasks within the same campaign.

The Bottom Line

• China announced the execution of 15 Ming and Bai group members on January 29 and February 2, 2026.
• The 11 people executed in the Ming case included Ming Guoping and Ming Zhenzhen. Ming Xuechang had killed himself in custody in late 2023.
• Four Bai group leaders were executed, including Bai Yingcang. Bai Suocheng died of illness after his November 2025 conviction.
• The Ming group generated more than 10 billion yuan from fraud and illegal gambling. The Bai group defrauded victims of more than 29 billion yuan.
• The courts attributed 14 Chinese citizens' deaths to the Ming group and six to the Bai group, with others injured.
• The Bai group's crimes included kidnapping, extortion, forced prostitution and production of approximately 11 tonnes of methamphetamine.
• China's Supreme People's Court approved the death sentences following judicial reviews.
• Beijing has expanded cooperation with Myanmar, Thailand and other countries, while human rights organizations seek protection for people forced to conduct scams.