Chinese officials in Thailand to discuss crime suppression in the Golden Triangle

A delegation from China, led by Vice Public Security Minister Liu Zongyi, visited the Mae Sai district of the northern province of Chiang Rai today, to see the Golden Triangle special economic zone, just across the Mekong River in the Laotian town of Ton Pheung, where a Chinese investor has developed a new town, complete with casinos and hotels.

The economic zone was created in 2007 by the Laotian government and the Chinese-owned, Hong Kong-registered Kings Romans Group. Since its inception, it has gained a reputation for being a city riddled with illegal activities, such as drug, human and animal trafficking.

The Chinese delegation also held discussions with Thai officials, including immigration, police and security officials, about transnational criminality, including human trafficking and online scams.

On Wednesday, the delegation visited Mae Sot district, in Thailand’s Tak Province, to observe immigration procedures at the border checkpoint on the route to Myawaddy township in Myanmar.

During a meeting with senior Thai police officers, led by Pol Lt-Gen Trairong Phiwpan, commissioner of the Cybercrime Investigation Bureau, the Chinese delegation asked Thailand to cut the electricity supply to Myanmar border towns suspected to be the locales of call centres, which lure thousands of Chinese nationals to work as operators contacting potential victims in China.

The delegation also suggested closer cooperation between Thailand and China in the suppression of Chinese-operated call centres in Myanmar, and in securing the release of Chinese nationals being held against their will in Myanmar, through the establishment of a joint operations centre in Thailand.