China carries out further executions of Myanmar scam centre suspects

The executions are part of broader crackdown by Beijing on centres across Southeast Asia, which are built on an industrial scale and hunt scam victims across the globe, as well as running kidnapping, prostitution and drugs rackets.Published On 2 Feb 2026China has executed four people found guilty of causing six Chinese citizens’ deaths and running scam and gambling operations out of Myanmar worth more than $4bn.The Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court in southern China announced the executions on Monday morning in a statement. However, the timing of the executions was not clear.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Why is the UK’s Keir Starmer in China and what does he want to achieve?list 2 of 3China bans 73 and punishes top football clubs in latest corruption scandallist 3 of 3US-Iran tensions soar: What do both sides want?end of listThe executions of 11 other people convicted of running scam centres in Myanmar had been announced last week.The Shenzhen court sentenced five people accused of running a network of scam centres and casinos to death in November. One of the defendants, group leader Bai Suocheng, died of illness before the sentence was carried out.The group had established industrial parks in Myanmar’s Kokang region bordering China, from where they allegedly ran gambling and telecom scam operations involving abductions, extortion, forced prostitution, and drug manufacturing and trafficking.They defrauded victims of more than 29 billion yuan ($4.2bn) and caused the deaths of six Chinese citizens and injuries to others, the court said.Their crimes “were exceptionally heinous, with particularly serious circumstances and consequences, posing a tremendous threat to society”, the court’s statement said.The defendants appealed the verdict, but the Guangdong Provincial High People’s Court dismissed their applications, it added.The executions are part of a broader crackdown by Beijing on scam operations in Southeast Asia, where scam parks have become an industrial-scale business, especially in Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos.