China has executed 11 members of the Ming family, a powerful criminal gang accused of running brutal scam centres in Myanmar, where workers were detained, abused, and killed if they tried to escape, Chinese state media has reported.
The executions mark the most severe punishment yet in Beijing’s sweeping crackdown on the multibillion-dollar cyber fraud industry that flourished for years in lawless parts of northern Myanmar, drawing in thousands of trafficked workers from China and across the region.
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According to Xinhua news agency, the 11 were sentenced to death in September after being convicted of crimes including homicide, illegal detention, and large-scale fraud. Two defendants appealed, but China’s Supreme People’s Court upheld the original verdicts.
The Ming family was one of the so-called four families that dominated organised crime in Myanmar’s Kokang region along the Chinese border. The syndicates were accused of operating hundreds of compounds linked to online fraud, prostitution, and drug production, while holding influence within local government and militias aligned with Myanmar’s junta.
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At the centre of the Ming family’s operations was Crouching Tiger Villa, an infamous compound in Kokang. At its height, the group employed around 10,000 people to carry out scams and other criminal activities, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.
Laukkaing, the capital of Kokang, became a hub of the scam industry, where trafficked workers were forced to defraud victims worldwide through elaborate online schemes. Families of victims repeatedly appealed to Chinese authorities for help, prompting growing public anger and international media scrutiny.
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China began a major crackdown in 2023. In November that year, arrest warrants were issued for members of the Ming family, with rewards of up to 70,000 dollars offered for information leading to their capture. The family’s patriarch, Ming Xuechang, a former member of a Myanmar state parliament, later died by suicide while in custody, according to Chinese state media.
Among those executed were his son Ming Guoping, a senior figure in the junta aligned Kokang Border Guard Force, and his granddaughter Ming Zhenzhen. Xinhua said the condemned were allowed to meet close relatives before their executions.
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Chinese authorities said the Ming syndicate worked closely with another crime boss, Wu Hongming, who was also executed, to deliberately kill, injure and illegally detain workers at scam compounds. Their actions led to the deaths of 14 Chinese citizens.
“In one incident, the criminal group opened fire at a fraud compound, causing multiple deaths,” CCTV reported in an investigation into a shooting in October 2023, when workers were being moved under armed guard after the gang was tipped off about a police raid.
CNN reported that the case underscores China’s determination to dismantle cross border scam networks and send a clear warning to organised crime groups operating beyond its borders.
