China executes 11 members of Ming family linked to Myanmar scam compounds

# China executes 11 members of Ming family linked to Myanmar scam compounds

Event date: 2026-01-29

China has executed 11 members of the Ming family, a group long associated with scam centres and gambling operations in northern Myanmar, according to state media reports cited by international outlets.

The case is one of the most significant actions yet in Beijing’s campaign against the sprawling cyber-fraud economy that has grown across parts of Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos. The men and women executed were sentenced to death in September by a court in Wenzhou, in eastern Zhejiang province, for crimes that included intentional homicide, intentional injury, illegal detention, fraud and operating gambling establishments.

The authorities said the family had built multiple operational bases in Myanmar and used them for telecom fraud and illegal gambling from 2015 onward. The scale of the operation was large enough to matter far beyond the Myanmar border. According to the Supreme People’s Court, the fraud and gambling activity involved more than 10 billion yuan, or roughly $1.4 billion, and caused the deaths of 14 Chinese citizens, with others injured.

The Ming clan is one of the best-known families that rose to power in Laukkaing, a town in the Kokang region of Myanmar, where gambling, prostitution and later online fraud became major sources of revenue. The report describes a violent system in which workers were kidnapped or trafficked into compounds, forced to carry out scams and subjected to beatings and torture inside guarded facilities.

The executions also show that Beijing is treating the scam industry as a cross-border security issue rather than a narrow criminal case. One report said China has already repatriated tens of thousands of suspected scam suspects and that it has stepped up cooperation with Southeast Asian governments to disrupt the networks. The industry, however, has not disappeared. Instead, it has spread to other locations where Chinese law enforcement has less reach.

The courts have not closed the wider case. More than 20 other members of the Ming family were given prison terms in September, ranging from five years to life. Five members of the Bai family were sentenced to death in November, while cases involving the Wei and Liu groups were still pending. That means the executions of the Ming family are not the end of the campaign, but part of a broader legal and political push that is still moving through China’s courts.

For Beijing, the message appears to be deterrence. For the scam industry, the case is another sign that it remains under sustained pressure, even as the operators adapt and move to new borders.