Chinese actor’s rescue shines light on scam centres

A small-time Chinese actor had been missing for two days in Thailand when his girlfriend decided to ask the internet for help.

“We have no choice but to borrow the power of the internet to amplify our voices,” Wang Xing’s girlfriend wrote on the Chinese social media platform Weibo on 5 January.

The plea went viral after it was shared by some of China’s biggest celebrities, including singer Lay Zhang and actor Qin Lan.

Wang, 31, had the country’s attention – as well as that of his government.

On 7 January, Wang was rescued from a scam centre across the border, in Myanmar – news met with a wave of relief.

But the swift yet mysterious rescue has also led to questions about the fate of those who remain trapped inside the scam centres. The case is a grim reminder of the thriving criminal businesses that still entrap hundreds of thousands of people, forcing them in to cybercrime.

Families of Chinese nationals who may be being held in one of these compounds have started a petition urging their government to help them too. The petition document is shared online for anyone to fill in cases of their missing ones. The number of cases has already climbed to more than 600 from the initial 174, and is still increasing.

Wang told the police that there were around 50 Chinese nationals held in the same place as him alone.

“We are desperate to know if the remaining Chinese nationals [who were] with him have been rescued,” reads one top-liked comment on Weibo.

“Other people’s lives are also lives.”

Wang went missing on 3 January in the Thai border city of Mae Sot, which has become a hub for trafficking people into Myanmar.

He had flown to Bangkok for an acting job offered to him on WeChat. The person claimed to represent a major Thai entertainment company, according to Thai police.

The actor later told reporters that he had been on a shoot in Thailand around 2018 and did not suspect this was any different. But he was picked up in a car and taken to Myanmar, where his head was shaved and he was forced to undergo training on how to scam people on phone calls.

His girlfriend wrote on Weibo that she and his brother tried to track him down and get police involved, but “there had been little results”: Chinese police had yet to register a case, while the embassy in Thailand had simply advised Wang’s family to approach the police in Mae Sot.

But as discussions of Wang’s whereabouts grew louder on Chinese social media, authorities began to act. The case was finally registered, and the embassy told the media they had attached great importance to the case.

The next day, Thai and Chinese officials announced that Wang had been rescued.

His first public appearance was alongside Thai police, but he said little, leaving officials to explain what happened.

Details of the rescue itself have been scant. Officials have not even revealed which scam centre he had been in as conflicting versions of the story spread.

One reason could be that withholding more information was part of the deal that led to his release, according to a source who has previously rescued people from scam centres who did not wish to be named.

He told the BBC that these scam centres are keen to avoid attention. That meant releasing Wang was the better option, compared to risking the whole operation because of the attention his disappearance was drawing.

Beijing too wanted to end the discussion about Wang’s case. It wants its citizens to believe it has done enough and that scam centres along its border are no longer an issue.

A joint operation by China and ethnic insurgent groups back in 2023 did seek to shut down scam centres in Myanmar’s Shan State.

But those on the ground — NGOs and independent rescuers—tell the BBC the scams are still growing, with construction expanding into even more remote regions.

These days, the area along the border with Thailand is the main centre for international scams in Myanmar, taking advantage of partnerships with the various armed groups competing for power there.

New scam compounds have been built south of the town of Myawaddy, close to the Thai border, where the worst cases of forced labour and other abuses are now being reported.

This has put huge pressure on Thailand, whose economy relies heavily on tourism, especially from China.

Wang’s case has had some Chinese wondering about how safe it is to travel to Thailand. “It feels like after this Wang Xing incident, there will be fewer people going to South East Asia, including Thailand,” reads a popular Weibo post.

His rescue may well be a success for Thai officials and a win for Beijing, but it has not ended the discussion, or the spotlight on scam compounds.

On Thursday, lines from a recent interview of his were trending on Weibo: “actor Wang Xing claims he could not eat much food in Myanmar and did not have time to use the toilet”.

His brief disappearance has only exposed how common the danger has become: others in the Chinese film industry have since shared their own accounts of being duped by scammers offering them jobs in Thailand.

Thai police are reported to be now investigating the case of another Chinese model disappeared at Thai-Myanmar border, after he was promised work in Thailand.

The China Federation of Radio and Television Association said in a statement Tuesday that “many actors” have gone abroad on fake promises of film shoots, and as a result suffered “serious damage to their personal and financial security”.

“We are very concerned about this,” the statement said.

“Please save [Wang] from danger and bring to life the story of No More Bets,” Wang’s girlfriend urged in her Weibo post – a reference to the protagonists of the 2023 movie being rescued after they were trafficked into scam centres.

Wang – like those in the film – is among a lucky minority.

Hundreds of thousands of victims from China, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore remain stuck in sprawling scam compounds with little hope of rescue.

But ahead of the Lunar New Year, when throngs of Chinese tourists are expected to visit Thailand, the Thai government is eager to emphasise that the country is a safe destination. Thai police also insist that no Thais were involved in Wang’s trafficking.

Wang, freshly freed from his ordeal, has no worries about returning to Thailand, a police officer told reporters on Wednesday.

In fact, he added, Wang has promised to come back.