A groundbreaking three-part documentary series titled The Demise of Telecom Fraud in Northern Myanmar began broadcasting on CCTV-1, offering an unprecedented look into the Chinese Ministry of Public Security’s relentless crackdown on notorious cross-border cyber-scam networks.
The documentary features exclusive footage and interviews with prominent syndicate leaders and financial backers from Northern Myanmar’s "Four Families" who have recently been executed. It also details the harrowing experiences of victims and coerced workers trapped in these lawless industrial zones.
The illusion of gold turned into a living hell
The first episode exposes the dark underbelly of the telecom fraud parks. Recruiters lured Chinese citizens across the border with false promises that "Northern Myanmar is paved with gold." For those who smuggled themselves across, however, it was the start of a horrific nightmare.
A survivor, identified only as Tang, recalled living like a "piglet" (a slang term used by syndicates for trafficked workers) in a scam compound in the Wa State in 2021. Due to poor performance, Tang was forced to sign a 70,000 yuan debt contract and was repeatedly sold to different compounds.
When his performance did not improve, Tang was beaten daily until his wounds became infected and he could no longer walk.
His captors eventually offered to harvest his kidney to clear his debt.
Tang admitted that at that point, he was so desperate to escape that he would have happily agreed to have his hands or legs amputated.
He was taken to a remote courtyard where his kidney was surgically removed after a matching recipient was found.
The documentary also highlighted the tragic stories of mainland victims. In July 2022, a mother in Henan was manipulated by an online contact into investing all of her family savings and public funds into a fraudulent platform.
Left completely bankrupt, she abandoned her husband and two young children and tragically took her own life by jumping into a river.
Wealthy kingpins and bizarre extravagances
The documentary sheds light on the obscene wealth accumulated by the syndicate bosses. In 2023, Chinese police issued bounties for key Wa State syndicate leaders, including Bao Aiban and He Chuntian.
He was once a local county chief, while Bao accumulated so much physical cash that he frequently had to dry piles of banknotes on his roof and in his courtyard to keep them from molding.
A key member of Bao's group, Guo, revealed the sheer scale of the wealth, stating that Bao had a massive warehouse dedicated entirely to storing cash. "A guard once stole over 10 million yuan from the gate, and Bao didn't even notice because he had too much money," Guo said in the video.
Wu Hongming, one of the core financial backers of the notorious Ming family syndicate, was also featured in the documentary.
Reflecting on his crimes, Wu coldly remarked, "Wolves are born to eat meat, and lions are born to eat sheep." Following a trial, Wu and ten other members of the syndicate were executed on January 29, 2026.
Dismantling the syndicates and crossing borders
The second episode shifts focus to how Chinese judicial authorities overcame major international enforcement barriers to hunt down criminals hiding abroad.
Among those featured is Bai Yingcang, the head of the Bai family syndicate, who mused on camera that a toxic local culture had emerged where "if you didn’t do fraud, it meant you had nothing to do." Bai, the son of a former military commander, established multiple cyber-scam parks. He was executed on February 2, 2026.
The final episode details the deepening of cross-border law enforcement. This includes joint operations between China and Myanmar in Muse, as well as a trilateral coordination with Thailand to sweep the notorious Myawaddy scam compounds.
She Zhijiang, the mastermind behind the "Yatai New City" gambling and fraud syndicate in Myawaddy, also made an appearance.
His group operated over 200 online gambling platforms, luring 330,000 Chinese nationals and involving over 2.7 billion yuan. She was arrested in Bangkok in 2022 and successfully extradited back to China in November 2025 to face justice.
According to the Ministry of Public Security, the targeted operations have yielded massive success. Since October 2025, telecom fraud cases targeting Chinese citizens have declined for 11 consecutive months, with criminal cases dropping by 15.6 percent in the first half of 2026.
