Chinese Communist Party officials appear to be distancing themselves from detained gambling mogul She Zhijiang, whose casinos have been linked to massive human-trafficking operations and online scams in the region, and who faces imminent repatriation to China after being arrested for Thai police in August 2022.
She, who owns gambling properties and businesses in Cambodia, Myanmar and the Philippines, is accused of “conducting illegal online gambling operations” and will likely face repatriation very soon as her 30-day appeal period expires, according to a official. statement and a person familiar with the case.
A deputy spokesperson for the Thai Supreme Prosecutor’s Office announced that the court had issued a deportation order for She on May 25. However, the order gave him 30 days to appeal the decision.
Soon after, the Thailand Provincial Electricity Authority said that cut power supply to Shwe Kokkothe site of She’s $15 billion casino and real estate mega-project that has become a stronghold of illegal activity, including drug dealing, amid violence and unrest in post-coup Myanmar.
Meanwhile, officials linked to Beijing’s international outreach and influence operations now claim it has no connection to a key organization carrying out its “united front” I work among the overseas Chinese.
While official reports show she attended high-level meetings in Beijing in 2019 organized by the China Federation of Overseas Returned Chinese, a well-known United Front organization, officials from the body said they were “unaware” of the case. of She when they were contacted by Radio. Free Asia, and instead fell under the mandate of the China Federation of Foreign Entrepreneurs.
However, an official from the businessmen’s organization said that She, as a former high-ranking official in the organization, would remain the business of the China Federation of Overseas Chinese Returnees.
As Chinese officials appeared to pass the buck to She, a Thailand-based dissident who shared a cell with him in a Bangkok detention center told Radio Free Asia that the former gambling mogul is desperate to avoid repatriation to China. amid an ongoing crackdown on human trafficking and online scams that they have written down thousands of victims throughout the region in recent years.
According to court documents shared with the dissident by She, he had been a valued aide to the Chinese authorities and contacted state security police in the southern island province of Hainan and was given a handler to provide intelligence. to Beijing.
dear united front
She, a former Cambodian citizen who was granted Chinese citizenship during her trip to Beijing in 2019, now fears that her most basic human rights will not be protected and is calling on the international community to help prevent her repatriation to China, the dissident, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals, said.
She wouldn’t be the first former United Front establishment darling to face repercussions in her home country amid an ongoing campaign against corruption and espionage that typically catches people who have political disgrace under General Secretary Xi Jinping, or are considered insufficiently loyal to the supreme leader of China.
In May, a court in the eastern city of Suzhou sentenced to life imprisonment 78-year-old US citizen John Leung, who headed a Beijing-backed overseas Chinese community group, after being found guilty of “espionage”. Leung had also previously been photographed alongside senior Communist Party officials.
“She Zhijiang made her name and fortune in Myawaddy, an extremely sensitive area held by the Chinese,” the dissident said, referring to an area in Myanmar’s southeastern Kayin state where She’s Yatai Corp is a major investor. in Shwe Kokko Special. Economic zone.
While the Shwe Kokko mega project along the Thaungyin River was initially promoted as a way to stimulate economic growth and bring material benefits to the local community, it has gained notoriety more as a stronghold of illegal activity, according to a report by the Center for Advanced Defense Studies based in in Washington, C4ADS, an independent investigative team studying transnational organized crime networks.
According to the dissident, Ella believes that his army of some 5,000 mercenaries and his deep connections in the local area should protect him from the worst form of political retaliation upon his return to China. However, she still fears that he could receive the death penalty.
“I told him that he had been abandoned by the Communist Party, that he can easily deal with other people under his command,” the dissident said, adding that she handed him copies of hundreds of pages of court proceedings and other documents and asked him. to make them public.
Much of the material details the close cooperation between She and Chinese Communist Party officials, including his recruitment as an agent by the state security police.
They also allege that he paid up to 2 million yuan in bribes to An Chen, secretary general of the China Federation of Foreign Entrepreneurs.
personal feud
According to the dissident, she came into conflict with Beijing after he became extremely powerful in Myawaddy, and wanted to run the Asia-Pacific city complex in the Shwe Kokko Special Economic Zone as his personal fiefdom, something the Party Chinese Communist could not approve. due to the strategic importance of the area, close to the border with Thailand.
Chinese state media reports from the time of She’s arrest described her as the “Asia-Pacific city’s online scam king”, whose operation in Myawaddy had attracted more than 100 casino and scam companies to Asia-Pacific city.
“Amid a vast web of vested interests and transactions, crimes such as smuggling, kidnapping, human trafficking, fraud, assault and extortion are densely intertwined, spanning Southeast Asia and China,” the Phoenix report said. News from August 2022 about the arrest of She.
“She Zhijiang, who has changed nationality and has multiple pseudonyms, rules like an emperor.”
According to the dissident, none of these activities could have taken place in Myanmar without the knowledge and collusion of the Chinese Communist Party.
“You can’t do this without support; behind them are the governments and the warlords,” he said. “The Chinese Communist Party controls 100% of this place.”
Another person familiar with organized crime in the region agreed that the Chinese government is heavily involved with organizations that carry out criminal activities in the region, including in Myawaddy, Sihanoukville and the golden triangle Special Economic Zone, a gaming and tourism center that caters to the Chinese and is situated along the Mekong River where Laos, Myanmar and Thailand converge.
“There is a man named Zhao Wei in the SEZ Golden Triangle who has leased land for 99 years, and the place is full of operations from gray to black,” the person said. “The whole area is under his control…and he is involved in scams, human trafficking and wildlife trafficking out there.”
“Basically 80% of the scam industry in Southeast Asia is run by people from Fujian (province),” he said.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Paul Eckert.
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