By the Asia-Pacific Newsroom, ABC
Chinese model Yang Zeqi had gone missing after flying to Thailand late in December to act in a film. Photo: ABC/Supplied
- Chinese authorities have reportedly rescued a Chinese model who was caught up in a human-trafficking ring in Myanmar's lawless borderlands.
- Chinese and Thai police had jointly arrested 12 suspects allegedly involved in the scam operations where the victims were being held, the ministry said.
- The model and several other victims have been returned to China, a statement from its security ministry said.
Chinese authorities have reportedly rescued a Chinese model who was caught up in a human-trafficking ring in Myanmar's lawless borderlands.
China's state security ministry said in a statement on Friday that Yang Zeqi and several other victims had been rescued and returned to China.
"After work, Wang Mou, Sun Mouqiang, Yang Mouqi, Wu Mouqi, Lin Mouling, Xu Mouning and others have been rescued from the trap and safely returned to the country," the ministry said using pseudonyms to refer to the trafficking victims.
Chinese and Thai police had jointly arrested 12 suspects allegedly involved in the scam operations where the victims were being held, the ministry said.
The area in Myanmar's east near the border with Thailand has become notorious in recent years for industrial-scale scam compounds concentrated in industrial parks.
The operations lure foreigners with promises of legitimate work before refusing to allow them to leave and forcing them to participate in online scams such as "pig butchering".
Yang Zeqi went missing after being lured to Thailand with the offer of a role in a film.
After landing in Bangkok, he was driven to the Thai-Myanmar border on 21 December.
He was last heard from eight days later in a video call to his mother on 29 December.
During the call, he was dressed in a black outfit and sitting on a chair with his hands on the table with what appeared to be an injured eye.
Yang posted a video to the social media platform Douyin on Friday after arriving back in China.
"Reporting safety right after touch down," he said in a post accompanying the video.
"Thank you to all my compatriots, family and friends, I couldn't have come back without any of you. I love you!"
His father, Yang Haitao, said his son was lucky.
"He managed to come back to China with everyone's help," he said in a separate video post.
"I would like to warn young people that they should be more vigilant and be able to identify internet scams so that they will not fall for such scams in future."
A report by the United States Institute of Peace last year found a total of 305,000 scammers in Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos accounted for US$39 billion (NZ$69.8 billion) in stolen funds annually.
They also found deep ties to Chinese criminal networks.
In the statement on Friday, China's state security ministry vowed to keep up a "high-pressure crackdown" on cross-border telecoms network fraud.
On Thursday, Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged crackdowns by South-East Asian nations on online gambling and telecom fraud, adding that a slew of such cases on the Thai-Myanmar border threatened and harmed citizens of China and other countries.
- ABC
