“Should I feel anything?” asks Chen Dawei, eyes cold, wrists cuffed, sitting alone in a padded cell.
He is being questioned by Chinese investigators over a chilling crime: allegedly ordering the murder of a stranger, a human offering, they say, to celebrate a sworn brotherhood with a business partner.
“Wasn’t he a living, breathing person?” the investigator asks.
“I didn’t feel much,” Chen replies.
Aired on Chinese state television, the exchange looks like a scene from a crime thriller but it is real. Chen is a member of the notorious Wei family, one of the mafia clans that ruled Laukkaing, a Myanmar border town, with wealth, power, and violence.
His confession is part of China’s campaign to warn citizens about Southeast Asia’s billion-dollar scam industry and to show the government’s crackdown on the gangs that have ensnared thousands and stolen billions.
“No matter who you are, where you are… you will pay the price,” says one investigator. Or in Chinese: kill the chicken to scare the monkey.
From Godfathers to Prisoners
The Weis, Lius, Mings, and Bais once controlled Laukkaing like kings, running casinos, red-light districts, and scam farms.
But in 2023, Myanmar authorities arrested them and handed them to China, where they face charges ranging from fraud to human trafficking and murder. Some clans have already received death sentences, while dozens of others are serving long prison terms.
Scam Farms and Brutality
The families made billions through cyberscams, trapping Chinese nationals in compounds where victims were forced to defraud strangers. Refuse, and punishments were brutal: beatings, electric shocks, and even finger amputations. Many were lured by fake job offers, a tempting escape amid China’s economic slowdown.
China’s Fight Back
China has made the crackdown public, showing investigators on the hunt, rescued victims, and gangsters confessing on TV. High-profile cases, viral rescues like actor Wang Xing’s ordeal, and movies such as No More Bets have raised awareness of the dangers of scam centres.
Since 2023, over 57,000 Chinese nationals tied to cyberscams have been arrested. Authorities warn that no syndicate, old or new, is beyond reach.
The crackdown appears to be working: reported cyberscams in China have steadily declined, and officials say the industry is now “effectively curbed.”
“Investigating these scam gangs has made me realize how happy we are in China, and how important a sense of security is to Chinese people,” one investigator said.
