The four were among 21 Bai family members and associates convicted by a court in Guangdong province of crimes including fraud, homicide and causing injury, according to a report
China has executed four members of the Bai family, a powerful crime dynasty accused of running large-scale scam operations in Myanmar, according to a BBC report, citing state media.
According to the report, the four were among 21 Bai family members and associates convicted by a court in Guangdong province of crimes including fraud, homicide and causing injury.
The convictions are part of Beijing’s wider crackdown on cross-border scam networks operating in Southeast Asia.
In November last year, the court sentenced five Bai family figures to death, including the family patriarch, Bai Suocheng. Bai Suocheng later died of illness following his conviction, added the report.
The executions come days after China put to death 11 members of the Ming family mafia, another prominent criminal group, as authorities intensify efforts to dismantle scam centres that have trapped thousands of Chinese victims.
For years, the Bai and Ming families, along with several other clans, dominated the Myanmar border town of Laukkaing.
The area was known for its casinos, red-light districts and cyber scam operations targeting victims across the region.
Among the criminal clans operating in Laukkaing, the Bai family was considered the most powerful.
Bai Suocheng’s son previously told state media, after his detention, that the Bais were “number one” among the groups controlling the area.
The Bai family, which controlled its own militia, built 41 compounds housing cyberscam operations and casinos, authorities said. Inside, beatings and torture were routine.
A court found the family’s crimes caused the deaths of six Chinese citizens, drove one person to suicide and left many others injured.
Rise and fall of the Bais
The Bais rose to power in the Myanmar border town of Laukkaing in the early 2000s after its warlord was removed in a military operation led by Min Aung Hlaing, now head of Myanmar’s ruling junta. Seeking compliant allies, the military backed Bai Suocheng, then the warlord’s deputy.
Their criminal empire collapsed in 2023 when Beijing, frustrated by Myanmar’s failure to act against scam centres, tacitly supported an ethnic insurgent offensive in the area — a turning point in Myanmar’s civil war. The scam bosses were captured and handed over to China.
Back home, they featured in state documentaries highlighting Beijing’s determination to dismantle scam networks. The recent executions appear intended as a deterrent.
The United Nations estimates that hundreds of thousands of people have been trafficked into running online scams in Myanmar and elsewhere in Southeast Asia. Many are Chinese, and the victims they defraud of billions of dollars are largely Chinese as well.
With inputs from agencies
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