ISTANBUL

Chinese courts sentenced over 41,000 individuals last year who had been repatriated from northern Myanmar for involvement in telecom and online fraud, and executed 16 of them, state-run media reported Thursday.

Among the most high-profile cases, the notorious Ming and Bai family criminal gangs have been completely dismantled, according to the Global Times, citing the Supreme People's Court (SPC).

A total of 39 key members of these groups received life sentences or harsher penalties, including 16 who were executed this year.

The SPC said these criminal syndicates had established multiple compounds in Myanmar’s Kokang region, recruiting financiers and armed enforcers to carry out large-scale telecom fraud, illegal gambling and violent crimes, causing over 10 billion yuan ($1.4 billion) in losses and resulting in multiple deaths and injuries among Chinese citizens.

Since 2021, Chinese courts have concluded over 159,000 first-instance cases related to telecom and online fraud, sentencing more than 338,000 defendants.

Following a surge in 2023 and 2024, the growth in cases slowed in 2025, following China’s intensified judicial and law enforcement campaigns against these groups.

Last year, more than 7,600 Chinese nationals suspected of telecom fraud were repatriated to China. In February, China, Myanmar and Thailand launched a joint operation to repatriate fraud suspects from Myanmar's Myawaddy region.

Since Myanmar’s 2021 coup, which triggered a civil war, scam hubs have spread across the country’s poorly regulated border regions.