China and Cambodia jointly target Cambodian scam centers
Besides Myanmar, Cambodia also hosts many scam centers for online fraud. As part of closer cooperation, China wants to support the fight against them.
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During a state visit by the Chinese Foreign Minister to Cambodia, both countries agreed, among other things, to cooperate in the fight against local scam centers. Myanmar is considered a preferred location for this business-like online fraud, but such companies and even forced labor camps are also widespread in Cambodia, where people are held against their will and forced to relieve online users of their savings.
Such scam centers are often operated by local organized crime groups but also led by foreign criminals. At the beginning of this year, Cambodia extradited a suspected online fraudster to China who was accused of billions in online fraud. This is Chen Zhi, founder and chairman of the Prince Group.
Officially, Chen Zhi and the Prince Group made money with real estate and financial services. However, the organization is said to be one of the largest transnational criminal networks in Asia, which is said to have generated huge profits with scam centers in Cambodia. For this purpose, hundreds of people are said to have been imprisoned against their will and forced to defraud people all over the world via the internet and extort money from them.
China demands eradication of scam centers
China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi wants to put an end to these practices and therefore demanded in talks with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet this week that “cross-border gambling and fraud endanger the lives and property of the people and must be resolutely cracked down on and completely eradicated,” reports the Southeast Asian Straits Times.
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Yesterday, China and Cambodia agreed on six points of common goals and cooperation within the framework of their strategic dialogue called “2+2,” one of which is dedicated to the fight against scam centers, as the Chinese Foreign Ministry writes. According to this, “both sides agreed to strengthen law enforcement cooperation, with a focus on resolutely and thoroughly combating online gambling and telecommunications fraud, protecting the lives and property of the population, and creating a favorable external environment for cooperation between China and Cambodia.”
However, concrete measures to combat scam centers have not yet been agreed upon – or at least not publicly announced.
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