And yes, more Las Vegas than Monaco, even though it is a 2 hour drive from where I live. Monaco is not famous for casinos (plural), it is famous for one particular casino, that is the Monte-Carlo casino.
And if they specified Asia, Macao would have popped up in my mind. As for the "fraud" part, casinos and fraud go well together, at least in popular culture. Which is a bit ironic considering that apparently, the scam businesses took over as casinos closed down during the COVID-19 pandemic.
>South East Asia correspondent
>Reporting from Shwe Kokko, Myanmar
Before the article even started.
(I'm kind of surprised none of those crypto-libertarian groups have tried Myanmar, actually; it is, at least at the moment, particularly vulnerable to this sort of thing.)
https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/twelve-defendants-se...
> I fail to see the upside of living in somebody's pocket soviet union
The sort of extreme libertarians who are keen on this sort of thing don't acknowledge that it would be like that, though; in their worldview, without a government, (only, effectively, an _owner_), all would be well. Now, this may sound suspiciously like warlordism or feudalism to some of us, but we're not the ones who want to live in these sorts of places.
Singapore's completely different; it's rather authoritarian, but is generally a functioning state with strict regulation.
But at least one well known crypto-libertarian seems to be making some money out of it:
> With Thailand cutting off power and telecommunications, electricity comes from diesel generators, which are expensive to run. And communications go through Elon Musk's Starlink satellite system, which is also very costly.
Well, you're going to need _something_ like that (I suppose there's also the Be Your Own Warlord option, but that's presumably even more expensive). Provided the warlord is getting paid, they seem less likely to ask questions of dodgy fake cities than an actual government is (for instance see Honduras, where the current government is trying to get rid of the weird libertarian fake-city authorised by the previous government).
After China banned using of death row organs around 2014, the world's largest organ black market has moved to southeast Asia. There are estimated more than 100k victims (mostly Chinese) annually. Some of them may be released, if their families can afford the ransom. The remaining victims are treated like livestock. They are forced into doing scams to lure more people. Their blood is drawn monthly or even weekly for sales. They'll be tortured to death, if they try to run away. And finally, their organs will be harvested and sold, which most likely will also be the end of their lives.
United States once proposed to classify these organizations as terrorist organizations at UN but was denied by China.
Somebody already linked to a variety of research on this topic, it is the consensus that organ procurement in China is exploitative, even if people don’t know the exact details.
Should surgeons even perform transplants in Asia? Many interesting questions.
https://hir.harvard.edu/for-sale-the-pervasive-organ-trade-i...
https://amp.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/32...
I bet crime by Chinese against Chinese in other countries is not very reported because local gov won't waste resources on non locals and because CCP won't want it in the news to protect their image
And a bonus for the dead comment saying "the idea China would allow it's own citizens be cut up for organs is racist as fuck"
https://thediplomat.com/2024/08/first-known-survivor-of-chin...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/in-the-fac...
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6854896
https://www.news.com.au/world/asia/barbaric-torture-brainwas...
Welcome to the world
Someone doing that in real life is truly disturbing
> We were able to speak to a young woman who had been working in one of the scam centres a couple of weeks before our visit. She had not enjoyed it and been allowed to leave.
Her job, she said, was as part of the modelling team, made up mostly of attractive young women, who contact potential victims and try to build an intimate online relationship with them.
"The target is the elderly," she said. "You start a conversation like 'oh you look just like one of my friends'. Once you make friends you encourage them by sending pictures of yourself, sometimes wearing your night clothes."
Then, she explains, the conversation moves to get-rich-quick schemes, such as crypto investments, with the women claiming that's how they made a lot of money.
"When they feel close to you, you pass them on to the chatting section," she says. "The chatting people will continue messaging with the client, persuading them to buy shares in the crypto company."
https://pjvogt.substack.com/p/whos-behind-these-scammy-text-...
They advertise recruitment ads of 8000$ a month for working in IT so many youth went there , and forced to end up as sex slaves , scammers , sex cammers . Who refuse to work and try run away are organ harvested or trafficked to china. They are very dark crime gang not limited to - Human Trafficking. - Organ Harvesting. - Dark Web activities. - Drug and Women abuses.
The BGF Militia of Saw Chit Thu is working with scammers they have arm forces of 8000 handing that.
In April 2023, Joint Revolution forces led by KTLA Lion Battalion : Saw Eh Say Wah launched an offensive against the Kayin State BGF in Shwe Kokko l . They almost captured Shwe KoKo and BGF (Saw Chit Thu) ran away to Thailand. But during the fight one sact of KNU (biggest rebel forces in Karen area who suppose to be helping KTLA ,but leaders also owns shares in Shwe KoKo ) betrayed KTLA forces and backstabbed Saw Eh Say Wah and KTLA Revolution forces. He barely escaped and estimated 200 of KTLA perished.
Now China is pushing Thailand to shut down Shwe KoKo and elecriticy is now cut off. They are moving operartion more inside of Myanmar.
They used to be militants against the Central Government right? Didn't they split off from the KNU originally?
> They are moving operartion more inside of Myanmar
As in deeper within periphery regions or actually within the "core" like Yangon/Bago/Irrawaddy/Magwe?
On that note, has a similar rise in transnational organized crime started in those regions as well?
-----------
I really hope the situation gets better in Myanmar. From the outside, it looked like there was some hope barely decade ago that stuff might get better
Latest news I heard is scam gangs are moving inner karen are, around phayar thone su.
Whole situation is very sad. Seeing a nation fall into chaos like that. So many people's lives destroyed through no fault of their own.
The Philippines (under Duterte) said to Chinese criminals: Feel free to base your operations here and rip off your fellow Chinese, but don't rip off us Filipinos.
Then these POGO centres started scamming locals and Chinese alike, and staffed themselves with scam victims, using blackmail and torture to force them to work there and commit fraud.
Then one victim escaped:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-68562643
And then the whole world unraveled for local town mayor and Chinese spy, Alice Guo (that's not even her real name)
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/09/04/asia/philippines-alice-gu...
They did pay the right people. It's just that the "right people" lost the presidency in 2022.
Just pointing this out so we don't think this doesn't exist here.
Yes, there likely are things like that which do happen in the US, but it's the exception and not what Boca Raton is built on. The only group holding hundreds of thousands of people against their will to do unpaid labor here is the prison system.
I was at Sihanoukville (Cambodia) around 5 years ago and was surprised to find what was seemingly a Chinese city. There was a lot of dust, construction, and the city seemed like it was being raised out of the ground really quickly. Massive Chinese casinos and hotels were around and locals reported some casinos didn't even let them in. There were some whispers about shady stuff too.
I suppose if I were to go there today I'd find there are no more dirt roads and that the city is "fully built" given the rate at which these things happen. Would be cool to see.
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2022/03/31/t...
[1]: https://www.wired.com/story/usaid-collapse-is-helping-crimin...
In practice, the US prioritizes "stability" over everything. The situation became very bad in the last 4 years. Definitely a good amount of this funding was diverted to corrupt people over there.
People in Myanmar (and many other parts of the world) love talking to our embassies and "NGOs" and ripping them off, while doing their actual deals with China.
>7 Months Inside an Online Scam Labor Camp
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/12/17/world/asia/my...
Twitter/X thread: https://x.com/QianIsabelle/status/1736391727387177267
