Myanmar’s Shwe Kokko: Inside a city ‘built on scams’

Neither do recent headlines.

Last month a 22-year-old Chinese actor, Wang Xing, was rescued from a scam centre on the border after being lured to Thailand with an offer of work on a movie shoot. His disappearance spurred a barrage of questions on Chinese social media, forcing the Thai and Chinese authorities to mount a joint operation to free him.

Chinese tourists have been cancelling their holidays in Thailand, fearing for their safety. Other rescues have followed. The BBC has been sent emails by some scam victims pleading for help; rescue organisations believe there are still thousands trapped. Nearly all are in smaller compounds along the border south of Shwe Kokko.

Yatai stressed to us that they are not the same as these rougher operations, some little more than a collection of sheds built in forest clearings. That is where all the bad things happen now, they said. They talked about KK Park, a notorious compound south of the border town of Myawaddy, and Dongmei, a cluster of low-rise buildings run by a prominent Chinese crime lord called Wan Kuok Koi, better known as Broken Tooth.

That distinction hasn’t helped She Zhijiang, who once had the ear of politicians, police bosses and even minor royalty in Thailand. Today he appears to have lost even the influence he once had in prison, to buy himself special privileges. He has complained of being roughed up by the guards.

His lawyers are appealing against the Interpol red notice used to justify his arrest, but China’s voice will probably be loudest in determining his fate.

From our interview with him, Shi Zhijiang seemed genuinely outraged over his sudden reversal of fortune.

“Before, I had no understanding of human rights, but now I really understand how horrible it is to have human rights infringed upon,” he said. “It is hard to imagine how the human rights of ordinary people in China are trampled upon when a respected businessman like me, who used to be able to go to the same state banquets as Xi Jinping, does not have his human rights and dignity protected in any way.”

It seems he really did believe he could build something which would one day transcend Shwe Kokko’s sordid origins as a scam city.

What happens to it now is hard to guess, but if the Thai and Chinese governments keep acting to shut down the scams, the money will start to dry up.