Wang Xing: Chinese actor’s rescue shines light on scam centres

Wang went missing on 3 January in the Thai border city of Mae Sot, which has become a hub for trafficking people into Myanmar.

He had flown to Bangkok for an acting job offered to him on WeChat. The person claimed to represent a major Thai entertainment company, according to Thai police.

The actor later told reporters that he had been on a shoot in Thailand around 2018 and did not suspect this was any different. But he was picked up in a car and taken to Myanmar, where his head was shaved and he was forced to undergo training on how to scam people on phone calls.

His girlfriend wrote on Weibo that she and his brother tried to track him down and get police involved, but “there had been little results”: Chinese police had yet to register a case, while the embassy in Thailand had simply advised Wang’s family to approach the police in Mae Sot.

But as discussions of Wang’s whereabouts grew louder on Chinese social media, authorities began to act. The case was finally registered, and the embassy told the media they had attached great importance to the case.

The next day, Thai and Chinese officials announced that Wang had been rescued.

His first public appearance was alongside Thai police, but he said little, leaving officials to explain what happened.

Details of the rescue itself have been scant. Officials have not even revealed which scam centre he had been in as conflicting versions of the story spread.

One reason could be that withholding more information was part of the deal that led to his release, according to a source who has previously rescued people from scam centres who did not wish to be named.

He told the BBC that these scam centres are keen to avoid attention. That meant releasing Wang was the better option, compared to risking the whole operation because of the attention his disappearance was drawing.