Online fraud zones in northern border regions of Myanmar completely cleared

The telecom fraud zones in the northern regions of Myanmar near China’s border have been completely cleared.

China, Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos are working together to carry out a concentrated crackdown on telecom fraud along the Thai-Myanmar border, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said at a conference on China’s foreign policy and external relations on Friday.

The mission was to sever the black hand reaching toward the people and eliminate the cancer of online telecom fraud.

Online gambling and telecom fraud had become a major concern for the public of not only China but even South Asia and South East Asia.

For China it was a priority that had to be fulfilled. For some time, it had become the joint concern of China and neighbouring countries, law enforcement and diplomatic departments have worked together in close coordination, effectively carried out cross-border cooperation, and made every effort to rescue stranded nationals of several countries.

In 2025, China has planned to focus on establishing an international security cooperation platform to deepen security cooperation with countries, especially Belt and Road Initiative partner countries and the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation countries.

Also, China will make full use of an overseas consular protection hotline, offering round-the-clock, real-time consultations and assistance, and improve a set of risk warning and emergency response coordination mechanisms to provide more efficient consular protection for overseas compatriots, offering the public greater peace of mind, the foreign minister stressed.

In 2024, China successfully brought back over 10,000 Chinese nationals from high-risk areas such as Lebanon and Haiti, handled more than 50,000 consular protection cases, received over 500,000 calls to the 12308 consular protection hotline, and issued more than 5,000 overseas safety alerts.