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China crackdown on cyber scams nets thousands but leaves networks intact_我的网站

A |     BANGKOK -- Zhang Hongliang, a former restaurant manager in central China, took various gigs in and outside China to support his family after losing his job during the COVID-19 pandemic.In March, a job offer to teach Chinese cooking at a restaurant led him into a cyber scam compound in Myanmar, where he was instead ordered to lure Chinese into giving up their savings for fake investment schemes via social media platforms.Zhang is one of tens of thousands of people, mostly but not all Chinese, who have become ensnared in cyber scam networks run by powerful Chinese criminal syndicates in Southeast Asia. Regional and Chinese authorities have netted thousands of people in a crackdown, but experts say they are failing to root out the local elites and criminal networks that are bound to keep running the schemes.When scam operations are shut down in one place they often just resurface elsewhere. The problem is an embarrassment for Beijing and is discouraging ordinary Chinese from traveling to Southeast Asia out of fear they might be duped or kidnapped and caught up in a cyber scam operation. In recent years, media reports have uncovered instances of young people being lured to places in Cambodia or Myanmar for high-paying jobs, only to be forced to work as scammers. Rescue organizations say people are regularly beaten or face physical punishments such as being forced to run laps if they don't perform well. In August, China, Thailand, Laos and Myanmar agreed to set up a joint police operations center to tackle cyber scams in the region. On Oct. 10, China’s Ministry of Public Security announced that its “Summer Operation” had successfully brought back 2,317 scam suspects from northern Myanmar to China.China calls such people suspects, though experts say most of them are victims who were forced to work for the criminals. They question how they will be treated once back in China. The schemes based in countries like Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia are run by Chinese bosses hand-in-hand with local elites. Many are based in places where China has financed big construction projects through leader Xi Jinping’s signature Belt and Road Initiative.Myanmar's border regions long have been a magnet for criminals — historically including drug producers and traffickers — because of lax law enforcement. Such places are generally under the control of ethnic minority armed groups, either opposed to or allied with Myanmar’s central government. Some also cooperate with organized crime gangs.“From the vantage point of the Chinese government, it’s a source of extreme embarrassment that you have so many of these Chinese criminals operating all across Southeast Asia,” said Jason Tower, an expert on transnational crime with the United States Institute of Peace.The syndicates also are known for “pig butchering” cons, where scammers entice individuals, often halfway across the world, to invest their money in bogus schemes after duping them into digital romances.The scammers divide their targets into two categories: Chinese and non-Chinese. They use scripts, images of models and influencers and translation software to trick the people they contact by phone or online into parting with their money. Victims can be anywhere in the world.The criminals have “ridden on the shoulders of the Belt and Road Initiative,” said Tower, who outlined links between the criminals and Chinese state enterprises, think tanks and government officials in a 2020 report written for the United States Institute of Peace.Zhang was working in Thailand and on a visa run to Laos when he met the man who lured him to the scam compound in Myanmar. Giving what he said was his last name, Gao, he claimed to be a broker and travel agent for Chinese living in Thailand. Zhang and his wife wanted extra money to pay for in vitro fertilization to have another child. Gao suggested he go work in Myawaddy, in eastern Myanmar’s Kayin state, teaching a local chef how to cook Chinese dishes in Gao’s new restaurant. The pay would be double what Zhang made in China.Zhang was wary. Since a 2021 coup, military-controlled Myanmar has been embroiled in civil conflict. But Gao reassured him that he wouldn’t be doing anything illegal and said the restaurant would have plenty of customers since many cyber scam businesses were operating in the area.That might have raised a red flag but it was only once he got to Myanmar that Zhang realized his predicament. He asked to go back home, saying there was a family emergency. His family helped him scrape together some 40,000 yuan ($5,472) to pay off the debt Gao claimed he owed him, and he slipped away one night, swimming across the Moei River into Thailand, where he turned himself in to Thai police, who contacted the Chinese Embassy.Zhang showed the AP copies of his deportation notice from the Thai Immigration police and a temporary ID card. He returned to China in late June and was questioned by Chinese police but not detained. He has been sharing his story on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, to alert others to the risks and says people often contact him about relatives trapped in cyber scam compounds.“We all went out with this wonderful sense of hope, but then reality slammed us in the face,” he said.In total, China has detained some 4,000 suspects and returned them back to China. The Ministry of Public Security has claimed “breakthrough results” through operations in coordination with Myanmar authorities. On Monday, they announced they had repatriated another 2,349 people. The ministry did not respond to a faxed request for comment.One 31-year old former chef who was smuggled into Myanmar’s Wa State earlier this year said he saw his company hand over four people to Chinese police with little fanfare in September. Other companies did the same, said the man, who was smuggled into Myanmar and later rescued by a non-profit organization. He declined to be named out of fear of government retribution, and The Associated Press could not independently verify his account.Overall, the enforcement actions don’t seem very comprehensive, experts say. The groups now based in Myanmar originally were located in Cambodia. When Cambodia cracked down on online gambling rings and illegal casinos in 2019, many of the groups just moved to less well policed places in Myanmar. Some were taken over by rival gangs.China's efforts to repair its image have so far not made much headway, said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a professor of political science at Thailand’s Chulalongkorn University. “You can crack down on these symptoms and the manifestations … that you can see in the borderland areas," he said, "but they’ll come back unless you really have a sustained effort." -—-AP researcher Wanqing Chen in Beijing and AP writers Grant Peck and Jintamas Saksornchai in Bangkok contributed to this report.。    说到糖尿病您的第一反应是什么？老年病、大吃大喝、肥胖……其实糖尿病远比我们想象的更加狡猾和多面！糖尿病是一种“数字病”，它在发病前期没有明显症状，很容易被人忽视，只能通过监测血糖的数值变化来了解疾病状态。而糖尿病会引发一系列并发症，损伤心脑血管及神经系统，严重的会导致失明、下肢截肢等！因此早筛查、早诊断、早治疗就变得至关重要！这里为您总结了几个小窍门帮您装好血糖“小雷达”！“游泳圈”带你“游”向糖尿病四肢纤细，肚子有点肉肉，男士们叫它“啤酒肚”，女士们称这种身材为“苹果体型”。如果您也是这样，可得多关注一下自己的血糖了！拥有这类身材的人群，患糖尿病的概率更高，知道为什么吗？听听专家的解释～视频加载中...糖尿病“尊老”也“爱幼”提到“三高”，您是不是觉得只有老年人才会有？其实不然！其中，高血糖导致的糖尿病，就并非老人专属。儿童、青少年也不能逃脱它的“魔爪”！如果小朋友出现以下症状，就需要多加小心喽！视频加载中...脾气火爆、焦虑烦躁小心变成“小糖人”！心情还能影响血糖水平？是的，您没听错！医生提示：长期负面情绪可能引起体内应激，激发高血糖和高血压，导致胰岛素抵抗。抑郁情绪带来的不良生活习惯又会进一步增加罹患糖尿病的风险。所以，糖尿病有可能是“烦”出来的，并不是危言耸听！心情波动对人体中的血糖影响到底有多大？听完以下专家的分析，可别再抑郁、焦虑、生闷气啦！视频加载中...身体自带的“血糖仪”您看懂了吗？我们的身体是一台精密的仪器，自备了一台“血糖仪”，您知道是哪个部位吗？其实就是我们的脚！如果您是一名糖尿病患者，当您的下肢又出现以下问题时，很可能已经出现了可怕的并发症！视频加载中...你是不是糖尿病易感人群？很不幸，糖尿病似乎更加青睐国人！除饮食结构、生活方式差异外，亚洲人的体质比欧美人患2型糖尿病的概率更高！除了家族遗传因素，还有这么几类人群更值得关注！戳视频，看看有没有您？视频加载中...多年来，糖尿病一直被当作老年病看待，又因其在前期发病时无明显的不适症状，造成了人们对该疾病的忽视。有些人甚至已经血糖超标，自己却不知道。长期高血糖蛰伏在我们的身体里，悄然摧毁着我们的健康。每个人都需要重新认识、了解、预防糖尿病。责任编辑：康心怡。

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