My Take | How the Chinese authorities can build on the crackdown on the Golden Triangle’s five families
- The recent death and arrests of members of one of the main families in Myanmar’s Shan state has been hailed as a success by Chinese media
- Thousands of cybercrime suspects have also been handed over, but there is more Beijing can do to target drug traffickers and gangs operating inside China
China has been steadily tightening the noose on the families who, with the blessing of the Myanmar junta, operated casinos and brothels, trafficked drugs and collaborated with cyber fraud syndicates by offering them premises and armed protection.
The Ming family has been described by Chinese media as a relatively new addition to the existing “big four families” that have long controlled criminal activity in the region.
Three of the four big families had been supporters of Peng Jiasheng, or Pheung Kya-shin – the leader of the ethnic Chinese rebel group Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) – before they defected to the junta in 2009 and formed the Kokang Border Guard Forces under the command of the Tatmadaw, Myanmar’s military rulers.
Myanmar police said Ming – who ran the infamous Crouching Tiger Villa, one of the biggest telecoms scam compounds in the region – had shot himself. They have also handed over his two children and a grandchild to the Chinese authorities.
