All articles tagged with #myanmar
China executed four Bai family members in Guangdong as part of a broader crackdown on Myanmar-linked scam networks, with 21 Bai clan members and associates convicted of fraud, homicide and other crimes; last week China had already executed 11 Ming family members in a related crackdown, underscoring Beijing’s deterrence campaign against cross-border scams that have trafficked hundreds of thousands of people, many of them Chinese.
Five years after the coup, Myanmar’s National Unity Government, a shadow, exile-based pro-democracy coalition, has largely failed to unite rebel groups, win broad international support, or overturn the junta’s staged elections. With criticized leadership, limited resources, and ongoing fighting in central Myanmar, the military has maintained control over roughly half the country while the shadow government struggles to effect practical change and avoid irrelevance.
The United Nations says at least 170 civilians were killed in military air strikes during Myanmar’s weeks-long, widely denounced election, with around 408 aerial attacks recorded from December to late January. The vote was dismissed as a sham by multiple countries and rights groups, and large parts of the country remained unable to vote amid ongoing civil conflict; the military-backed USDP appeared poised for a landslide following a tightly controlled process.
ASEAN’s 11 members, meeting in Manila, face a multi‑front agenda: Myanmar’s long‑running conflict and elections not endorsed by the bloc, ongoing engagement under a 2021 peace plan, momentum to conclude a legally binding ASEAN‑China Code of Conduct in the South China Sea, and a fragile Thailand–Cambodia border ceasefire that ASEAN will monitor as the Philippines coordinates the bloc’s observer role.
China executed 11 members of a Myanmar-based telecom and internet fraud syndicate, highlighting Beijing’s ongoing crime crackdown across borders. The move follows earlier cooperation that saw Myanmar police hand over suspects to Chinese authorities in 2023.
China carried out the executions of 11 Ming family members who led a cross-border, multibillion-dollar scam network operating in Myanmar, and who were alleged to have killed workers who attempted to escape; the death sentences were upheld by China’s Supreme People’s Court after initial convictions, underscoring Beijing’s crackdown on organized online fraud linked to the Kokang border region and Myanmar’s junta.
China has executed 11 members of the Ming family crime syndicate, which ran mafia-style scam centers in Myanmar’s Kokang region and killed workers who tried to escape. At its height the group employed thousands and ran schemes across internet fraud, prostitution and drug production. The executions followed a 2025 trial in which the Supreme People’s Court upheld the death sentences for Ming Xuechang’s son Ming Guoping and granddaughter Ming Zhenzhen among others, as Beijing’s crackdown on cross-border crime that began in 2023 continues and authorities warned they will intensify efforts against gambling and fraud.
ASEAN foreign ministers meeting in Cebu pressed the bloc’s long-running peace plan for Myanmar’s civil war and pushed to finish negotiations with China on a South China Sea code of conduct by the end of 2026, while Myanmar’s military government remains excluded from high-level talks. Observers weren’t invited to recent elections, and analysts say bridging remaining differences—especially on international law and whether the COC should be legally binding—will be difficult as focus also includes de-escalation and humanitarian aid.
Myanmar closed the final stage of a three-part election widely described as a sham, with many parties banned, large areas not voting due to ongoing conflict, and a climate of fear reported by observers. The military-backed USDP is expected to win a landslide, after which parliament will appoint a president—likely coup leader Gen Min Aung Hlaing—while civilian institutions remain dissolved and prospects for ending the civil war remain uncertain.
Myanmar defended itself at the International Court of Justice against The Gambia’s genocide allegations over the 2017 Rohingya crackdown, denying genocidal intent and arguing operations targeted militants; The Gambia, backed by the OIC, seeks accountability as witnesses are due to be heard behind closed doors, with a ruling expected by late 2026 and potential implications for international genocide jurisprudence.
From a Nay Pyi Taw prison, Aung San Suu Kyi has spent about 20 years in detention—five of them since the 2021 coup—while health and conditions remain unknown and contact with lawyers scarce. Yet she remains Myanmar's defining political symbol, fueling calls for her release and highlighting the country’s deepening civil conflict as the military tightens its grip. The piece contrasts past reform-era hopes with the current stalemate created by the 2008 constitution and the ejected path to democracy, noting that even if released, her influence is uncertain due to age and health.
A Chinese studio’s full‑motion video game Blood Money: Lethal Eden lets players experience being coerced into working in online scam centers, echoing real Southeast Asian scam compounds (notably in Myanmar) and sparking discussion in China about scams, trafficking, and crime‑themed gaming.
The International Court of Justice in The Hague began three weeks of hearings on a landmark genocide case against Myanmar brought by Gambia, accusing the Myanmar military of genocidal crimes against the Rohingya. The case rests on universal jurisdiction to address genocide anywhere and could set a precedent for future actions, including potential cases against Israel, shaping how international law handles atrocity allegations.
A Times investigation reveals Shunda Park, a vast online scam complex near Myanmar's war-torn border, where thousands from nearly 30 countries are recruited—sometimes kidnapped—and forced to run fraudulent operations from glossy office spaces adorned with motivational slogans.
Myanmar began a second round of general elections amid ongoing civil conflict, expanding voting to more townships while critics and a UN rights envoy condemn the polls as not free or fair and aimed at legitimizing military rule after the 2021 coup; the vote is to occur in three phases with a final round on Jan. 25 and 65 townships excluded due to fighting, and the military-backed USDP leading in the first phase as Suu Kyi’s NLD remains dissolved.