Why China moved so quickly to execute 11 members of a notorious mafia family

BBC ^ | 2025.01.30 | Jonathan Head

[E. Pluribus Unum]

No-one should be surprised that China has swiftly executed the 11 members of a organised crime family from north-eastern Myanmar who were sentenced to death in September.

China executes more people than anywhere else in the world, according to human rights groups – the exact figure is a state secret. Officials are often executed for corruption. The accusations made against the Ming family were far more serious.

The Ming, Bau, Wei and Liu clans have dominated the remote border town of Laukkaing in Myanmar's impoverished Shan state, since 2009.

They rose to power after General Min Aung Hlaing, the current coup leader in Myanmar, led a military operation to drive out the MNDAA, the ethnic insurgent army which had dominated Laukkaing and the area around it since the 1980s.

The four families, as they became known, took over and began shifting from the old dependence on opium and methamphetamine production to a new economy based on casinos and, eventually, online fraud.

They remained close to the Myanmar military; in December 2021, after seizing power in his coup, Min Aung Hlaing feted Liu Zhengxiang, patriarch of the Liu clan, in the capital Nay Pyi Taw and awarded him an honorary title for "extraordinary contributions to state development".

His Fully Light conglomerate had lucrative businesses all over Myanmar. Other members of the four families were candidates for the military-backed party the USDP.

The scam compounds they ran in Laukkaing, though, were brutal, much more so than scam complexes in other parts of Asia. Torture was routine.

Tens of thousands of mainly Chinese workers were lured there with promises of well-paid jobs, only to find themselves imprisoned in the compounds. They were forced to run elaborate "pig-butchering" scams, where most of the victims were also Chinese. Complaints from the victims, and by the families of those trapped...

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TOPICS: Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: china; crime; execute

[JZelle]

Whatever happened to the Cherry Clan?

[doc maverick]

The CCP is essentially taking over Myanmar via military junta.
And they bitch about Greenland?
LOL!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

For the record? It will always be Burma to me! ;)

[VAFreedom]

some of those guys and one fat ‘socialite’ chick are special. Rumors are that they are still being held somewhere as they are still useful to the ccp government.

[WKUHilltopper]

Why? Competition. Simple.

[aquila48]

I wish we would move that quickly against the Walz-Somali mafia.

[Worldtraveler once upon a time]

From the article: "Officials are often executed for corruption. "

What a novel idea. Cuts down on recidivism.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

What a novel idea. Cuts down on recidivism.

Not to mention dead men/women tell no tales.

[sport]

The Clintons [Bill and Hillary] have practiced that for decades. And it sends a message to survivors.

[Worldtraveler once upon a time]

---- "What a novel idea. Cuts down on recidivism. Not to mention dead men/women tell no tales."

[BusterDog]

“China executes more people than anywhere else in the world, according to human rights groups.”

Well, they have over 1 billion people. Typical of the mainstream media the way they handle this story.

Our numbers have been on a downward trend historically, but in 2025, we doubled our rate of executions. In 2026, we may double the bottom line number again.

A compounding growth rate like that, and we can surpass China per capita in just a few years. Does the media mention that? Of course not, but they love pumping China’s stats.