Free Republic

China has executed four leading members of Myanmar-based scam syndicates, a Chinese court said on Monday (Feb 2), the second such announcement in less than a week as Beijing ramps up a crackdown on cross-border telecom fraud. Fraud compounds where scammers lure internet users into fake romantic relationships and cryptocurrency investments have flourished across Southeast Asia, including in Cambodia and the lawless borderlands of Myanmar. Initially, largely targeting Chinese speakers, the criminal groups behind the compounds have expanded operations into multiple languages to steal billions of dollars from victims around the world.

China executed 11 people convicted of intentional homicide, fraud and other crimes linked to a cross-border scam operation, after the country’s top court approved their death sentences, authorities said Thursday. The announcement was published on the website for the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, China’s highest state body responsible for criminal prosecution and oversight. The executions followed a ruling and execution order from the Supreme People’s Court, which upheld lower court judgments against members of the so-called Ming family criminal group.

Criminal associates of Chen Zhi who surrender before Feb 15 and "truthfully confess their crimes" could be eligible for "lighter or reduced sentences", China's Ministry of Public Security said.China called on Thursday (Jan 15) for criminal associates of accused scam boss Chen Zhi to surrender voluntarily in return for lighter sentences, after their alleged ringleader was extradited from Cambodia. Chen has been indicted by the United States on fraud and money-laundering charges for allegedly running a multibillion-dollar cyberscam network from Cambodia. Beijing has also called Chen "the ringleader of a major cross-border gambling and fraud criminal syndicate", and Cambodia deported...

FBI Director Kash Patel said on Oct. 15 that the agency is cracking down on espionage by foreign adversaries, with an increase in arrests as high as 50 percent. “We have gone after espionage activities against our main counterparts in China, Russia, and Iran,” he said at a press conference. “In China alone, we’ve had over a 50 percent increase in espionage arrests alone, and prosecutions,” Patel said. “In Iran, we have had a 50 percent increase, again, in espionage cases. And in Russia, we had a 33 percent increase in espionage cases alone.” State Department employee Ashley Tellis, arrested...

China has executed 11 members of a notorious Myanmar mafia family that was infamous for duping victims in fake online romances. The Ming crime family was sentenced to death in September by a court in the eastern Chinese city of Wenzhou, with the same court also carrying out the executions on Thursday. Residents in the UK and the US have fallen victim to similar, sophisticated schemes, after being lured into romantic relationships that resulted in the loss of large amounts of cash. The clan members were executed for crimes including 'intentional homicide, intentional injury, unlawful detention, fraud and casino establishment',...

"We are in the position to form a new government," said a senior official from the Union Solidarity and Development Party, after the vote's third and final phase took place on Sunday.Myanmar's dominant pro-military party has won junta-run elections, a party source told AFP on Monday (Jan 26), after a month-long vote that democracy watchdogs dismissed as a rebranding of army rule. While the military has said the election will return power to the people, popular democratic figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi remains detained since the coup and her party has been dissolved, while critics say the ballot was stacked...

The US State Department announced plans on Monday to promote online youth groups as a new and powerful way to fight crime, political oppression and terrorism. Drawing inspiration from a movement against FARC rebels in Colombia, the State Department is joining forces with Facebook, Google, MTV, Howcast and others in New York City next week to get the "ball rolling." It said 17 groups from South Africa, Britain and the Middle East which have an online presence like the "Million Voices Against the FARC" will attend a conference at Columbia University Law School from December 3-5. Observers from seven organizations...

More than four years ago, the military ousted Myanmar’s freely elected government at gunpoint. The upcoming polls will be a total sham.On December 28, Myanmar’s military will hold the first phase of a long-promised election. But don’t be fooled: The voting is set to be a total sham. Military chief Min Aung Hlaing, who led the 2021 coup, has urged his enemies to put down their weapons and take part in the election. He has also promised that the military administration will transfer power to whatever government is formed after the vote. But few observers are putting much stock...

"secret settlements with 25 men" Ghislaine Maxwell speaking... "A future DOJ could convict the current AG and others" Thomas Massie's warning... The International Court of Justice will hear a genocide case against the military government of Myanmar... The US Justice Department appealing dismissal of charges...James Comey...Letitia James... The United States drafting a ten-year 112-billion-dollar project to rebuild Gaza... In Brazil imprisoned former President Jair Bolsonaro...leave prison for hernia surgery... "The subversion of democracy begins" Reform UK leader Nigel Farage... Republican US Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming will not seek re-election... Turning Point USA political event...Erika Kirk endorsing Vice-President JD Vance...

The war that rages on in Burma today is fought on a multitude of fronts. In the mountainous regions of Burma, armed resistance groups are struggling to defend their communities against the bloody regime of the State Security and Peace Commission, SSPC (formerly called the State Administration Council), a military dictatorship with a track record of profiting from illicit activities. Within this convoluted conflict, a quickly expanding criminal empire has taken root. Cyber scam centers, run by established Chinese crime rings and manned by victims of human trafficking, are popping up all along the Burma-Thai border. According to a recent...

There were signs that heroin from Myanmar is reaching markets in Europe previously supplied by Afghanistan, with several seizures over the past year that involved passengers travelling from Southeast Asia to Europe. Opium poppy cultivation in Myanmar surged to its highest level in a decade this year as the nation crippled by civil war remains one of the world's primary suppliers of illicit drugs, according to a new United Nations report. The growth solidifies Myanmar's position as the world’s main known source of illicit opium, particularly following a sharp decline in production in Afghanistan after the Taliban imposed a ban...

The White House has paused all immigration applications from 19 countries and canceled citizenship ceremonies across the US, citing national security and public safety concerns. The freeze could affect more than 1.5 million people who had asylum applications pending and more than 50,000 who received asylum grants under the Biden administration, The New York Times reports. President Donald Trump is also considering expanding the travel ban to more than 30 countries, according to the New York Post. The new policy memorandum, released Tuesday night, cites last week’s 'terror attack' in D.C. where Afghan man Rahmanullah Lakanwal was arrested for allegedly...

At least 24 people were killed and 47 wounded while protesting against Myanmar's military government after an army motorised paraglider dropped two bombs on the crowd, a spokesperson for the government-in-exile told BBC Burmese. The military attacked on Monday evening as around 100 people gathered in Chaung U township in central Myanmar for a national holiday. Thousands have died and millions have been displaced since a military coup in 2021, which triggered a civil war with armed resistance groups and ethnic militias. After losing control of more than half the country, the army is making significant gains again, through an...

A Chinese court has sentenced to death 11 members of a notorious family that ran scam centres in Myanmar, according to Chinese state media. Dozens of members of the Ming family were found guilty of conducting criminal activities, with many receiving lengthy jail sentences. The Ming family worked for one of the four clans that ran Myanmar's sleepy backwater town of Laukkai, close to the border with China, and turned it into a hub for gambling, drugs and scam centres. Myanmar eventually cracked down, arresting many members of these families in 2023 and handing them over to Chinese authorities. A...

In July, 2024, a group of Chinese technologists and researchers met at an office in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang region, to discuss efforts to stop internet users bypassing the Great Firewall, China’s vast online censorship and surveillance apparatus. Even by Chinese standards, internet controls in Xinjiang are intense, a legacy of a years-long crackdown by the authorities targeting Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities. Preventing people from dodging these controls – to access banned websites or download secure messaging apps – was a key government priority, part of a “long-term struggle and technical confrontation” vital to nationwide “anti-terrorism” efforts, according...

Ancient Chinese written documents record that by the second century a.d., a vast trade network had already been established connecting peoples and goods from the Mediterranean, the Near East, India, and Asia. This has been confirmed by archaeological excavations throughout Southeast Asia, which have uncovered various items such as Indian jewelry, Roman glass, and Persian pottery. According to a Science News Today report, however, a comprehensive new study has revealed that silver coinage may be the key to truly understanding just how interconnected these distant regions actually were. Found at many archaeological sites across this region, the coins feature a...

Myanmar’s rebranded State Security and Peace Commission (SSPC) has announced elections for December 28, in a flurry of domestic dictatorial reformation. But they also want to deceive world opinion too, with the early-August announcement of a US$3 million contract with Washington DC-based public relations firm DCI Group. The filing under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) claims the contract is to “provide public affairs services to Client (SSPC) with respect to rebuilding relations between the Republic of the Union of Myanmar and the United States, with a focus on trade, natural resources, and humanitarian relief.” The contract will run through...

As families chased from their homes by the Burma Army return to their villages, hidden mines still threaten homes, churches, and fields. The Free Burma Rangers (FBR) are working with local volunteer deminers under civilian authority to train communities, improve detection, and get the gear needed to make the land safe again. Since the 2021 military coup, landmines have become one of the deadliest threats facing civilians in Burma. In Karenni and southern Shan state alone, there have been 205 recorded landmine incidents since that time, with actual numbers likely far greater due to underreporting. Burma now has one of...

A federal judge in Maine on Friday barred the Trump administration from enforcing sanctions on two U.S. citizens and human rights advocates who work with the International Criminal Court (ICC).On April 11, Matthew Smith and Akila Radhakrishnan, a human rights nonprofit leader and lawyer, respectively, filed a 39-page lawsuit against President Donald Trump and several other members of his administration over an executive order that imposes sanctions on the ICC, prohibits certain interactions with designated ICC officials, and threatens both civil and criminal penalties for any such violations.The lawsuit was premised on the idea that the sanctions "violate their First...

On March 28, 2025, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the Southeast Asia country of Myanmar along the Sagaing Fault, killing thousands and causing widespread damage. A new study from Caltech uses satellite imaging of the Sagaing Fault's motion to improve models of how such faults may behave in the future. The study indicates that strike–slip faults, like the Sagaing and the San Andreas, may be capable of earthquakes that are significantly different from past known earthquakes and potentially much larger. The research was conducted primarily in the laboratory of Jean-Philippe Avouac, the Earle C. Anthony Professor of Geology and Mechanical...