Fraud compounds where scammers lure internet users into fake romantic relationships and cryptocurrency investments have flourished across Southeast Asia, including in the lawless borderlands of Myanmar.
Initially largely targeting Chinese speakers, the criminal groups behind the compounds have expanded operations into multiple languages to steal from victims around the world.
Those conducting the scams are sometimes willing con artists, and other times trafficked foreign nationals forced to work.
In recent years, Beijing has stepped up cooperation with regional governments to crack down on the compounds, and thousands of people have been repatriated to face trial in China's opaque justice system.
The 11 people executed Thursday were sentenced to death in September by a court in the eastern Chinese city of Wenzhou, state news agency Xinhua said, adding that the court also carried out the executions.
Crimes of those executed included "intentional homicide, intentional injury, unlawful detention, fraud and casino establishment", Xinhua said.
The death sentences were approved by the Supreme People's Court in Beijing, which found that the evidence produced of crimes committed since 2015 was "conclusive and sufficient", the report said.
Among the executed were "key members" of the notorious "Ming family criminal group", whose activities had contributed to the deaths of 14 Chinese citizens and injuries to "many others", Xinhua added.
- Fighting fraud 'cancer' -
Fraud operations centred in Myanmar's border regions have extracted billions of dollars from around the world through phone and internet scams.
Experts say most of the centres are run by Chinese-led crime syndicates working with Myanmar militias.
The fraud activities -- and crackdowns by Beijing -- are closely followed in China.
Asked about the latest executions, a spokesman for Beijing's foreign ministry said that "for a while, China has worked with Myanmar and other countries to combat cross-border telecom and internet fraud".
"China will continue to deepen international law enforcement cooperation" against "the cancer of gambling and fraud", spokesman Guo Jiakun told a regular press conference.
The September rulings that resulted in Thursday's executions also included death sentences with two-year reprieves to five other individuals.
Another 23 suspects were given prison sentences ranging from five years to life.
In November, Chinese authorities sentenced five people to death for their involvement in scam operations in Myanmar's Kokang region.
Their crimes had led to the deaths of six Chinese nationals, according to state media reports.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime warned in April that the cyberscam industry was spreading across the world, including to South America, Africa, the Middle East, Europe and some Pacific Islands.
The UN has estimated that hundreds of thousands of people are working in scam centres globally.
China issues 73 life bans, punishes top football clubs for match-fixing
Beijing (AFP) Jan 29, 2026 -
China's football association issued lifetime bans to 73 people, including former national team head coach Li Tie, and punished 13 top professional clubs for match-fixing and corruption, it said Thursday.
Under President Xi Jinping, an anti-corruption crackdown has swept through Chinese football in recent years, exposing the rotten state of the professional game.
Several top officials in the Chinese Football Association (CFA) have been brought down, while dozens of players have been banned for match-fixing and gambling.
Thursday's statement did not specify when the most recently announced match-fixing took place, or how it worked.
The punishments were made after a "systematic review" and were needed "to enforce industry discipline, purify the football environment, and maintain fair competition", the CFA wrote on its official social media account Thursday.
Li, a former Everton player who led the national team from 2019 to 2021, is already serving a 20-year prison sentence for bribery, after being sentenced in December 2024.
He is now banned from all football activities for life, alongside 72 others, the CFA statement said.
Among them is Chen Xuyuan, former chairman of the CFA, who is already serving life in prison for accepting bribes worth $11 million.
- Negative start to season -
The football clubs that will be punished are similarly high-profile.
Of the 16 clubs that competed in the 2025 season in the country's top Chinese Super League (CSL), 11 will have points docked and be fined.
After relegations, this means that when the 2026 CSL season starts in March, nine teams will start with negative points totals.
Tianjin Jinmen Tiger and last season's runners-up Shanghai Shenhua face the stiffest sanctions, with 10-point reductions and one-million-yuan ($144,000) fines.
Shanghai Port, champions for the last three seasons, will face a five-point reduction and a 400,000-yuan fine, the same punishment given to Beijing Guoan.
The CFA did not detail the club's specific infractions, saying only that they related to "match-fixing, gambling, and bribery", with their punishments "based on the amount, circumstances, nature, and social impact of the improper transactions involved".
"We will always maintain a zero-tolerance deterrent and high-pressure punitive force, and investigate and deal with any violation of discipline or regulations in football as soon as they are discovered, without any leniency or tolerance," the CFA said.
Many of China's professional teams are already in financial trouble.
Guangzhou FC, the most successful club in the CSL's history, folded in 2025 after it failed to settle its debts in time for the new season.
President Xi is a football fan who has said he dreams of China hosting and winning the World Cup one day.
China didn't qualify for the World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the United States this summer.
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