China’s support for Myanmar regime backfires; scam syndicates thrive
Voice of America
FILE - Chinese actor Wang Xing, third from left, shakes hands with a Thai police officer following his return after being kidnapped into a Myanmar telecom fraud center, at a police station in the Mae Sot district, Thailand, on Jan. 7, 2025. (Royal Thai Police via Reuters) FILE - Myanmar police hand over five telecom and internet fraud suspects to Chinese police at Yangon International Airport in Yangon, Myanmar, on Aug. 26, 2023. (Xinhua News Agency via AP)
Reports of Chinese citizens trafficked into scam centers along the Thai-Myanmar border are prompting renewed questions about Beijing’s reliance on Myanmar’s military regime to tackle transnational crime.
FILE - New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters comments during an interview with The Associated Press in his parliamentary office in the capital, Wellington, Aug. 22, 2024. Kiribati and New Zealand FILE - A boy scavenges for saleable items at Red Beach dump, on Tarawa atoll, Kiribati, March 30, 2004
Afghan female students taking the scholarship exam in Peshawar, Pakistan, on Jan. 26, 2025.
FILE - U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his wife Jeanette Rubio arrive to speak to employees upon arrival at the State Department in Washington, on Jan. 21, 2025.
FILE - Members of the Nanjing children diving team practise standing on their hands during a training session at a sports college in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, Jan. 13, 2008.
The DeepSeek logo is seen in this illustration taken Jan. 27, 2025.
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas speaks with the media as she arrives for a meeting of EU foreign ministers at the European Council building in Brussels, Jan. 27, 2025.
People displaced by the fighting with M23 rebels make their way to the center of Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Jan. 26, 2025. A member of the M23 armed group walks alongside residents through a street of the Keshero neighborhood in Goma, on Jan. 27, 2025. U.N. armored personnel carriers deploy outside Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Jan. 25, 2025.
Humanitarian staff who fled from Goma, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, following fighting between M23 rebels and the armed forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, arrive in Gisenyi, Rwanda, Jan. 27, 2025. Goma, North Kivu province, DRC
In this image taken from a video footage run by Phoenix TV, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, right, meets with India's Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri in Beijing, Jan. 27, 2025. (Phoenix TV via APTN)
In this photo taken from video distributed by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Jan. 26, 2025, a Russian serviceman prepares a "Orlan-10" drone in an undisclosed location in Ukraine.
Displaced Gazans cross the Netzarim corridor from the southern Gaza Strip into Gaza City on Jan. 27, 2025. Displaced Palestinians make their way back to their homes in northern Gaza, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in the central Gaza Strip, Jan. 27, 2025. A Lebanese woman holds a portrait of slain Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, as she sits in a car with her family on their way to check their village after the Israeli troops withdrew from it, in Bint Jbeil town, south Lebanon, Jan. 26, 2025.
FILE - In this image provided by the Royal Thai Police, Chinese actor Wang Xing, right, talks with Thai police officers in Mae Sot district, in Thai-Myanmar border, Tak province Jan. 7, 2025.
FILE - Taliban flags fly at the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sept. 9, 2021. A former Canadian soldier detained by the Taliban for two months has been freed. David Lavery made headlines during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
Belarusian President and presidential candidate Alexander Lukashenko visits a polling station during the presidential election in Minsk, Belarus Jan. 26, 2025.
FILE- Goats, slated to be killed due to the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, stand on a farm in Schoeneiche, Germany, Jan. 13, 2025. China has banned the import of livestock from numerous countries, including Germany, because of disease concerns.
A photo taken by a drone shows displaced Palestinians gathered with their belongings as they wait to return to their homes in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, Jan. 26, 2025, days after a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas came into effect.
A photo taken on Jan. 26, 2025 shows the HNLMS Luymes A803 of the Royal Netherlands Navy, a NATO vessel, docked at Ofelia Plads in Copenhagen Harbor. The vessel will participate in NATO's enhanced patrol mission in the Baltic Sea, Baltic Sentry.
FILE - People work at the site where an aircraft went off the runway and crashed at Muan International Airport, in Muan, South Korea, Dec. 30, 2024.