China's Supreme Court Announces Dissolution of Two Major Online Scam Syndicates Operating from Myanmar
China’s Supreme People’s Court (SPC) has announced that two major criminal syndicates based in Myanmar, which orchestrated cross-border online scams, have been “completely dismantled”. At least 16 convicts linked to the online scam syndicate have been sentenced to death by Chinese courts.
The Supreme People’s Court of China (SPC), according to Channel News Asia on Friday (27 February 2026), stated on Thursday (26 February) that trials involving the Ming and Bai families — designated as two of the “four major families” controlling the criminal network in Myanmar — have concluded.
An SPC spokesperson at a press conference stated that a total of 39 people received sentences of life imprisonment or heavier penalties, including 16 individuals sentenced to death.
“These two cross-border armed criminal groups have been completely dismantled, dealing a severe blow to the arrogance of criminals both domestically and internationally,” said the SPC spokesperson in a statement.
On 29 January and 2 February, Chinese authorities executed members of the Ming and Bai criminal groups who had been sentenced, including senior figures.
At Thursday’s press conference (26 February), the SPC stated that by the end of 2025, courts throughout China had concluded trials for over 27,000 cases involving online scams related to syndicates in northern Myanmar.
More than 41,000 criminal perpetrators repatriated to China in connection with these cases have been sentenced, according to the SPC.
Whilst some individuals joined the online scam operations voluntarily, others were foreign nationals who became victims of human trafficking and were forced to work for the criminal syndicate.
China has led an international pressure campaign to dismantle these online scam centres.
Beijing authorities have expressed willingness to cooperate with more countries to strengthen international law enforcement cooperation against global online scam syndicates.