A kidnapped Chinese actor, a scam gang, and a very public rescue operation
Wang Xing thought he was travelling to a casting call with film producers in Thailand.
The 22-year-old Chinese actor, also known by his stage name Xing Xing, had been communicating on WeChat with people he believed were Chinese employees of a major Thai entertainment firm, according to Thai police. One of them greeted him at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport and led him through security, before telling him that the plan – to stay at a nearby hotel – had changed. Instead they drove 500km to Mae Sot in western Thailand.
That was when Wang’s girlfriend, Jia Jia, lost contact with him.
Mae Sot is on the Thai border with Myanmar, just across from the Burmese town Myawaddy, a notorious hub for criminal compounds where people are held against their will and forced to conduct telecom or online scams.
Such scam operations have proliferated across south-east Asia in recent years, especially in Myanmar. The country was plunged into chaos, and spiralling conflict, after the 2021 military coup, and has become a magnet for criminal syndicates.