She Zhijiang escorted by police at Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Thailand's Samut Prakarn province ahead of being extradited to China on 12 Nov 2025.(NTD.com)
“Senior Chinese Embassy officials participated in the signing ceremony for the project, which was held in front [of] a large banner promoting it as part of China’s BRI. Multiple Chinese SOEs signed lucrative contracts to help construct Yatai New City”
By Jennifer Ng
A report by the US revealed that Chinese fugitive She Zhijiang, who was extradited in November to China to face illicit online gambling charges, said he developed the illicit operation, Yatai New City, promoted it as a part of Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and secured the support of the Chinese government.
She was extradited to China from Thailand’s capital Bangkok on November 12, after more than three years of legal battle to fight the extradition. She was captured in Thailand in August 2022, following a red notice issued by INTERPOL (The Internal Criminal Police Organisation) for his arrest at the request of the Chinese authorities.
She’s Yatai New City project, located in Myanmar’s Shwee Kokko, was known for its Chinese-led development projects. Shwe Kokko, including Yatai New City, has been involved in illegal gambling, human trafficking, extortion and cyber scam operations.
A report by US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC.gov), titled ‘China’s Exploitation of Scam Centers in Southeast Asia’, said that She launched a $15 billion project in 2017 to construct Yantai New City, dubbed a “smart city” in Shwe Kokko, “which he promoted as part of China’s BRI”.
The BRI is a global infrastructure and economic development strategy to promote trade, launched by Xi in 2013.
The report said that She is “a convicted criminal with a long history of involvement in illegal gambling operations in the Philippines and Cambodia”.
“Despite She’s criminal history and reports that Yatai New City was designed to host illicit activities, Chinese officials embraced the project,” the report added.
She was convicted by a court in China’s Shandong province in 2014 for operating an illegal lottery business in the Philippines targeting Chinese online users, netting 2.2 billion yuan or about S$403 million, according to Business & Human Rights Resource Centre. “She remained a fugitive while eight of his accomplices were sentenced to jail for 15 to 24 months, according to the court documents”. The report also noted that “public information showed that Yatai International had business dealings with Chinese state-owned companies including China Railway 20 Bureau Group and China National Real Estate Development Group”.
The report said, “China’s official Xinhua news agency promoted the Yatai New City project as a model for deep economic and cultural cooperation between China and Myanmar, and China’s state-owned Global Times extolled the project as a model example of private entrepreneurs contributing to BRI.”
“Senior Chinese Embassy officials participated in the signing ceremony for the project, which was held in front [of] a large banner promoting it as part of China’s BRI. Multiple Chinese SOEs signed lucrative contracts to help construct Yatai New City,” the report added.
She corroborated the report in an interview by Al Jazeera English’s 101 East Documentary, titled ‘She Zhijiang: Discarded Chinese spy or criminal mastermind?’ The interview was prior to She’s extradition to China.
She said in the interview, “The China Federation of Overseas Chinese arranged a signing ceremony for the Yatai Belt and Road project.”
The China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese is a part of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s United Front Work Department (UFWD), whose objective is to influence Chinese overseas and public opinion overseas, with the ultimate goal of keeping the CCP in power.
She said he was recruited by a man in the Philippines in 2016 to become a spy for the CCP, in exchange for the release of his conviction by the Chinese court in 2014 for operating an illegal lottery business that targeted Chinese online users.
“He came with an arrest warrant with my name on it and said he could get rid of the case for me. The Ministry of State Security can do it. Not only did he help get rid of the small case against me, he also arranged for me to return to China safely,” She said.
She was featured in what appeared to be one of the speakers on stage for the 2019 Belt and Road Overseas Chinese Business Summit in mainland China in the documentary.
She was also featured in a Chinese-state media CCTV-3 news, saying, “I want to thank the China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese for inviting me to the Belt and Road Summit.”
A special report published by the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) titled ‘Myanmar's Casino Cities: The Role of China and Transnational Criminal Networks’ reveals the involvement of Chinese state-owned enterprises.
They include China Railway 20th Bureau Group, a 100% Chinese state-owned company involved in over 600 infrastructure construction projects, who signed a strategic agreement with the Yatai New City at an April 2019 ceremony in Shanxi Province.
Another Chinese state-owned company MCC International Incorporation also signed major construction contracts with the Yatai New City. “According to an MCC press release, it received a contract to build over 70,000 square metres of hotels, as well as other basic infrastructure in Shwe Kokko.”
The special report warns about the risk of Myanmar losing its national sovereignty to the Chinese government.
The Chinese-led developments in Shwe Kokko are “designed to attract Chinese investors”, promising to “draw a large volume of Chinese into the country and to further destabilise the border areas, delaying peace far into the future, expanding the country’s unregulated armed economy and ultimately forfeiting Myanmar’s ability to secure its national sovereignty”, the special report said.
Reports about the illicit casinos and online gambling scams of Shwe Kokko’s Chinese-led developments started to surface in 2019.
In August 2020, the CCP declared it had no connection with Yatai New City.
She Zhijiang: Discarded Chinese spy or criminal mastermind? | 101 East Documentary (Al Aljazeera English)
‘They Will Definitely Kill Me’
She said the CCP wanted his extradition to China to silence him as he knew too much about the BRI, in the interview by Al Jazeera English’s 101 East Documentary.
“I was exposed to secrets about the Chinese State Security and Belt and Road projects. All these things are also related to people at the highest levels. They will definitely kill me if I’m sent back to China,” She added.
She also said he was denied bail during his incarceration in Thailand.
“In truth, they’re just trying to prevent the outside world from knowing about my situation, so they can forcibly and secretly send me to China.”
The documentary also reported that She’s handlers in the Chinese Ministry of State Security worked hard to elevate his profile.
“Between 2017 and 2019, She made multiple high profile trips to China.”
“He was appointed to key positions in trade associations affiliated with the Chinese government, spoke regularly to the Chinese press and even appeared on a cover of a magazine.”
His handlers also arranged for his visits to north Myanmar, the Karen region in Myanmar and Cambodia.
The documentary featured what appeared to show both Xi and She in a state dinner in Manila in 2018, hosted by the former President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte.
She was invited to the state dinner under the Cambodian name of Tang Kriang Kai, after the Chinese Ministry of State Security obtained Cambodian citizenship for him.
She’s lawyer, Gerard Roridguez, questioned the validity of INTERPOL’s red notice, which was issued at the request of the Chinese authorities.
Roridguez told the interviewer that the red notice was issued on 11 May 2021, but the arrest warrant request by China to Thailand was made after the red notice date on 3 August 2021.
“You cannot issue a red notice in the absence of an arrest warrant. So this ground alone should lead to the deletion of the red notice,” Roridguez added.
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