A 38-year-old man from Mianzhu, Sichuan Province, was kidnapped after traveling to Thailand to collect a business payment and later trafficked to a cyber-fraud compound in Myanmar, according to mainland Chinese media reports.
Liu Xiuhong was held captive for 79 days and said he was repeatedly beaten for refusing to scam victims and memorize fraud scripts. Because his captors considered him relatively old and therefore more difficult to sell, he was eventually included in a deal as a “free gift.”
According to Sina Finance, Liu flew from Guangzhou to Bangkok on June 9 to settle a business payment. He soon lost contact with his family.
Liu was released on Aug. 26 and returned to China on Sept. 4.
Taken at gunpoint into Myanmar
Liu said he was picked up shortly after arriving in Thailand. During a transfer between vehicles, he was held at gunpoint, his phone was confiscated, and he was blindfolded and gagged.
He was then taken across a river into Myanmar at gunpoint and moved between several locations he described as “military stations” and cyber-fraud compounds.
While in captivity, Liu helped treat one of the compound’s “supervisors,” who advised him to tell his captors that he had medical skills but did not know how to use computers, which could reduce the beatings.
The supervisor also told Liu that if he could not be sold within a month or two, his captors would likely contact his family and demand a ransom.
Liu was eventually sold to a cyber-fraud compound as part of what he described as a “buy one, get one free” deal.
He said he was repeatedly beaten because he refused to participate in scams and did not want to memorize a fraud script that ran more than 300 pages.
However, Liu had studied traditional Chinese medicine and was able to prepare medicines and dress wounds, which he said reduced the frequency of the beatings.
According to Liu, he later examined the compound boss and told him he believed the man had emphysema. Afterward, Liu was allowed to leave the small, dark room where he had been confined.
Liu’s sister traveled alone to Bangkok on June 14, five days after he disappeared.
She sought assistance from Thai police, the Chinese Embassy in Thailand, border police and other border-security authorities.
Following negotiations involving several parties and the payment of a ransom, Liu was released on Aug. 26 at the Mae Sot checkpoint along the Thai-Myanmar border.
Even after returning to China, Liu reportedly continued to suffer frequent nightmares from his ordeal.
Other Chinese nationals targeted
Liu’s case is one of several publicly reported incidents involving Chinese nationals who traveled to Thailand before allegedly being trafficked into Myanmar.
According to Beijing News, Wang Ran, a 24-year-old woman from Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, who had been working as a livestream e-commerce host in Nanjing, flew to Bangkok on Sept. 12.
She was allegedly lured into Myanmar and kidnapped. Her cousin said the kidnappers demanded 600,000 yuan (about US$84,000) from the family and threatened to sell her to a scam compound if the ransom was not paid.
Her family reported the case to police, but Wang remained missing at the time of the report.
In another case, Jiemian News reported that a 19-year-old university student from Guangdong, identified as Xiaoyang, traveled to Thailand on April 10 to attend the Songkran Festival.
He was allegedly lured to the San Pyaung Taung compound in Myanmar. His family reportedly paid more than 200,000 yuan (about US$28,000) in ransom, but the compound still refused to release him.
A Chinese man named Yang Lei had escaped from the same compound about a month earlier. Yang later described the site as “KK Park 2.0” and said he had barely escaped with his life.
Sichuan Legal News reported another case involving Wang Bo, a young man from Malkang City in Sichuan’s Aba Prefecture.
Wang traveled to Thailand to study in 2025 and was allegedly deceived through an online currency-exchange offer. He entered a vehicle arranged by the perpetrators and said he lost consciousness after drinking water given to him by the driver.
When Wang awoke, he was handcuffed and had already been transported across the Thai-Myanmar border. He was sold to a cyber-fraud compound in Myawaddy and held for three months.
His family eventually paid a private ransom of 150,000 yuan (about US$21,000), allowing him to return to China.
One of the most widely reported cases involved Chinese actor Wang Xing.
In January 2025, Wang responded to a casting notice posted in a WeChat group advertising work in Thailand. After flying to Bangkok, he and several other crew members were picked up and subsequently transported to a cyber-fraud compound in Myanmar.
The case attracted widespread attention in China and abroad. Wang and the others were eventually rescued and returned safely to China.
Questions over who is behind Myanmar scam compounds
Lin Bing-you, chairman of the Taiwan Tactical Research and Development Association, has traveled to Myanmar to document cyber-fraud compounds firsthand.
In a Facebook post on Dec. 25, 2025, Lin alleged that the Chinese Communist Party was ultimately behind the broader scam industry.
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