A 31-year-old Chinese actor was recently rescued from a scam centre in Myanmar after he went missing in Thailand during his visit, prompting his girlfriend to seek help on social media. According to the BBC, Wang Xing had been missing for two days before his girlfriend turned to social media for help. “We have no choice but to borrow the power of the internet to amplify our voices,” she wrote on Chinese social media platform Weibo on January 5. Her post quickly went viral and Mr Wang gained nationwide attention, promoting government intervention. On January 7, the 31-year-old actor was finally rescued from a scam centre in Myanmar.
A day after, Mr Wang made his first appearance alongside Thailand Police. According to the BBC, the actor revealed that he had been lured into the facility under the pretence of a lucrative job opportunity. He said that he had flown to Bangkok for an acting job offered to him on WeChat. He realised he was kidnapped after he crossed a river into Myanmar and noticed the rudimentary living conditions, he told the cops.
He also told the Thai police that there were around 50 Chinese nationals held in the same place as him alone. Notably, these centres, reportedly run by organised criminal networks, coerce victims into conducting online scams and other fraudulent operations.
The actor’s swift yet mysterious rescue has now led to questions about the fate of those who remain trapped inside the scam centre. “We are desperate to know if the remaining Chinese nationals (who were) with him have been rescued,” one social media user wrote on Weibo. “Other people’s lives are also lives,” remarked another.
Speaking to the police, Mr Wang revealed that he was invited to act in a film in Thailand by someone who posed as the associate director of the production. He stated that he had been on a shoot in Thailand around 2018 and did not suspect this was any different.
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He then disappeared on January 3 in Mae Sot, a Thai border town notorious for trafficking activities. His girlfriend wrote on Weibo that she and his brother tried to tack the actor down and get the police involved, however, “there had been little results”.
But as Mr Wang’s girlfriend’s post gained nationwide attention, a case was finally registered in China and the embassy in Thailand also said that they had attached great importance to the case. The next day, Thai and Chinese officials announced that the 31-year-old had been rescued.
Details of the rescue have been sparse. Officials have not disclosed the exact location of the scam centre. However, Mr Wang told the police that after reaching Bangkok, he was picked up in a car and taken to Myanmar, where his head was shaved and he was forced to undergo training on how to scam people on phone calls. He also claimed that at the scam centre, he could not eat much food and did not have time to use the toilet.
Mr Wang’s disappearance has prompted officials to look into other similar cases. Thai police are reportedly investigating the case of another Chinese model who disappeared at the Thai-Myanmar border after he was promised work in Thailand.
The China Federation of Radio and Television Association also said in a statement Tuesday that “many actors” have gone abroad on fake promises of film shoots, and as a result suffered “serious damage to their personal and financial security”. “We are very concerned about this,” the statement said.
