China executed four people found guilty of causing the deaths of six Chinese citizens and running scam and gambling operations out of Myanmar worth more than $4 billion, authorities said on Monday (February 2, 2026).

The Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court in south China announced the executions in a statement on Monday (February 2) morning, though it was not clear when they had been carried out.

The executions of 11 other people accused of running scam centres in Myanmar were announced last week.

The Shenzhen court had sentenced five people, including members of the notorious Bai family, accused of running a network of scam centres and casinos, to death in November.

One of the defendants, group leader Bai Suocheng, died of illness after his conviction, the court said.

The group had established industrial parks in Myanmar’s Kokang region bordering China, from where they were accused of running gambling and telecom scam operations involving kidnappings, extortion, forced prostitution and drug manufacturing and trafficking.

They defrauded victims of more than 29 billion yuan ($4.2 billion) and caused the death of six Chinese citizens and injuries to others, the court said.

Their crimes “were exceptionally heinous, with particularly serious circumstances and consequences, posing a tremendous threat to society,” the court’s statement read.

The defendants had initially appealed their verdict, but the Guangdong Provincial High People’s Court dismissed their appeals, it added.

The executions are part of a broader crackdown by Beijing on scam operations in Southeast Asia, where scam parks have become an industrial-scale business, especially in Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos. A mix of trafficked and willing labourers has carried out digital scams on victims around the world, including thousands of Chinese citizens.

Authorities in the region face growing international pressure from China, the United States and other nations to address the proliferation of crime.

China executed 11 people linked to Myanmar criminal gangs, including “key members” of telecom scam operations, state media reported on Thursday (January 29, 2026), as Beijing toughens its response to the sprawling, transnational industry.

Fraud compounds where scammers lure internet users into fake romantic relationships and cryptocurrency investments have flourished across Southeast Asia, including in the lawless borderlands of Myanmar.

Initially largely targeting Chinese speakers, the criminal groups behind the compounds have expanded operations into multiple languages to steal from victims around the world.

Also Read | Chinese financial firm’s former top official executed in $157 million corruption case

Those conducting the scams are sometimes willing con artists, and other times trafficked foreign nationals forced to work.

In recent years, Beijing has stepped up cooperation with regional governments to crack down on the compounds, and thousands of people have been repatriated to face trial in China’s opaque justice system.

The 11 people executed on Thursday (January 29) were sentenced to death in September by a court in the eastern Chinese city of Wenzhou, Xinhua said, adding that the court also carried out the executions.

Crimes of those executed included “intentional homicide, intentional injury, unlawful detention, fraud and casino establishment”, Xinhua said.

The death sentences were approved by the Supreme People’s Court in Beijing, which found that the evidence produced of crimes committed since 2015 was “conclusive and sufficient”, the report said.

Among the executed were members of the “Ming family criminal group”, whose activities had contributed to the deaths of 14 Chinese citizens and injuries to “many others”.

“The criminals’ close relatives were allowed to meet with them before the execution,” Xinhua added.

Also Read | Why are China’s officials being expelled? | Explained

Fraud operations centred in Myanmar’s border regions have extracted billions of dollars from around the world through phone and internet scams.

Experts say most of the centres are run by Chinese-led crime syndicates working with Myanmar militias.

The fraud activities and crackdowns by Beijing are closely followed in China.

The September rulings that resulted in Thursday’s (January 29) executions also included death sentences with two-year reprieves to five other individuals.

Another 23 suspects were given prison sentences ranging from five years to life.

In November, Chinese authorities sentenced five people to death for their involvement in scam operations in Myanmar’s Kokang region.

Their crimes had led to the deaths of six Chinese nationals, according to state media reports.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime warned in April that the cyberscam industry was spreading across the world, including to South America, Africa, the Middle East, Europe and some Pacific Islands.

The UN has estimated that hundreds of thousands of people are working in scam centres globally.