She Zhijiang, Architect of Myanmar’s Casino Scam City Extradited to China

• Chinese kingpin’s extradition highlights vast transnational scam operations
• Illegal gambling hubs linked to trafficking and forced labor networks
• Beijing intensifies crackdown targeting overseas criminal fraud syndicates

Thai authorities have extradited Chinese Cambodian gambling kingpin She Zhijiang to China to face charges of running illegal online gaming and scam operations in Myanmar.

She chairs the Hong Kong–registered Yatai International Holdings Group, whose subsidiary is behind the development of Yatai New City – also known as Shwe Kokko – in Myanmar’s loosely governed Kayin (Karen) State.

Originally promoted as a Singapore-style high-tech hub, the project was envisioned as a “smart city” blending “science and technology, gambling and entertainment, tourism, culture, and agriculture,” according to planning documents.

In practice, however, it has become widely known as a center for casinos, illegal online gambling, scam operations, and human trafficking, according to multiple reports.

An estimated 120K people in Myanmar have been trafficked by criminal gangs and forced to work in scam centers and other online operations like She’s, according to a UN report published in November 2023.

Who is She?

She, also known as She Kailun, She Lunkai, Dylan She, and Tang Kriang Kai, was convicted in absentia in 2014 by a Chinese court for operating an illegal lottery business from the Philippines that targeted Chinese citizens. The business generated profits of $298 million, according to Chinese prosecutors.

He moved his operations to Cambodia, and later Myanmar where he built Yatai.

The city is one of the world’s weirdest: a neon boomtown in a conflict zone dominated by ethnic insurgents who profess nominal loyalty to the military junta while maintaining effective autonomy.

She was arrested in Thailand in 2022 on an Interpol red notice at the behest of the Chinese government.

Chinese Spy Claim

While fighting extradition, he claimed via his lawyer that he was confined to a wheelchair because of “inhumane” treatment by his Thai captors.

He may be right. Beijing has begun to take a very dim view of those who profit from overseas online gambling, human trafficking, and scam centers that prey on Chinese citizens.

In the last two month alone, 16 people have been sentenced to death after being convicted of those crimes.