A report that 1,000 foreign nationals were rescued from a cyber scam compound in Cambodia

Risky Biz:

A report from South Korean national television KBS presented the story of a South Korean who was duped by the promise of a high-paying job to travel to Cambodia, where he was held against and forced to work on online scams at Mango Park. He was freed after his family paid a ransom, and once back home, he shared with reporters how local police had protected the scam compound when he tried to complain.

The story caused waves with South Korean officials, who pressed Cambodian counterparts to rescue the other South Koreans there, and it eventually led to a raid on Mango Park on October 24.

Myanmar authorities "handed over 31,000 telecom fraud suspects to China"

Reuters:

More than 100,000 people engage in telecom fraud each day in at least 1,000 scam centers in Myanmar

There's much more lurid detail in this article by the "United States Institute of Peace" from a few weeks ago:

Myanmar’s military has lost control of substantial sections of the country’s border with China in recent days, as forces fighting the coup regime coordinate their attacks in an unprecedented way. The immediate aim of the combined offensive was to shut down lucrative criminal activity in enclaves along the Chinese frontier that are run by military-sponsored border guard forces. Significantly, in doing so, the insurgents took advantage of China’s recent efforts to stifle scams run from the enclaves that target Chinese citizens. This could mark a turning point in the national struggle against military rule, one that would pose serious new challenges to the anti-coup leadership, the international community and Myanmar’s neighbors.

...

Since May, China has sent Myanmar’s generals a clear message: It is unacceptable to harbor forced-labor scam syndicates in Myanmar that traffic hundreds of thousands of people from around the world and steal and launder billions of dollars a month from a global population of victims. Beijing insisted that the military control its border guard forces (BGFs) hosting the scam enclaves. The junta didn’t just ignore China’s demands. It stood by as the BGF in Karen state doubled down with public accolades for its blatantly criminal activity on the Thai border, and the BGF in Kokang, fathered by coup leader Min Aung Hlaing as part of a 2009 military operation, ramped up its criminal operations right on China’s doorstep.

Over the summer, China raised the stakes by giving the Chinese media and film industry a green light to dramatize the chaos in Myanmar with popular films illuminating the fate of Chinese nationals who ended up in one of the thousands of forced-labor scam compounds now lining Myanmar’s borders. The films — “No More Bets,” “Tainted Love” and “Lost in the Stars” — have netted more than $1 billion at the box office

And the BBC posted more background: 

Under [the four families] the remote, impoverished backwater of Laukkaing was transformed into a rowdy casino hub of gaudy high-rise towers and seedy red-light districts.

...

Initially developed to take advantage of Chinese demand for gambling, which is illegal in China and many other neighbouring countries, Laukkaing's casinos evolved into a lucrative front for money laundering, trafficking and in particular for dozens of scam centres.

...

More than 100,000 foreign nationals, many of them Chinese, were estimated to have been lured to these scam centres, where they were effectively imprisoned and forced to work

...

In the early hours of the morning of 20 October, a group of scam workers was being transferred from Crouching Tiger Villa, probably in anticipation of a move against the scam centre by the Chinese police.

A number of workers, reported to be between 50 and 100, tried to escape, and the scam centre guards opened fire, killing several. Some accounts say there were undercover Chinese police officers among the dead.

That prompted a strongly-worded letter from the local government office in the neighbouring Chinese province - and the announcement of arrest warrants by the Chinese police

A tour of the wretched hives of scum and villainy in Laos

From a long BBC article published earlier this week: 

A sparsely populated, landlocked country of 7.5 million people, Laos is one of the region's poorest and least developed nations. In a bid to transform the largely agrarian society, the past decade has seen the government take on major infrastructure projects, mostly financed by historic ally and neighbour China

...

All of this has added to Laos' ballooning debt, which is now ninth highest globally as a share of its GDP, according to the International Monetary Fund. Around half of that is owed to China, and Laos is now having to borrow more from lenders in the country just to stay afloat.

"Laos is so heavily indebted to China that their negotiating position is compromised," he said. "It's having to borrow just to service the debt. That's the definition of a debt trap."

And one just published by Nikkei (same author as the BBC article):

It’s one of several Chinese-run SEZs carved out of the landlocked country’s borderlands, some of which have earned reputations for unchecked criminality. The most infamous is the Golden Triangle SEZ, a self-governing enclave built around the Kings Romans Casino on the banks of the Mekong River in northern Laos, 280 kilometers from Boten.

With the Laotian government unable, or unwilling, to control what occurs inside some of its SEZs, concern is growing about their role in facilitating transnational crimes like money laundering, drug trafficking and online scams. 

...

Boten risks joining a trend across the Mekong region of SEZs metastasizing into hubs of illegal activity. Zones in Cambodia and Myanmar have also become infamous for hosting criminal syndicates, notably online scam groups — part of what experts say is a Chinese-run industry operating across the region, responsible for the theft of billions of dollars worldwide, and sustained by trafficked and abused workers.

...

The 10,000-hectare SEZ now boasts all the trappings of a small city – taxis, public squares, malls, restaurants and coffee shops set amid high-rise apartment blocks. But beneath this veneer of normalcy, the zone’s criminal core is barely disguised. 

"Thai officials found assets belonging to adult children of Myanmar's junta leader during a raid on the Bangkok apartment of a Myanmar tycoon charged with drug trafficking and money laundering"

Reuters:

[The tycoon], who has interests in hotels, energy and mining, is a close associate of [the junta leader], who seized power from the democratically elected government in February 2021, three sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters last year. He has procured supplies for the military, the sources said. Publicly available pictures show them together at an arms fair in 2019.

...

A spokesperson for the activist group Justice for Myanmar said the discovery also indicated [the junta leader]’s family was hiding assets in Thailand and urged the Thai government to take “urgent action to prevent it from becoming a safe haven for Myanmar war criminals

Amazingly damning review of a Vietnamese luxury electric car intended for the US

From a long review and travelogue at Jalopnik:

On September 18, I joined a group of nearly a hundred journalists, influencers, hopeful VinFast customers, and employees on a chartered flight from San Francisco to Vietnam. Our group crossed the international date line and deplaned near Ha Long Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. From the airport, we took a bus and a boat to VinPearl Ha Long Bay, a resort on a private island owned by Vingroup.

I had done my research before the trip. I knew Vingroup was big. But at that moment, I realized I had vastly underestimated how powerful this company was, not to mention its insistence on flair and over-the-top opulence. 

...

Vingroup has businesses all over Vietnam. You might buy groceries at VinMart and clothing at VinPlaza. Your family vacations might be at a Disney-style VinWonder theme park, or you might book a grown-up getaway at a VinPearl resort. Your phone might be a VinSmart. Your office might be owned by Vincom Office, your house or apartment building part of VinHomes. Your child could be born at a VinMec hospital, attend VinSchool, and upon graduation, matriculate at the recently-launched VinUniversity. 

...

Our chance to drive the VF8 wouldn’t be for a few days, though. Until then, VinFast had more of Vietnam to show us. It’s hard to conceptualize the scale of VinGroup, but luckily the VinFast team was there to demonstrate for us what the brand had achieved all over Hanoi. 

...

To say I was frustrated would have been the biggest understatement east of the prime meridian. ... I’d been flown 8,000 miles to tootle around in a car that clearly wasn’t anywhere near done. I was pissed that the company had wasted my time.

Relations between Thailand and Saudi Arabia were poisoned 30 years ago by the "Blue Diamond Affair"

AP today:

Thailand’s prime minister arrived in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for the first high-level meeting since relations between the nations soured three decades ago over a sensational jewelry heist that led to a diplomatic row and string of mysterious killings.

The official visit by [the Thai Prime Minister] signals the nations are seeking to thaw ties

Wikipedia:

a Thai worker, stole [200 pounds]  of jewelry and other valuable gems from the palace of Prince Faisal bin Fahd, where he was employed as a servant.

...

[A Royal Thai Police Lieutenant-General] flew to Saudi Arabia to return the stolen items. However, the Saudi Arabian authorities discovered that the blue diamond was missing and that about half of the gems returned were fake.

In Bangkok, rumours spread in the local press that charity gala photos captured a number of government wives wearing diamond necklaces resembling those stolen from the Saudi palace

...

a Saudi Arabian businessman close to the Saudi royal family, travelled to Bangkok to investigate on his own. He went missing on 12 February 1990 and is presumed to have been murdered. Prior to his disappearance, on 4 January 1989, a Saudi diplomat was murdered in Si Lom, Bang Rak District, Bangkok. On 1 February 1990, three more Saudi diplomats were murdered

"Thailand's King Maha Vajiralongkorn has stripped his 34-year-old consort of all titles for 'disloyalty' and apparent 'ambition' . . .less than three months after she was bestowed with the honour"

AFP:

She was dismissed from the rank of Chao Khun Phra -- or noble consort -- for "disloyalty to the king" according to the command, as well as "acting against the appointment of the Queen (Suthida)... for her own ambitions".

Suthida - the former deputy head of the royal bodyguard - was made Queen in May, becoming King Vajiralongkorn's fourth wife.

The Thai monarchy is protected by a harsh defamation law, making open discussion on the institution for the public and media based inside the country all but impossible.

"An exiled Thai critic of the country’s military and monarchy said he was attacked in his home in Japan"

Reuters:

a man broke into their home last month at about 4 a.m. and sprayed the couple with a substance that burned their skin.

...

Since December, at least six exiled Thai activists who lived in neighbouring Laos have disappeared.

All of those who disappeared had spoken out against the military and the monarchy.

"Southeast Asia's meth gangs making $60 billion a year: UN"

AFP:

Southeast Asia's drug gangs are making over $60 billion a year pumping out record amounts of methamphetamine, then laundering the profits through the region's mushrooming number of casinos, a UN study showed Thursday.

...

Much of the meth is originating from the labs of remote and lawless Northern Shan State in Myanmar, which has rebooted the 'Golden Triangle' drug trade from its staple of heroin.

*Previosuly: The Chinese hunt for a clever drug lord in the Golden Triangle

"Meet . . . Miss Universe Thailand's Only Thai-Burmese Contestant"

KE:

While contestants in Miss Universe Thailand are often look kreung or half-Thai – usually half-American or half-European – they are almost never from neighboring Myanmar.

...

[She] snagged the “Golden Tiara” judges’ choice – while making judges cry and gaining viral fame – when she showed up at the audition in early June with a story of having traveled from rural Tak without any managers, sponsors, or even pageant clothes.

...

[She] did retract some comments made during the audition about feeling sorry for the Rohingya in Myanmar.

“I really want to apologize for what I said. I didn’t really understand the problem deeply. I said what I said because I really felt sorry for them. But I just want everyone to get along peacefully,” she said, visibly stressed.

Mimi faced backlash from Burmese social media for her original comments.

China is building a city in Sri Lanka

Guardian:

“It is a completely new city that will nearly double the size of Colombo right now,” says Janaka Wijesundara, a former director at Sri Lanka’s Urban Development Authority. “It is going to drastically change the entire landmass.”

Built on 665 acres (2.6 sq km) of land being reclaimed from the Indian Ocean, the city is designed to be a smaller Singapore, with its own business-friendly tax regime and regulations – and possibly a different legal system to the rest of Sri Lanka.

...

“We took inspiration from the colonial era”

...

In total, Rajapaksa borrowed about $8bn from China, much of which was spent on big-ticket infrastructure in his ancestral home district of Hambantota – which has since become a byword for the risks associated with Chinese loans. A major new airport in Hambantota receives just one flight each day. A new hospital serves as accommodation for Chinese guest workers. Attracting most scrutiny is a port that was upgraded using money borrowed from China. Earlier this year, unable to afford the repayments, Sri Lanka handed control of the port to a subsidiary of CCCC for at least 99 years.

"in Malaysia, where people of ethnic Chinese descent make up almost a quarter of the population, images of the dog have been omitted from Lunar New Year decorations and merchandise for fear of offending the country's Muslim majority"

CNN:

The omission has raised hackles in the Chinese community and caused concern among Malaysians of all faiths, who see it as yet another symptom of the country's growing Islamic conservatism, driven by the government's flirtation with hardline Islamist policies and a cultural shift by religious students returning from the Middle East.

...

Earlier this year, a hypermarket chain around the country was embroiled in controversy when it emerged that Lunar New Year t-shirts being sold there depicted 10 animals in the Chinese zodiac, but not the dog or the pig.

"Rohingya crisis: Seeing through the official story in Myanmar"

BBC:

The government's purpose in bringing us was to balance the overwhelmingly negative narrative coming from the Rohingya refugees arriving in Bangladesh, who have almost all spoken of a deliberate campaign of destruction by the Myanmar military and Rakhine mobs, and appalling human rights abuses.

...

We were then taken to a Buddhist temple, where a monk described Muslims burning down their own homes, nearby. We were given photographs catching them in the act. They looked strange.

Men in white haji caps posed as they set light to the palm-thatch roof. Women wearing what appeared to be lacy tablecloths on their heads melodramatically waved swords and machetes. Later I found that one of the women was in fact the animated Hindu woman from the school, and I saw that one of the men had also been present in among the displaced Hindu.

They had faked the photos to make it look as though Muslims were doing the burning.

"Germany accused Vietnam on Wednesday of kidnapping a former Vietnamese oil executive who was seeking asylum in Berlin and taking him home to face accusations of corruption"

"Police in Vietnam said this week that Thanh had turned himself in on Monday after a 10-month international manhunt."

"An increase in divorce petitions in one part of Indonesia is being blamed on the love of pigeon racing"

BBC:

It's the reverse situation in parts of India, where pigeon racing seems to be in a terminal decline, The Hindu newspaper reported recently.

Locals in south-eastern Andhra Pradesh say the generations-old tradition is falling foul of modern forms of entertainment, with pigeon fanciers finding it difficult to find opponents to race against.

Their version of racing birds is rather different from others, with the last pigeon to return to the coop being declared the winner, not the first.

"Myanmar is awash in new statues of martyred independence hero Aung San"

AT:

During the 1990’s, the independence hero’s image was removed from all Myanmar currency (including the older notes still in circulation such as the 15, 45 and 90 Kyat notes) along with other anti-colonial heroes such as Hsaya San.

They were replaced with the chinthe, or Buddhist temple guardian lion, which also happened to be the symbol of the newly formed Union Solidarity and Development Association

...

Aung San statue nationalism, designed to construct new statues in every state and region in Myanmar and centrally directed by the NLD through local donations, is in some areas perceived as a resurgent ‘Burmanization’ of using the general’s imagery as a unifying symbol.

"Myanmar’s troops are systematically raping Muslim women — a tactic seemingly designed to terrorize this population into fleeing the country"

PRI:

Since October, nearly 70,000 Rohingya have poured out of Myanmar into neighboring Bangladesh. Add that figure to the 300,000 to 500,000 Rohingya refugees who’ve fled purges in decades past.

...

This is 21st-century ethnic cleansing, orchestrated by Myanmar’s army. It is abetted by the government, now helmed by Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who rose to power with American backing.

The military’s prime goal, it seems, is to make life so intolerable for the Rohingya that they leave Myanmar forever.

Among Myanmar’s Buddhist officialdom, Rohingya Muslims are often portrayed as an invasive species.

One state-run newspaper suggests they’re “human fleas … loathe for their stench and for sucking our blood.” A prominent lawmaker refutes their rape claims by insisting Rohingya women are too “dirty” to arouse soldiers.

"The country’s most famous fugitive, Thaksin Shinawatra, circles the globe in his private jet"

Thailand:

For the past year and a half, by the party’s own admission, the most important political decisions in this country of 65 million people have been made from abroad, by a former prime minister who has been in self-imposed exile since 2008 to escape corruption charges. 

The country’s most famous fugitive, Thaksin Shinawatra, circles the globe in his private jet, chatting with ministers over his dozen cellphones, texting over various social media platforms and reading government documents e-mailed to him from civil servants, party officials say.