SPECIAL REPORT
an excelent read;


The three megacities under development in Karen State are backed by complex Chinese busi-ness networks with ties to triads, convicted criminals, and involvement in illegal gambling oper-ations in Cambodia. They are referred to as “spinach” cities by Chinese involved in promoting illegal online gambling because the word spinach in Chinese (bocai, 菠菜) is a homophone for gambling (bocai, 博彩).4 Advertisements for employment or investment opportunities in these cities can be found on the Chinese website bcquan.com, or “spinach circle,” used by illegal Chinese gamers to share information on this vast illicit industry.5

Before examining the Karen State projects in greater detail, it is necessary to look at policy developments over the past decade elsewhere in Southeast Asia to see what drew these in-vestors to Myanmar.

We begin in Sihanoukville, Cambodia. Before 2017, Sihanoukville was a popular tourist des-tination for Western visitors to Cambodia. It was known for its quiet beaches and inexpensive cafes, but also demonstrated signs of vulnerability to criminal interests given the presence of Russian fugitives and several small casinos.9 While Cambodia has permitted the legal operation of these casinos since the mid-1990s, it was only in 2017 when Chinese real estate developers descended upon Sihanoukville to construct a precursor of the spinach cities. With their arriv-al, Sihanoukville’s real estate sector took off. According to one report, construction began in Sihanoukville in 2018 on more than twenty large-scale buildings, nearly all of them backed by Chinese investors.10 By late 2018, the Chinese population in Sihanoukville had grown exponen-tially, reaching roughly 30 percent of its residents, according to the governor.11

What brought so many Chinese to Sihanoukville, and why did the trend suddenly accelerate in late 2017? The answers lie in the Philippines in 2016, when Chinese and Filipino law enforce-ment began shutting down a series of illegal online casinos across the country and arresting thousands of the Chinese nationals involved in them.12 The crackdown led the Chinese oper-ators in early 2017 to flee en masse to Sihanoukville, where gambling was much more lightly regulated. According to World Gaming Information, a Chinese language information clearing-house for online gaming, between 2010 and 2019 overseas Chinese operating in the industry ping-ponged between the Philippines and Cambodia as they experienced intermittent periods of more or less relaxed casino regulation.13

From late 2017 until the middle of 2019, Cambodia essentially did nothing to regulate gambling in Sihanoukville and even licensed it, while China constantly pressured the Philippines to crack down on the business. Industry insiders say that many casinos host both in-person and online gambling, with the latter being the primary source of revenue. While both are labor intensive, online operations re-quire hundreds, sometimes thousands of workers to operate call centers to track down players. These workers are necessarily Chinese, as their client base is back in China. An online casino may employ anywhere from one hundred to four hundred dealers, security staff, technicians, and information technology support staff.

The Chinese gambling romance with Sihanoukville faded in 2019 after a series of violent crimes were committed by Chinese gangs arriving in the beachside town to provide security to the casinos and enforce payment from indebted players. Some players carried gambling debts from casinos themselves while others owed Chinese junket operators—middlemen who recruit players from China—generally paying for their trips and loaning them uS dollars for gambling. In May 2019, a disturbing video of a Chinese gang leader, flanked by shirtless and tattooed thugs, drew attention in both China and Cambodia, as he warned other groups to keep away and de-clared that his gang alone would “decide if Sihanoukville is stable.”

Cambodian Prime Minister HE issued a directive banning online gambling, noting that “some foreign criminals have taken refuge in the form of this gambling to cheat and extort money from victims, do-mestic and abroad, which affect the security, public order and social order.”15 HE was concerned in particular by the growing number of Chinese operating fraudulent online casinos, which featured rigged games to defraud customers, or what are sometimes called “pig slaughter-houses” in Chinese—fake casinos that entice customers to make large deposits into a gaming account and then shut down entirely, stealing the funds.16Given the depth of the Chinese penetration, the involvement of Chinese gangs, and the diffi-culty communicating with members of the Chinese community in Sihanoukville, the Cambodian police found the task of implementing HE’s order nearly impossible.

In the end, they had little choice but to rely on Chinese law enforcement to help restore order. In late 2018, almost a year before HE’s order, Cambodia and China reached a formal agreement to establish a law enforcement partnership. The two countries opened a joint op-erations center in Phnom Penh in late September 2019, with ninety Chinese police deployed to Cambodia to assist in its implementation. Sihanoukville became the test case for the joint enforcement program, and the day after its inauguration Chinese police arrested 116 Chinese criminals, who were immediately flown back to China for prosecution.17 In October, the center set up a hotline, staffed continuously, and implored the Chinese community to provide infor-mation about anyone operating online gambling or other illegal activities in Sihanoukville. The request for tips sparked further pandemonium in Sihanoukville’s Chinese community, causing many of those still involved in the industry to make a rapid exit. By one account, over ten thou-sand Chinese fled Sihanoukville following issuance of HE’s ban.18

According to records of the Myanmar Directorate of Investment and Company Administration, yatai IHG’s local subsidiary, the Myanmar yatai International Holding Group, was registered originally to a Cambodian national named Tang Kriang Kai, who is also listed on the Myanmar Given the depth of the Chinese penetration, the involvement of Chinese gangs, and the difficulty communicating with members of the Chinese community in Sihanoukville, the Cambodian police . . . had little choice but to rely on Chinese law enforcement to help restore order.

Cambodian citizenship records indicate that Tang obtained Cambodian citizenship in January 2017, changing his name from She Zhijiang to Tang Kriang Kai (although neither of those names match the names he uses in public—She Lunkai, Tang Lunkai, and Dylan She).21The reason for She Zhijiang’s secrecy is likely related to the illicit nature of his previous business operations. According to an ethnic Chinese Cambodian interviewed for this study, She Zhijiang began developing his business in Cambodia in 2015, initially in what is known as third-party pay—fronting funds for bets made in Cambodian casinos for Chinese who would otherwise have difficulty bringing money into the country.

She Zhijiang also has a stake in a no-torious coastal development project in Koh Kong, where several hundred acres of Cambodian beachfront property have been grabbed from local communities without adequate compensa-tion.22 Before Karen State, She Zhijiang reportedly spent over a decade in the Philippines and Cambodia “developing video games” and acquiring ownership of one of the largest spa and entertainment centers in Manila.23 She Zhijiang also established a blockchain research associa-tion in the Philippines, used to host events across the region.

https://www.usip.org/sites/default/file ... rks-sr.pdf

Bus-ness, oper-ations, info-mation?!

What idiot wrote this?

whatwat wrote: ↑Fri Jul 31, 2020 8:52 pm Bus-ness, oper-ations, info-mation?!

What idiot wrote this?

someone much more attuned than you.

So you read the above and thats all you got out of it??

phuketrichard wrote: ↑Sat Aug 01, 2020 10:32 am

whatwat wrote: ↑Fri Jul 31, 2020 8:52 pm Bus-ness, oper-ations, info-mation?!

What idiot wrote this?

someone much more attuned than you.

So you read the above and thats all you got out of it??

He or she has one job to do, unless they moonlight as a taxi driver by day, and if they can’t get the basics correct then it brings their whole credibility into question. In my personal opinion. (It’s ok if you’re some old bloke on a chat forum. Who cares what your spelling and grammar are like. Right. Right?)

And in any case it’s not exactly breaking news is it. It’s been reported 100s of times already. We get it - Chinese bad, Cambodians good, expats sad etc etc.

Unlike they (zeitgeist term I’ll have you know) I have weekly reports from SHV and make regular trips and have friends who businesses there and was kicked out and had land stolen off me and have family (Cambodian) who’ve lost home and jobs. I think I’m “attuned” to the situation. Thanks.

whatwat wrote: ↑Fri Jul 31, 2020 8:52 pm Bus-ness, oper-ations, info-mation?!

What idiot wrote this?

Obviously you didn't check the link.

Jason Tower and Priscilla Clapp from the United States Institute of Peace

Jason Tower

Jason Tower joined USIP in late 2019 as the country director for the Burma program based in Yangon.

Jason completed his undergraduate work in economics and international studies at St. Louis University, and his graduate studies in political science and Asian studies at the University of Michigan. He later earned a graduate certificate in company-community mediation from the Graduate School of Business at Cape Town University. He has been named a Fulbright research student, a Fulbright-Hays scholar, and a Harvard-Yenching fellow.

Prior to USIP, Jason served in senior positions with several other peacebuilding organizations in China and Southeast Asia. From 2009 to 2017, Jason worked to establish the Beijing office of the American Friends Service Committee and initiated programming across north and southeast Asia on the impacts of cross-border investments on conflict dynamics

Priscilla Clapp

Ms. Priscilla Clapp is currently a senior advisor to the U.S. Institute of Peace and the Asia Society. She is a retired Minister-Counselor in the U.S. Foreign Service.

During her 30-year career with the U.S. Government, Ms. Clapp served as chief of mission and permanent charge d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Burma (1999-2002), deputy chief of mission in the U.S. Embassy in South Africa (1993-96), principal deputy assistant secretary of state for Refugee Programs (1989-1993), deputy political counselor in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow (1986-88), and chief of political-military affairs in the U.S. Embassy in Japan (1981-85). She also worked on the State Department's Policy Planning Staff, in the East Asian, Political Military and International Organizations bureaus, and with the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency.

I’m writing this on a type-writer. See. Wow.

So non live(d) or worked in Cambodia.
As I said. It’s old news regurgitated in another (illiterate) format.

Post something new please.

whatwat wrote: ↑Sat Aug 01, 2020 1:08 pm I’m writing this on a type-writer. See. Wow.

So non live(d) or worked in Cambodia.
As I said. It’s old news regurgitated in another (illiterate) format.

Post something new please.

The article is about: Myanmar’s Casino Cities: The Role of China and Transnational Criminal Networks not about Cambodia. Cambodia, like the Philippines is mentioned to contextualize the article.

I would think that the authors knowledge of Myanmar and Chinese actions in the region would be more relevant as that is what the article is about.
"Jason Tower joined USIP in late 2019 as the country director for the Burma program based in Yangon."
"Jason also worked extensively in Burma on peace and security issues. From 2018 to 2019, Jason served as Southeast Asia program manager for the PeaceNexus Foundation, managing a portfolio of grants and partnerships in China, Burma, and Cambodia".
"Jason is fluent in Mandarin and has published widely on China’s involvement in peace and security issues, with recent publications on the Belt and Road Initiative and a report based on years of experience working with Chinese corporate stakeholders." Seems like a good record to write about the Chinese involvement in Myanmar to me.

What issue do you have with the format of the report, unless of course you're just trolling

This report examines the construction of unregulated, gambling-based cities in Myanmar by ethnic Chinese investors in partnership with local armed groups. It traces the transnational networks supporting this illicit activity, and raises serious questions regarding the role of the Chinese government in the projects. Based on online materials in Chinese, media reports, interviews, and public records, the report explores how the intrusion of organized crime could fuel further conflict in the country.

"This study will detail the rise of the Karen State megacities and the Chinese who have in-vested in them; their provenance in Cambodia, the Philippines, and Malaysia; their relationship to local armed groups and the Myanmar military (known as the Tatmadaw); and the question of Beijing’s relationship to the investments. It will explore the implications of these investments vis-à-vis Myanmar’s national interests, sovereignty, and the country’s search for peace and sustain-able development; the risk that China’s BRI will become increasingly embroiled in Myanmar’s internal conflicts; and the consequences for the united States, which has a vested interest in supporting peace, democracy, and good governance in Myanmar."

Some other interesting reports here: https://www.usip.org/people/jason-tower

A propagandist will soon pop in and educate us about what a boon these enterprises are for the local working people; Just as they have been in Sihanoukville.