Showing posts with label #Laos #treasuresoflaos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #Laos #treasuresoflaos. Show all posts

Saturday, June 14, 2025

Boten Special Economic Zone: From Women Trafficking for Prostitution to Chinese Products with the Label "Made in Laos"



@allterrainoverlanders writes:
"Boten itself was quite shocking - we heard how it was a sin city but the extent and openness of the vice was incredible. For example at restaurant we dined at, the hardware shop we bought screws at, and the bike workshop were all adjacent to the fluorescent-lit storefronts with women waiting to be hired. Sadly, we noticed ladies looking no more than 16 prowling the streets too."

In August 2022 @aiy_anoulack showed theese pictures of Boten Jingland Hotel:




Sex workers which are no more than 16? The german newspaper taz.de reports the same:
* 16-year-old Laotian Noy has barely arrived in Boten on the border with China when her first day of work begins in the cool evening hours. Five Chinese men surround the girl. Noy, whose real name is different, wears braces and laughs shyly. I've never worked in this job before," she says, while her pimp, his wife, and one of the five Chinese men negotiate a price. "I'm a little nervous." Then everything happens very quickly, and she disappears into the darkness with her first customer—three or four times her age. *

Taz.de continues:

* In the evenings, sex workers from Laos and clients from China populate the streets. Brothels are everywhere, with young girls sitting outside. Their laughter and the jeers of drunken Chinese mingles with loud music. Stories of sexually transmitted diseases and drugs circulate behind closed doors. In the former market area where Noy has been working since today, fights sometimes break out.*

Night live scene in Boten:

Screnshot from Youtube



This Chinese Youtuber is talking about openness in Boten and he points to the night and the Lao and Vietnamese women:




This blogger shows Boten as a "mans paradise":




"Child sex trafficking ring from Việt Nam to Laos busted", vietnamnews.vn reported on December 12, 2024. Authorities have arrested and charged two individuals from northern Việt Nam for trafficking minors under the age of 16. In March 2024 two young women were recruted by promising lucrative opportunities. They were brought to Boten Special Economic Zone in Luang Namtha Province, Laos. The victims were coerced into prostitution to repay fabricated debts of VNĐ68 million (US$2,700). Investigations revealed that several women had been trafficked to Laos to exploit them for prostitution, primarily targeting Chinese clients in Boten. The Ministry of Public Security and the Lao Police conducted joint operations to arrest suspects and rescue victims in Boten, targeting properties managed by both Vietnamese and Chinese nationals.


In June 2024 we see Boten during the night:


In January 2024 this was the oulook from Jingland Hotel in Boten:





On https://en.chinaseasia.net/ we learn:

*In 2011, the Lao government awarded a concession to Yunnan Haicheng, transforming the image of the area from a crime-ridden and violent border casino area into a border town full of opportunities and safe living. Yunnan Haicheng’s project focuses on developing the city into a modern city suitable for residents, with many facilities, including shopping malls, hospitals, plans to establish industrial estates, and cultural tourism attractions that connect with nature. (...) Many areas that looked empty are now filled with Chinese people who want to do business. (...) They come from many cities and provinces in China. (...) Boten is still lively at night, especially the 'massage' shops, which are lit with purple and pink lights. At the same time, the number of workers working on construction projects has also increased. The construction buildings along the way are not abandoned, but there are always workers. Even the number of young girls working in restaurants has clearly increased.*

See this Youtube-Video by Andy Chan from August 21, 2024:




Blogster Lara Dumortier writes in May 20, 2025:

*It doesn’t feel like Laos anymore. People greet you with ‘ni hao’ and ‘xiexie’, you pay with Chinese yuan and the streetscape is dominated by tall blocks of buildings — all empty for the time being. The whole thing gives Boten a spooky feeling. (...) In the last twenty minutes of my bus ride to Boten we passed hundreds of trucks with Chinese company names. They all seem to be involved in the megalomaniac construction project that is being made here.*

And she adds:
*Companies are allowed to remain 100% owned by Chinese shareholders, there are no import duties on goods coming from the Boten Special Economic Zone, and, most interestingly, products can be labelled as ‘Made in Laos’ according to WTO (World Trade Organisation) guidelines. This means that they are exempt from import duties in many countries, because Laos is classified as a “least developed country”. It becomes clear to me why this is so attractive to China.*


But there are more illegal activities in Boten, als rfa.org writes on February 28, 2025:

*A Lao surrogate for Chinese parents gives rare insight into an illegal industry that continues to thrive. Last year, an acquaintance approached Mali* with a proposition. A wealthy Chinese couple unable to conceive was looking for a surrogate from Laos. The going rate, about $6,000 to $7,000 plus daily spending money, represented a significant sum in a country where the monthly minimum wage is $82. “My friend used to be a surrogate mother, so she asked me if I wanted to be. I wanted to earn money,” Mali told RFA in an interview. “I wanted the money to build my own house.” (...) At a clinic in Boten, which sits just across the border from China’s Yunnan province, a team of Chinese doctors deemed Mali fit for surrogacy and implanted her with a fertilized embryo. She was then moved to what she described as a “luxury hotel.”
There, alongside women from Laos, Thailand and Myanmar, Mali began her nine-month wait. (...) The team that handled Mali’s in vitro fertilization was made up of Chinese doctors and nurses, with a Lao interpreter providing support and helping arrange paperwork. Two months after the successful implantation of the embryo, Mali began traveling to China each month for checkups. (...) What she knew about the baby was what she saw in the briefest of moments before he was taken away: He was a boy, and he looked Chinese.


In November 2021 we saw this skyline of Boten:

January 2022:





Read also:
“Small Is Beautiful”: Lessons from Laos for the Study of Chinese Overseas

Resarch by Danielle Tan, published by Journal of Current Chinese Affairs 2/2012


Monday, October 7, 2024

Major Crackdown against Online Fraud in Golden Triangle SEZ in Laos - Many Buildings empty now - Online Scammers moving to other Countries

In a coordinated operation, authorities have dismantled telecommunications fraud operations within the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone (GTSEZ), arresting 771 individuals. The action was carried out on 12 August, as The Laotian Times reported. Security forces from Laos and China were involved. Among those detained were 282 women and 489 men from 15 different nationalities. The group comprised 275 Lao nationals, 231 people from Myanmar, and 106 Chinese nationals. Additionally, the detainees included 73 people from the Philippines, 29 from India and 20 from Indonesia. There were also six individuals from Mozambique, 11 from Ethiopia, and six from Uganda. The remaining detainees were from Vietnam, Tunisia, Colombia, Georgia, and Burundi, among others. The operation was led by Anousin Sackpaseuth, head of Bokeo Public Security.

Also in August Laos authorities issued an ultimatum to Golden Triangle Scam Operators to vacate the Special Economic Zone, as The Diplomat reports. According to Radio Free Asia the issue was discussed at an August 9 meeting between the governor of Bokeo province, high-ranking officials from the Lao Ministry of Public Security, and Zhao Wei, the chairman of the GTSEZ. Under the eyes of Zhao Weis security the fraud acitivites at the Special Economic Zone had been developped. The order to evacuate came a week after Lao authorities raided several call centers in the Golden Triangle SEZ, detaining and deporting 154 Vietnamese and 29 Chinese for their alleged involvement in the scams.



In late 2022, the South China Morning Post had reported that the GTSEZ contained “a number of prison-like call centers for online scams.” According to RFA a Lao official now said that “as many as 400 call centers were operating in the Golden Triangle SEZ, up from 305 a year earlier.” The scam centers have mostly targeted Chinese people, what led authorities in China to pressure their counterparts in Laos to act against these acitvitities. And according to Chinese officials the problem is even bigger: Police in Zhejiang investigated online fraud cases and traced perpetrators to GTSEZ. "In investigating Hongyu, police found numerous other fraud parks in the area, identifying 40,000+ ppl engaged in fraud in the area involving 1,029 companies", CyberScamMonitor reported on X.

The two years since the revelations in Soth China Morning post have brought many reports about foreign nationals being rescued from the GTSEZ after being trafficked there on false promises of legitimate work, and about raids with participation of Chiense officials. In November 2023, Lao authorities arrested more than 430 Chinese nationals who appeared to be involved in fraudulent call center operations in the SEZ, and handed them over to their Chinese counterparts for deportation. In January, Laos repatriated 268 Chinese citizens suspected of scamming while living or working at the SEZ.

When the deadline this august hat passed, Lao authorities raided more Golden Triangle scam centers, as RFA reports, arresting 60 Lao and Chinese nationals



How a Vietnamese man escaped from a Scam gang operating in a highrise building in GTSEZ.

What happens now at the Golden Triangle Special Econmic Zone? The owner of a guesthouse said to RFA: “The SEZ will be empty – the hotels, guesthouses and restaurants will have no customers.” Zhao Weis Kings Romans Casino remained open. But nearby buildings appeares to be empty, according to a Lao worker. “It looks very quiet these days, since the beginning of the operation,” he said. “The police force has checked all the buildings.”

And where did the online fraudsters go? Some fled to Chiang Rai, a Thai border security source said according to Bangkok Post. Many online scam gangs also moved their base to Myanmar and Cambodia, the source added. And Jason Tower, Myanmar Country Director at United States Institute of Peace, states on X, that the criminal kingpins were tipped off in advance, many moving to Myawaddy in Myanmar.

Read also:
Inside Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone: A Chinese Zone in Laos, where Americans are not allowed in
Will the Chinese Scam Networks relocate their Operations from Myanmar to Laos?
Macao at Mekong: How Chinese money flows into the Golden Triangle