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


Sunday, May 4, 2025

How Vang Pao and Hmong People were engaged in the Secret War of the CIA in Laos

Tracking a warlord and drug baron: The CIA's cruel killer in its Secret War in Laos. Documentary by Swiss entrepreneur living in Laos:




Saturday, December 14, 2024

Is Laos really counteracting its Online Scam Industry?

Full of online fraud activities: The Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone at Mekong river in the north of Laos

David Hutt, a research fellow at the Central European Institute of Asian Studies (CEIAS), analyzes on rfa.org, what happened lately in the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone in the north of Laos. Since August hundreds of people have been arrested due to their involvement in online fraud activities. Hutt writes that in Cambodia and Myanmar scamming tends to be geographically dispersed with compounds across the country and controlled by different syndicates. In Laos the industry was, until very recently, almost entirely centered in the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone, an autonomous area long notorious for organized crime and run by the Chinese casino mogul Zhao Wei and his Kings Roman Group, which has close ties to organized crime.

David Hutt argues, that Zhao Wei and his associates had established laundering trails to China and Myanmar years earlier, it meant that, unlike in Cambodia, most of the revenue from the scam industry immediately left Laos. This limited the amount of money needing to be recycled or laundered through local conglomerates, thus reducing the sums needed to corrupt Laotian officials, politicians, and tycoons. Hutt thinks that officials, especially those outside Bokeo province where the SEZ is located, weren’t contaminated by scam money, so they were not interested in protecting the racket. This makes it easier to conteract the scam industry. In May, the Lao government reshuffled the leadership of Bokeo province, according to Hutt ostensibly to clean out officials who had been bought off.

Then there is the Chinese Communist Party, which wants to crack down on the scam industry in Southeast Asia after many Chinese people have been victims of fraud activities. The Laotian government, which relies almost entirely on Chinese investment for economic growth and on Chinese debt, "cannot say no when Beijing orders it to move on the scammers", Hutt comments. The raids on the Golden Triangle SEZ came just weeks after Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi visited Vientiane.

But Hutt thinks, that the Laotian government wants to push Zhao Wei and his associates enough for some smaller operators to flee the country, but not enough that the Golden Triangle SEZ collapses. Hutt points to the fact, that in Laos the online scam sector could be worth as much as the equivalent of 40 percent of the formal economy (according to a United States Institute of Peace report earlier this year). It is estimated that criminal gangs could be holding as many as 85,000 workers in slave-like conditions in compounds in Laos.


Thursday, May 30, 2024

#treasuresoflaos: Your Guide for Laos

#treasuresoflaos is a blog guide for individual travellers to the well known and hidden treasures of Laos with Google Maps. You discover Laos cities, countries and rivers through the eyes of people, who have been there. Learn about the growing influence of China in Laos - and the activities of the organized crime.


#treasuresoflaos: Your Guide to the Treasures of Vientiane

See the locations on Vientiane Google Map by #treasuresoflaos


. Not to miss, when your are in Vientiane

. Hotels and Guesthouses in Vientiane with reviews of people, who have been there

. Where to eat, when you are in Vientiane

. Nightlife in Vientiane

. Relax in Vientiane: Massage and Spas

. Eco-Lodges near Vientiane

. Tours from Vientiane: Nam Ngum Lake

. Tours from Vientiane: Go tubing or organic farming in Vang Vieng

. Tours from Vientiane: Join the nature at Phu Khao Khouay National Park

. Sanjiang Market: Chinas growing
influence in Vientiane




#treasuresoflaos: Your Guide to the South of Laos - Pakse, Champasak, Mekong and the 4000 islands



. Pakse - the southern door to Laos
See the locations on Pakse and Champasak Google Map by #treasuresoflaos

. Bolaven Plateau: Waterfalls everywhere -
and a Zip-Line system in the Jungle

See the locations on Bolevean Plateau Google Map
. Lao Power for Thailand: New dams on Bolaven Plateau affect the Dong Hua Sao National Biodiversity Conservation Area

. Trekking around Kiet Ngong and Phapho wetlands - in Xe Pian National Protected Area
See the locations on Xe Pian National Protected Area and Kiet Ngong Wetlands Google Map by #treasuresoflaos

. Champasak, Vat Phou and Lingaparvata
See the locations on Champasak and Vat Phou Google Map by treasuresoflaos
. Vat Phou in Champasak - the site and its history


. Si Phan Don ສີ່​ພັນ​ດອນ - 4000 islands in the Mekong
See the locations on Si Phan Don Google Map by #treasuresoflaos
. 4000 Islands in Mekong: From laid back Area to international Hotspot for Tourists




#treasuresoflaos: Your Guide for the Laos-China-Railway


From Kunming to Vientiane: The Crossborder Service of Lao-China-Railway has started
See stations and tunnels of China Laos Railway on Google Map by #treasuresoflaos

China-Laos Railway: Timetable, Tickets and Rules

History of Chinas Railway for Laos:
Track laying has arrived at Luang Prabang at the end of 2020


History of Chinas Railway for Laos: Fast Railway Building between Yuxi and Mohan in Yunnan

History: Chinese money brings big change: A railway from the North of Laos to Vientiane and Thailand



#treasuresoflaos: Your Guide for Luang Prabang and around

See the locations on Luang Prabang Google Map
. The Jewel at the Mekong
. Between heaven and earth: The Temples in Luang Prabang
. Hotels and Guesthouses in Luang Prabang
. Climb Mount Phousi and have an amazing view
. Markets in Luang Prabang
. Pha Tad Ke: A Dutchman's Faszination with Ethno-Botanism in Luang Prabang
. From Silk to Art: Shops and Galleries in Luang Prabang
. Lick your Lips in Luang Prabang: From Laotian to French Cuisine
. Puang Champa: A house for the traditional royal arts
. Dinner Cruise on Mekong
. Bibliophiles in Luang Prabang
. The Traditional Arts and Ethnology Centre
. Tours from Luang Prabang

. Another controversial Mekong Dam in Luang Prabang raises Fears
. Construction for Controversial Mekong Dam near Luang Prabang has progressed



#treasuresoflaos: Your Guide for the North of Laos

. Online Scam: How the Chinese Police raided the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone in Laos
See the locations on Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone 金三角经济特区 Google map by #treasuresoflaos
. Bokeo International Airport: For two millions of Passengers - but only one Flight daily until now
. 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

. Discover Luang Namtha ຫລວງນໍ້າທາ
See the locations on Discover Luang Namtha ຫລວງນໍ້າທາ Google Map



#treasuresoflaos: Laos - Mekong rivers as Power Battery of Southeast Asia


This guide is to be continued soon!

Monday, March 11, 2024

Online Scam: How the Chinese Police raided the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone in Laos

See the locations on Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone 金三角经济特区 Google map

Once upon a time there was just a casino with a golden crown, that could be seen from Thailand across the Mekong river in Laos (picture from March 2017):



Today there is a city full of highrise buildings with signs in Chinese (video taken in 2023):



In the least populous province Bokoeo the tallest highrise building of Laos will soon dominate the bank of Mekong river: The new hotel will count 32 floors and be 146 meters high. And it is just one of several highrise complexes, which are growing along the river: Laos Xinyue City Center (鑫越城市中心项目) is the name of this project, constructed by Shanghai Baoye as general contractor. The residential section of the project is composed of 4 high-rise buildings, which are 92 to 97 meters high.

The project of Powerchina is located in the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone (金三角经济特区) in Tonpheung. It is just the newest example of a construction boom, that has transformed the formerly rural area in the North of Laos, where the borders of Laos, Thailand and Myanmar meet, into a city. For millions of US-Dollars Bokeo International airport (博胶国际机场) and Golden Dragon Mountain International Golf Resort (金龙山国际高尔夫度假村) have been added lately.

The mastermind behind this development is Zhao Wei (趙偉, 70), a native of China's Heilongjiang province, now Chairman of the administration of the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone. The businessman initiated this zone in 2007 having won a 99-year lease covering a vast area of 3,000 hectares from the Lao government. Before setting up in Laos Zhao Wei was a timber merchant and operated casinos in Macao and in Mong La, a town on the border between China's Yunnan province and a rebel-controlled area in Myanmar. The casino in Mong La operated under the name Blue Shield Entertainment mainly for customers from China, where gambling is prohibited. It got frequented by many Chinese officials, what led China to pressure Zhao Wei for closing this operation. Therefore he transfered his activities to Laos, where he invested under the name of Golden Kapok Group 金木棉集团 and built the Blue Shield Casino (蓝盾娱乐), also known als Kings Romans Casino.


The Kapok Star Hotel

Around this casino high rise buildings went up in the last years. The most prominent one is Kapok Star Hotel (木棉之星酒店), illuminated every night in spectacular colours. There are more hotels, shops and entertainment venues. Meanwhile everything in this special econonomic zone in Laos is Chinese: People spend yuan, speak Mandarin, vehicle license plate numbers are written in Chinese, signboards are written in Chinese and people may travel there visa-free from China. And if you look on Facebook and Instagram many young asian woman are presenting themselves: Prostitution and drugs are widespread in the special economic zone - although forbidden in Laos. And last year it got more and more obvious, that the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone has become a hotspot for online fraud and human trafficking. Many people, who were lured with high-paying job offers, told the police and the media in China, Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea and other countries, how they were forced to work as online fraudsters, cheating internet users in many Asian countries and even were tortured, when they did not reach the fraud goals. In November 2023 the government of South Korea imposed a travel ban to the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone to prevent citizens from becoming victims of fraud crime.


Enormous building activites along Mekong river

The facebook accounts of the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone did not talk about online fraud for a long time. And Zhao Wei's own security force seemed not to intervene against the illegal activities. Lao officials - for example the Prime Minister - frequently visited the zone and seemed to be backing everything, what happened there. This changed dramatically at the end of the year 2023 and the beginning of the year 2024. Chinese law enforcement officers of the Ministry of Public Security travelled to Laos. Together with Lao police forces they arrested 462 online fraud suspects in December and 154 people on January 21. Later followed more raids and another 114 suspects were caught. And on February 28 Chinese media reported: "268 criminal suspects who committed cross-border telecommunications network fraud were handed over to us." The handover took place in January at Bokeo international airport. The Lao Ministry of Public Security confirmed to Radio Free Asia that the suspects were arrested in the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone.



The Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone was not the only target of Chinas Ministry of Public Security. Similar operations were conducted in Myanmar, Cambodia, The Philippines and the United Arab Emirates. China is pushing hard against the scammers. In 2023, Chinese courts dealt with 31,000 telecom fraud cases (up 48%), sentenced 64,000 (up 39%). Incidence of cases of assisting online criminal activities also increased significantly, as the Vice President of Supreme People’s Court said.

And what is Casino tycoon Zhao Wei doing now? On February 26 he smiled broadly at his Kapok Star Hotel, where the Lao Central Committee held a conference on "Combating and Preventing Illegal Online Activities". Lao government held the meeting "to publicize the dangers of cybercrime and Lao national laws and regulations to all domestic and foreign investors, operators and workers, so as to ensure the peace, security and safety of the Lao country and people. orderly to ensure the healthy development of the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone", as mp.weixin.qq.com/ reported. Wang Erbao, President of Golden Kapok Group, promised that the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone would cooperate with the Lao government to crack down on illegal and criminal activities and cooperate with the government to promote and improve laws and regulations against telecommunications network fraud.



In 2023 Great Britain had sanctioned Zhao Wei, his wife Su Guiqin and his casino-director Eberahim Abbas due to links to *trafficking of individuals to the [GTSEZ], where they were forced to work as scammers … subject to physical abuse and further cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment."


Read also:
Thousands of (illegal) Myanmar workers constructed the buildings in Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone


Get an impression of the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone by this video: