Myanmar junta’s top internal affairs official visits China

The military council’s home affairs minister Lt.-Gen. Yar Pyae travelled to Beijing on Wednesday to discuss bilateral law enforcement and security cooperation with Chinese public security minister Wang Xiaohong, regime-controlled news outlets said. The visit, which is scheduled to last five days, comes after a previous meeting between Yar Pyae and China’s ambassador to Myanmar Chen Hai in Naypyitaw on April 11, at which the two officials discussed criminal online gambling and scam operations based in Myanmar and the necessary means to combat them. According to junta-run media, Chinese authorities may be planning to give an award to Yar Pyae recognising his role in fighting international cybercrime operations to which hundreds of Chinese nationals—as well as citizens of other countries neighbouring Myanmar—have fallen victim. Yar Pyae and junta chief Sen.-Gen. Min Aung Hlaing hosted Wang Xiaohong in Naypyitaw last year shortly after the Brotherhood Alliance of ethnic armed organisations initiated the Operation 1027 offensive against military targets in northern Shan State. Complying with requests from Chinese authorities, the junta has arrested and brought charges against several of its own high-ranking officials in the last two months, including deputy defence minister Aung Lin Tun and a former executive committee member of the military proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) Myint Hlaing. Junta authorities also took Nyo Saw, a retired lieutenant general, into custody this month for suspected participation in the cyber scam operations, according to sources connected to the military council. In January of this year, the junta arranged to hand over at least a dozen USDP members and high-ranking officials of the Border Guard Force (BGF) in the Kokang Self-Administered Zone to Chinese authorities, also for alleged involvement in the scams. According to a report by the research group United States Institute of Peace (USIP), Chinese law enforcement gathered the information needed to identify the Myanmar officials involved in the scams by speaking to more than 45,000 people who had returned to China from the scam centres in Myanmar, including the operations’ kingpins. Although the Chinese authorities’ efforts and the seizure of territory by the Brotherhood Alliance has largely disabled the cybercrime organisations in northern Shan State, scam centres are still operating in other parts of Myanmar such as eastern Shan State and Karen State, the USIP report said.

Myanmar junta’s top internal affairs official visits China

Lt.-Gen. Yar Pyae may receive an award for cooperating with China in arresting and prosecuting Myanmar officials suspected of involvement in international cybercrime operations

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