The China-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Economic Corridor along river Moei has become a safe haven for drugs, human trafficking, arms smuggling, and online casino scams, according to a report in Mekong News.

The report says that most of the "unholy syndicates" along the tributary of the Salween River from Tachileik to Myawaddy, are controlled by people of Chinese origin but from different nationalities.

The mode of operating is the same, whether it be the Shwe Kokko in Myawaddy, Myanmar, or gambling in the Philippines or Macau or Cambodia, or Laos. China promises infrastructure development in these countries through its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects only to introduce these vices in turn, the Mekong News report said.

China brings its own set-up to every country it enters. It starts with establishing restaurants, karaoke, saloon or Chinese Learning shops to show its concern for the developing economies in Africa and Southeast Asia but it is eventually a business with cultural transformation.

"Basically, a peaceful, religious and compassionate Buddhist culture is being eroded in a systematic way by China in Southeast Asia in the name of BRI," the Mekong News report said.

There are enough indications showing collusion of enforcement agencies from Thailand and Myanmar with these illegal entities and they are being compensated well, writes Linn Maung for Mekong News. According to Maung, isolated incidents of apprehension or seizures of human or arms or narcotics traffickers are just an eyewash as they are connected well with international syndicates operating globally.

Recently, Shwe Kokko Chinese Casino Hub in Myanmar was in the limelight for its role in the propagation of online scams. The activities in Shwe Kokko continue despite all odds, the report adds. The town has come to be the biggest digital scam centre with the latest technology. It is a threat to global cyber security, the news report added.

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