After 'Ming family', China executes 4 members of Myanmar-based 'Bai family': Here's why

Four members of the Bai family mafia, notorious dynasties operating a large-scale scam network in Myanmar has been executed by the Chinese government. All those who were put to death were among 21 of the family's members and aides convicted of fraud, homicide, injury and other crimes by a court in Guangdong province, according to the state media report.

In 2025, five of them were sentenced to death, which also included the patriarch of the Bai Suocheng clan, who died of illness after his conviction. Similarly, China has executed 11 mafia members who were members of the Ming family as part of its crackdown on scam networks in Southeast Asia that have entrapped thousands of Chinese victims.

Who are the Bais and the Mings dynasties?

For decades, the Bais faily along with the Mings clan and several others, dominated Myanmar's border town of Laukkaing, operating casinos, brothels and large-scale cyber scam networks. Among these groups, the Bais were regarded as the most powerful, according to Bai Suocheng’s son, who made the remark to state media after his detention.

Authorities confirmed that the Bais maintained their own militia and set up 41 compounds used for cyber fraud operations and casinos. Life inside these facilities was marked by extreme violence, with routine beatings and torture. The court noted that the family’s criminal activities resulted in the deaths of six Chinese nationals, one suicide, and multiple injuries.

The Bai family’s influence grew in the early 2000s after Laukkaing’s former warlord was removed in a military operation led by Min Aung Hlaing, now the head of Myanmar’s military regime. Seeking cooperative local allies, the military leader backed Bai Suocheng, then a deputy to the ousted warlord.

Later, China crashed the empires of the families in 2023 after it was infuriated by the Myanmar military's inaction on the scam operations, which tacitly backed an offensive by ethnic insurgents in the area, marking a turning point in the civil war in Myanmar. Following the move, the scam mafias and their members were captured and handed over to Beijing. As per the United Nations estimate, thousands of people have been trafficked to run online scams in Myanmar and elsewhere in Southeast Asia.