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Washington Post
4 days ago
- Washington Post
Thailand confronts the unexpected: A tourism slump
In major cities in southern Europe, protesters have railed against overtourism. In Thailand, the complaint is the opposite; visitor numbers are declining, and the government is starting to panic. This year so far has seen a noticeable decline, from 17.5 million tourists in the first half of 2024 to 16.6 million this year, about a 5 percent drop. The sharpest decline came in May, with about 14 percent fewer tourists than in 2024. With tourism accounting for as much as one-fifth of Thailand's gross domestic product, these numbers are ringing alarm bells for the country's economic health. And almost all of this decline can be traced to China, Thailand's biggest source of foreign tourists. In the first five months of this year, tourist arrivals from China fell by about one-third, from 2.9 million in 2024 to 1.9 million. The reasons for this include the economic slowdown in China and rising costs of travel to Thailand, as the currency, the baht, has strengthened. There's also increased competition from Thailand's neighbors, especially Vietnam and Cambodia. These days, even Japan with its weak yen is seen as a bargain for Chinese travelers. But more than any economic factor, safety is what concerns travelers. In January, a struggling Chinese actor named Wang Xing was lured to Thailand on the promise of a movie casting. Instead, he was picked up at a Bangkok airport and whisked over the border into Myanmar, where his head was shaved and he was trafficked into one of the many 'scam centers' operating in Myanmar's lawless border regions. After his girlfriend launched a social media campaign that went viral, Thai security forces freed him in a cross-border rescue operation. Wang's real-life plight eerily echoed the theme of a 2023 Chinese blockbuster movie called 'No More Bets,' which depicts a disillusioned Chinese programmer lured to an unnamed Southeast Asian country that resembles Thailand, where he is similarly kidnapped, taken to a remote jungle compound and forced to work in slave-like conditions. Chinese internet users seem to have suddenly deemed travel to Thailand unsafe. What's left largely unspoken is that the scam centers, located in Cambodia as well as Myanmar, are operated mostly by Chinese criminal syndicates. Thai tourism authorities have launched several promotional campaigns aimed at Chinese, including a social media push called 'Nihao-Sawadee' — 'hello' in Chinese and Thai — using tour operators and online influencers to promote Thailand as safe for travel. The government also rolled out a 'safe travel stamp' to certify that hotels, restaurants and shopping malls are secure for Chinese visitors. Thailand has also made efforts to diversify its tourist market beyond China, with varying degrees of success. Sometimes, Thais are their own worst enemy. Many tourists — not only Chinese — complain about being subjected to various scams in Thailand, including taxis refusing to use meters, giving inflated prices for short trips or taking circuitous routes. Many complain about the dual pricing systems for major attractions such as temples that charge foreigners extraordinarily high prices. Thailand has done a good job of attracting more tourists from India, which is less than four hours away by plane. Thailand has a large ethnic Indian diaspora, thanks to centuries of trade and cultural interactions. But travelers from India and elsewhere in South Asia often report instances of discrimination in Thailand. Likewise, tourists from the Middle East and Africa, as well as Black Americans, tell stories of being denied entry to bars or entertainment venues, where White or East Asian tourists are casually waved inside. Anti-Black prejudice often surfaces. In January, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a longtime power broker and father of the recently suspended prime minister, drew criticism after openly disparaging the looks of African women models. 'African people, who have black skin and flat noses that make it difficult to breathe, are hired for millions of baht to be models,' Thaksin said at a rally. One of Thailand's biggest tourist draws since 2022 has been its legalized recreational marijuana. Cannabis dispensaries are now about as ubiquitous as massage parlors and handicraft shops in Bangkok, as well as in top tourist destinations such as Pattaya and Phuket beaches. With an estimated 18,000 dispensaries, Thailand is projected this year to see marijuana become a $1.2 billion industry, and a significant amount of this money comes from foreign visitors. Pot remains strictly illegal in most of the rest of Southeast Asia; in some neighboring countries, marijuana possession can be punishable by death. But now the government — still run by Thaksin's political party — is planning to re-criminalize marijuana except for medical uses with a prescription. Another of Thaksin's ambitious ideas, to bring casinos to Thailand, was put on hold after widespread public opposition, the withdrawal of a key partner from the government's ruling coalition and, reportedly, opposition from Chinese President Xi Jinping. For decades, starting in the 1980s, Thailand was the tourism capital of Southeast Asia. It didn't have to work very hard to attract new and returning visitors. Now there's more competition — and once-closed countries such as Vietnam are seen as offering a safer, less commercialized, more authentic traveler experience. Thailand's reputation has taken a hit. It's going to have to up its game. Stop the dual pricing and dial back the casual racism. And no more resting on its laurels as the 'Land of Smiles.'
South China Morning Post
7 days ago
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Meituan's daily orders hit record 150 million amid heated battle with JD.com and Alibaba
Meituan, mainland China's top on-demand delivery giant, said on Sunday that daily orders on its platform have surged to another all-time high – a sign that the company has managed to fend off competition from rivals like and Alibaba Group Holding. The Beijing-based company said daily transactions had reached 150 million, just days after surpassing 120 million last week. The firm's record daily orders for both food and retail goods delivery comes at a time when major Chinese e-commerce players are investing heavily to boost transaction volumes in the instant delivery market. Meituan founder and CEO Wang Xing told analysts in a post-earnings call in March that the company would do 'whatever it takes to win' in the instant delivery market, where the competition has intensified in recent months. 06:33 'We're quite helpless': why Chinese delivery drivers are at their breaking point 'We're quite helpless': why Chinese delivery drivers are at their breaking point Wang said that the company would invest 100 billion yuan (US$13.9 billion) in the food service industry to 'support merchants across various categories as well as to boost consumer demand'. His comments came after cross-town rival launched the first salvo in the mainland's food delivery market, stepping into a segment that has long been dominated by Meituan.
Bangkok Post
07-07-2025
- Bangkok Post
Chinese anti-scam team arrives in Myawaddy
TAK - A team from China's Criminal Investigation Bureau has arrived in Myanmar's Myawaddy border township to discuss help for Chinese victims of the scam centres that continue to operate there, a reliable source said on Monday. The 11 investigators first travelled to Thailand and then flew from Bangkok on a Nok Air flight to Mae Sot, in Tak province, on Sunday evening. They then crossed the border to Myawaddy. The source said the Chinese CIB officials, part of Beijing's Ministry of Public Security, planned talks with Myanmar officials on assistance for Chinese victims of scam centres in Myawaddy and would urge Myanmar authorities to take strong action against those still operating in border areas. The team's arrival followed a report that another Chinese model was lured to Thailand for a "photoshoot" early last month, and was instead whisked off to Myanmar. The deception repeated the fate of Chinese actor Wang Xing who went missing near the Thai-Myanmar border and was later rescued from Myanmar in January this year. Wang told officials that a compatriot had enticed him to come to Thailand, and he had been taken away for scam-centre training in Myanmar. In late January a Chinese assistant minister for public security arrived in Thailand to plan help for Chinese victims of scam centres in Myanmar. That led to concerted action against the scam gangs operating from buildings in Myanmar bordering Thailand. A lot of foreigners tricked and put to work by the gangsters were rescued and repatriated, including many Chinese. Thai support included cutting off power, fuel and internet services to these border regions in February.
American Military News
05-07-2025
- American Military News
EXPLAINED: What are scam parks?
This article was originally published by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission. Cyber scam compounds made international headlines in January after a Chinese actor was rescued from Myanmar's notorious KK Park. In late December, Wang Xing flew to Mae Sot, Thailand on the promise of an acting gig. Instead, he was kidnapped and hustled across the border into a compound where victims like him are forced to trick others out of their savings. If they fail to do so, they are often violently punished. What is extraordinary about Wang's case is not the fake job ad, the kidnapping or the cross-border smuggling into a compound filled with thousands of victims from around the world. Rather, it is his rescue that is unusual. Chinese actor Wang Xing, left, shakes the hand of a Thai police officer after being released from a Myanmar scam center, in Thailand's Mae Sot district, Jan. 7, 2025. (Royal Thai Police via Reuters) Across the region, hundreds of thousands of people are locked away in similar circumstances. Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar have all seen a massive proliferation of scam compounds in recent years. Run by a range of organized crime groups, the compounds are often linked to powerful local individuals and operate with impunity. Where did scam compounds come from? More than a decade ago, cheap internet made Cambodia an early hotspot for Chinese and Taiwanese phone scammers. Pretending to be officials from the government, insurance companies or other businesses, scammers used Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, to call victims in their home countries — most frequently China — and trick them or threaten them into transferring money out of their bank accounts. Early scam operations run out of Cambodia, Kenya, Malaysia and elsewhere bankrupted countless individuals and netted billions of yuan. While thousands of people have been arrested and deported over the years, those early operations were never fully stamped out and instead proliferated and grew more sophisticated and broad-reaching. In Cambodia, a 2019 ban on online gambling followed by a mass exodus of Chinese expats and tourists during the pandemic saw casinos increasingly repurposed as scam centers. Special Economic Zones created in Laos and other countries to foster new businesses became hubs of criminality due to lax regulations. In Myanmar, meanwhile, the coup and resulting civil war expanded business opportunities for would-be criminals while lessening the likelihood of enforcement. Couple the endemic corruption with a global pool of relatively educated but desperately poor job seekers and you get the makings of an unprecedented criminal opportunity. Estimates of money stolen by criminal groups operating out of lower Mekong nations now range from $18 billion a year to upwards of $40 billion . How do the scams work? Tricking victims into believing their accounts have been compromised remains a common scam in much of the world. But compounds in Southeast Asia have heavily focus ed on pig butchering in recent years. A loose translation of sha zhu pan (杀猪盘), pig butchering refers to the process of fattening up a victim before sending them to the slaughter. If these scams take more time and energy, they also appear to net higher gains. After messaging millions of people — often with innocuous messages that are written off as simply a wrong number — scammers then focus their energies on the few who reply, slowly building up a friendship or romantic relationship. Over time, victims are convinced to invest in crypto or other business opportunities, with small returns often shared back to them. Having seen this 'proof' of their loved one's business prowess, the victim is then convinced to make a much more significant 'investment.' In this way, victims routinely lose thousands, hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars. A Vietnamese man who was held at this KK Park scam compound in Myanmar's Kayin state supplied this undated photo of the call center. (Nguyen) Who are the scammers? But the victims often include the scammers themselves. While it is clear that some scammers are willingly employed, drawn by the promise of large salaries in countries where poverty is rife, many compounds continue to rely on large pools of trafficked labor. As in Wang's case, victims are often lured with the promise of a well-paid job that draws on the language and computer skills many of the region's underemployed youth hold. Reports from former scammers suggest some who are successful in defrauding victims stand to make good money and not all are employed forcibly. But far more reports have emerged of scammers being tied to their phones through stark violence. Beatings, electroshock, withholding of meals and other forms of abuse and torture appear common at such compounds, with escapees often sharing devastating stories. A person at a KK Park scam compound in Myanmar's Kayin state is chained to a bed in this undated photo. (Nguyen) Those operating the scam compounds also earn money in more straightforward ways, such as ransoming kidnapped victims back to their friends and family. A Taiwanese fire dancer who was kidnapped in Thailand and brought to a scam park last month was forcibly trained as a scammer and told he would be freed only if his family paid $30,000. While he was released after a joint operation between Taiwanese and Thai police, many of those who make it out of compounds do so only after their families have paid up. It is exceedingly difficult to know how many people are being held against their will in such centers, but estimates are in the hundreds of thousands , with the U.N. suggesting upwards of 100,000 people have been trafficked into Cambodia and another 120,000 in Myanmar. While operators are generally understood to be tied to Chinese crime groups, trafficked workers come from across the globe . In recent years, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Nepal, Kenya, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Uganda, Kenya and more have rescued citizens or seen them escape from compounds in Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia. Edited by Jim Snyder.
South China Morning Post
19-06-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Meituan's food delivery market dominance in China remains stable at 70%, report says
Meituan, the Chinese on-demand delivery giant, is maintaining a steady hold on its 70 per cent market share in domestic food delivery, despite intensifying competition from and Alibaba Group Holding 's as daily orders reached 90 million in recent days, according to a report by Chinese tech media outlet citing internal data. Meituan did not comment on the report. If confirmed, it would show the challenges Meituan's rivals face in changing consumer habits, after a price war broke out in the instant delivery market amid sluggish consumer spending in the world's second-largest economy. Daily orders on rival service have reached 25 million, the company announced on June 18. It launched a food delivery service in February, expanding its instant delivery offering, which aims to bring items to customers' doors typically within an hour. Alibaba said last month that the combined daily orders on and its Taobao Instant Commerce reached 40 million. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post. Leiphone reported the numbers based on 'exclusively obtained' Meituan data. The delivery giant, founded by entrepreneur Wang Xing in 2010, has not publicly disclosed operational data. Since entering the food delivery market, billionaire founder Richard Liu Qiangdong has been aggressively recruiting delivery crew, even donning a delivery uniform himself and sharing hotpot with couriers.
