The Trump administration recently sanctioned Wan Kuok Koi, a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and leader of the 14K Triad organized crime syndicate, nicknamed the “Toothless Colt.
According to a U.S. government investigation report in July, Wan used the CCP’s “One Belt, One Road” policy to hide his transnational criminal networks in Southeast Asia, such as illegal casino projects in Burma. The casino projects in Burma involve a number of Chinese state-owned enterprises and institutions, reflecting the extent of the Chinese Communist Party’s infiltration of Burma.
Trump Administration Sanctions a Gang Leader and Member of the Chinese Communist Party’s Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference
On December 9, the U.S. Department of the Treasury said the U.S. will sanction individuals from the Chinese Communist Party and several other countries under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (GMAA). According to the list, three people are subject to sanctions, including mob leader Yin Guoju. The U.S. said Yin was a member of the Chinese Communist Party’s Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, and called him “Broken Tooth”.
The Treasury Department said the 14K Triad, which is helmed by Yin Guoju, is one of the largest organized crime groups in the Communist Party and is involved in drug trafficking, illegal gambling and a range of other criminal activities.
The Treasury Department said the sanctions apply to three entities owned or controlled by Yin, including the Cambodia-based World Hongmen Historical and Cultural Association, the Hong Kong-based Dong Mei Group and the Palau-based Chinese Hongmen Cultural Association.
Wan, 65, once a well-known gangster godfather in Hong Kong and Macau, was released from prison in 2012 after being sentenced to 13 years and 10 months in 1999 for loan sharking, money laundering and arms possession.
Wan’s East American Group’s Ties to the Chinese Communist Party
The U.S. sanctions against Yin are, at this point, largely related to his conduct in Burma.
In July, the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) released a report entitled “Casino Cities in Burma: China’s Role and Transnational Criminal Networks. The report describes how the Chinese Communist Party has infiltrated Burma through mob tactics and how Chinese state-owned enterprises and other institutions are behind the mobsters.
The report mentions three projects under construction on land in Karen State, Burma, with a total of 157 square kilometers of land controlled by Chinese companies engaged in illegal gambling, money laundering and cryptocurrency operations.
In public propaganda, these companies claim to operate under the Communist Party’s “One Belt, One Road” framework and have ties to Chinese government departments.
Yin’s Dongmei Group is developing a 20-square-kilometer casino city in Kayin State called Saixigang (or “Saihanouk City”). In February, Wan attended the signing ceremony for the Saixigang Industrial Park, an $18 billion investment project that he boasted would be the “Shenzhen of Southeast Asia.
In the Saisiyang project, Dongmei Investment Group signed agreements with a number of overseas companies, including an agreement with Wang Qingjun, CEO of Beijing Kejian Lianjian Engineering Group and alleged representative of China Railway Bureau Group XXI, to invest US$47.3 million in a 160,000-square-meter hotel, dormitory and recreational facilities.
The China Railway 21st Bureau Group, on the other hand, is part of China Railway Construction Corporation, which is under the jurisdiction of the Communist Party’s State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.
Asia-Pacific New City Project of the Executive Vice President of the Communist Party of China Overseas Business Association
The second project is the Asia Pacific New City Project (Yatai New City Project) in Kayin State near the Thai border.
USIP reports that this is a partnership project between the Karen Border Guard Force (BGF) and Hong Kong-registered Asia Pacific International Holdings Group (Asia Pacific International, Yatai IHG), which signed an agreement in July 2017.The BGF is backed by the Myanmar military and led by Border Guard Force Commander Chit Thu.
Several of the companies involved in the Asia Pacific New City project have the same names as the companies that operate casinos in Cambodia. One of these companies, Tianxia Group, boasts in its public publications that the casino project will generate more than 60 percent of the revenue for the APAC project in the first three years.
In October, Caixin Weekly reported that a number of people who had been in contact with Asia Pacific New City said that the so-called “intelligent industry new city” was actually designed to take over the online gambling industry that had been relocated from Manila, Philippines, Sihanoukville, Cambodia and other Southeast Asian regions after tightening regulations, and that there were several online gambling companies in Asia Pacific New City that recommended and operated online gambling games to customers mainly in China.
The report said several international organizations recently published reports analyzing the transnational criminal networks behind Myanmar’s three “gambling cities,” the first of which is Asia Pacific New City. According to a report by the Karen Peace Support Network, a Burmese non-governmental organization (NGO), both offline and online casinos are operating in the new city, and local residents fear it may become a money laundering center.
Gambling is still considered illegal in Kayin State.
Asia Pacific International is registered by She Lunkai (formerly She Zhijiang), a Cambodian citizen who is also the executive vice president of the Communist Party of China Overseas Chinese Business Association, the founding chairman of the China Charity Foundation, the founding president of the China General Chamber of Commerce, the executive vice chairman of the World One Belt, One Road Foundation, and the permanent honorary president of the Hong Kong Myanmar-China Friendship Association.
According to a report by the Chinese Communist Party’s Qiaobao website in July last year, a signing ceremony was held in Beijing on the afternoon of July 19 for cooperation between the Chinese Communist Party’s Center for International Economic Exchanges and the Asia-Pacific International Holdings Group, an overseas-funded enterprise.
She Lun Kai said at the time, “The construction of Myanmar’s Asia-Pacific International Wisdom Industry New City is not only a practice and interpretation of the ‘Belt and Road’ initiative proposed by the country, but also sets a benchmark and model of great significance.”
The report said that State Economic Consulting Co., Ltd, a subsidiary of the Center for International Economic Exchanges of the Communist Party of China, will do the top-level design for the Asia-Pacific International Smart Industry New City in Myanmar. The new city is a key project in the construction of the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor.
According to a report by the Communist Party of China’s Overseas Chinese Network in July last year, a signing ceremony was held in Beijing on the afternoon of July 19 for the cooperation between the CCP’s Center for International Economic Exchanges and the Asia-Pacific International Holdings Group, an overseas-funded enterprise.
The Center for International Economic Exchanges of the Communist Party of China (CCIEE) is an economic research institute headed by the Communist Party’s Development and Reform Commission and is considered a senior think tank of the Communist Party.
APG is registered in Hong Kong and it has an affiliated company in Beijing. in October 2019, 2 Chinese individuals registered APIC Development (Beijing) Technology and Trade Co. in Beijing with a capital contribution of 50 million yuan.
Several state-owned enterprises are also involved in the construction of APIC.
China Railway 20th Bureau Group (CR20) signed a strategic agreement with APIC at a ceremony in Shanxi Province in April 2019.CR20 is a state-owned enterprise with nearly 20,000 employees and has been involved in more than six hundred railroad, light rail and road construction projects since its establishment in 1948. MCC International Incorporation (MCCI) has also received a large number of contracts from the APAC Metro project.
In addition, the Communist Federation of Overseas Chinese Entrepreneurs (CFOE) and the CPPCC’s news agency (CPPCC News) have also been involved in the Asia Pacific New City project. Both of these are CCP’s United Front Work Group positions.
Immediately after being investigated by the Burmese government for allegedly operating illegal cross-border gambling, and after the investigation reports of several international organizations came out, She Lun Kai was abandoned by the CCP. On July 15 of this year, the Chinese Communist Party’s overseas business community terminated She Lun Kai’s position as executive vice president and membership in the Communist Party’s Overseas Chinese Business Association.
In August, the Chinese Embassy in Myanmar “dispelled the rumor” that the “Asia Pacific New City” project was a third country investment and had nothing to do with the “One Belt, One Road” initiative.
The Huangya International New City project and the Chinese businessmen behind it
The third project is the Huanya International Project (HIP).
USIP reports that the Chinese investors in this project include Huanya International Holdings Group and the Sihanoukville Association of Business Associations (SABA). Two Sihanoukville businessmen, Chen An and Zhang Zhiyong, who founded the WBCA in 2019, are also involved in numerous cryptocurrency offerings and the Sihanoukville casino real estate project.
The West Business Federation Association has brought a casino project to the Karen State Enterprise, with construction to begin in February 2020. A press release from WBA revealed that a person of Chinese and Thai descent named Yu Jianjun is the owner of the project.
Two Channels of Chinese Communist Infiltration in Myanmar
Myanmar is a key node country in the Communist Party’s “Belt and Road” and China and Myanmar signed the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC) agreement in 2018.
The Epoch Times has exclusively disclosed that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has established a stronghold in Myanmar by the CCP military to facilitate its infiltration.
Another force of the Chinese Communist Party infiltrating Myanmar is engaged in illegal activities. In recent years, there has been a growing number of Chinese who have gone to Cambodia, the Philippines, Burma and other Southeast Asian countries to engage in illegal online gambling. Since online gambling was banned in the Philippines and Cambodia, these Chinese investors have started to move to Karen State (Karen State) in Myanmar, forming a new gaming base.
Current affairs commentator Li Linyi said that most casinos in Burma are located in areas controlled by ethnic militias, whose laws are self-imposed and not recognized by official law, let alone by international recognition. The Chinese Communist Party-affiliated mafia also recognized this as a reason to enter Myanmar.
In other words, Li Linyi said, the Chinese Communist Party has its own official channels of entry into Burma through the “Belt and Road” extension in Yunnan, as well as semi-official channels, such as Yin Guoju’s backed mafia forces, which collude with local armed forces to start a gambling business in Burma. The Chinese Communist Party is using “black and white” methods to infiltrate and “take over” Burma.
U.S. Unhappy as Communist China Counteracts U.S. Democracy Efforts in Burma
The “Belt and Road” is a so-called transnational economic belt initiated and led by the Chinese Communist Party authorities in 2013. However, this global strategy of the Chinese Communist Party has been increasingly criticized and questioned by outsiders.
During the first Belt and Road Forum in Beijing in 2017, Xi Jinping emphasized the “Clean Belt and Road.” The second Belt and Road Forum in April 2019 The second Belt and Road Forum in April 2019 was held amidst skepticism. Xi Jinping said the Belt and Road should be “transparent” and “zero tolerance” for corruption, and emphasized the “Green Belt and Road”.
Current affairs commentator Li Linyi said that this is actually a smokescreen thrown by the Chinese Communist Party to the world. From the current situation, the Chinese Communist Party has made Myanmar very confusing through the black and white channels. Under the banner of “One Belt, One Road,” Burmese investors are a mix of criminals, red-top businessmen, ordinary Chinese citizens and businessmen and citizens of other countries. This is the exact opposite of the “Clean Belt and Road” advocated by Xi Jinping. This is a typical example of the Chinese Communist Party selling dog meat with a sheep’s head.
The USIP report concludes that these CCP Belt and Road practices have affected the United States. For decades, and especially over the past 30 years, the United States has invested heavily in promoting the continued development of democracy and fair rights for all Burmese people, and in efforts to end conflict and consolidate a stable peace in Burma. The United States has also made the promotion of sustainable economic development an equal priority.
But the investors currently working in Burma’s Karen State are doing something that runs counter to these U.S. goals and threatens to undo the gains of U.S. investments in Burma’s political and economic reforms.
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