[Today’s Prayer]"After Cambodia Comes Myanmar" — Myanmar Military Raids Chinese Cybercrime Hub KK Park

The international community continues to crack down on Chinese-led cybercrime networks operating across Southeast Asia, such as in Cambodia and Myanmar. Just a week after the United States and the United Kingdom sanctioned Cambodia’s Prince Group, Myanmar’s military raided the notorious online fraud compound KK Park, located near the Thai border.

With international cooperation and pressure increasing, governments across Southeast Asia are now taking the lead in eradicating Chinese criminal organizations within their borders. Experts describe the situation as a multi-layered incident, intertwined with Myanmar’s post-coup chaos since 2021, political calculations by the junta, and China’s influence.

According to Myanma Alinn, a state-run media outlet in Myanmar, the military launched an operation in early September to crack down on online scams, illegal gambling, and cross-border cybercrime. As a result, on the 21st (local time), the military raided KK Park, located on the outskirts of Myawaddy near the Thai border, arresting 2,198 people. They also seized communication equipment used for cybercrime, including 30 Starlink satellite internet terminals. Starlink, a service provided by SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk, does not have a legal license in Myanmar. However, hundreds of terminals were smuggled in and became a key communication tool for criminal organizations.

The targeted KK Park has been infamous for the past five years in Myanmar as a hub for online fraud, money laundering, and human trafficking, similar to the notorious Prince Park compounds in Cambodia. Criminal organizations lured people from around the world with promises of high-paying jobs, only to imprison them and force them into romance scams, investment fraud, and other cybercrimes. Those who failed to meet quotas were brutally beaten and tortured, earning the site the nickname “Hell on Earth.” According to the BBC, those detained included not only people from nearby Asian countries like Thailand but also individuals from African nations.

(Omitted)

The military coup in February 2021 opened a golden age for various ethnic armed groups. According to Justice for Myanmar, the construction of KK Park began in 2020, but its completion and major expansion occurred after the coup. As the national administrative system collapsed, criminal organizations proliferated unchecked. The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) reported that the number of crime compounds like KK Park in the Thailand–Myanmar border region surged from 11 in 2021 to 30 by 2024. Over the past four years, these criminal zones have expanded by an average of 55,000 square meters per month, equivalent to eight soccer fields.

This crackdown came amid intensified international pressure targeting cybercrime syndicates across Southeast Asia. Earlier, on the 14th, the United States and the United Kingdom sanctioned the Prince Group, a Chinese criminal organization active in Cambodia.

The United Nations estimates that scam networks based in Southeast Asia extorted between 18 billion and 37 billion USD (approximately 24–50 trillion KRW) from victims in East and Southeast Asia last year alone. According to the Associated Press, “Myanmar’s crackdown came shortly after international attention turned to Cambodia’s cyber scam operations following recent sanctions.”

(Omitted)

According to the BBC, KK Park began in early 2020 when the Karen National Union (KNU) — the ethnic armed group controlling the area — signed a land lease with the Hong Kong-listed company Wan Ya International.

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Source: Nate News

“But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.” (1 Timothy 1:16)

God, we hear the news that since the 2021 military coup in Myanmar, criminal organizations have increased along the Thai border, and that the military regime has conducted a cybercrime raid in Myawaddy’s KK Park, arresting 2,198 members of these criminal networks.

Lord, we pray that You will judge the military junta that rules Myanmar oppressively against its own citizens, and the criminal organizations that commit violence, abduction, and murder for their own gain according to Your righteous will. Have mercy on the wandering ethnic minorities of Myanmar.

Amid the long-standing conflict between the Myanmar government and ethnic minorities, may Jesus Christ, who endures with perfect patience, look upon all the sins of Myanmar, and may the souls of Myanmar know that You have not abandoned them but still love them deeply.

For those ethnic minorities who, trying to escape oppression and persecution, have fallen into the deceit of Chinese cybercrime rings, desiring to gain funds for independence and autonomy, may they repent sincerely before God and humble themselves in prayer.

And Lord, raise up a government that does not exploit divisions among the minorities for political advantage, but one that unites in Your Word and wisdom, entrusting the nation of Myanmar into Your hands.

Send forth from the global Church those who will proclaim to Myanmar’s 135 ethnic groups that You are the God who gives true freedom, and that eternal life is found only in Jesus Christ.

May the Church of Myanmar walk the path of the Cross with unshakable faith and the power of the Gospel, proclaiming truth to their captive brothers and sisters among the nations until the Lord returns.

And may the 500,000-strong Myanmar army rise up not for war, but to break down all strongholds of conflict and idolatry that bind Myanmar and the world, lifting high only the name of Jesus Christ.