A senior FBI official said at a press conference this morning (24th) that he was surprised by the problem of telecom fraud in some areas of Southeast Asia, especially the scale of large-scale telecom fraud centers there.
However, the United States has avoided questions about whether it hopes to cooperate with China to combat such crimes.
The press conference was held remotely by the Asia-Pacific Media Center of the U.S. State Department at 9 a.m. Beijing time on the 24th. The content of the press conference was Scott Sherbull, an official from the International Operations Division of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), introducing the telecommunications fraud problem in the region that he learned during his visit to Southeast Asia.
At the meeting, Scherbull first revealed the reason why he was paying attention to this issue, saying that more and more Americans are being victimized by telecom fraud criminal gangs from the region. He emphasized that the violations were not carried out by scattered individual criminals, but by "well-organized and well-resourced" criminal groups.
"I visited several large-scale fraud complexes on the spot. Although it was only from a distance, it is difficult to truly understand the staggering scale of these fraud crimes without seeing it with your own eyes – there are entire facilities here dedicated to committing crimes in an industrialized manner. It completely changes your perception of this threat," Sherbull said.
Sherbull also said that since these electronic fraud criminal gangs are distributed in many countries in Southeast Asia, the United States will carry out coordinated law enforcement with countries in the region.
Public information shows that since China is the main victim of electronic fraud crimes, China has been vigorously cracking down on electronic fraud gangs entrenched in Southeast Asia through transnational coordinated law enforcement for many years, and has achieved quite remarkable results – including the elimination of the "four major families" of electronic fraud in northern Myanmar in recent years.
In comparison, the United States has insufficient knowledge of such organized large-scale electronic fraud centers in Southeast Asia. It once thought that the problem was limited to the local area. However, with the development of related technologies, some electronic fraud groups have gradually begun to shift their targets to Western countries, hoping to avoid attacks from China by switching their "hunting targets" to other countries.
Regarding this change, China has clearly expressed its willingness to cooperate with other injured parties. According to Xinhua News Agency, China and the United States jointly handled a transnational telecommunications network fraud case in 2024 and helped a Zhejiang company and its American partner recover more than 1.7 million US dollars in defrauded funds. A Chinese scholar also wrote an article in the media last year, believing that cracking down on electronic fraud may be the next step in Sino-US law enforcement cooperation.
In February this year, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Xie Feng also stated at an event that China and the United States should explore opportunities for cooperation on multiple matters, including combating telecommunications fraud and anti-money laundering.
However, at the press conference of the US State Department, China did not appear among the countries that Sherbull mentioned that the United States would seek cooperation with. Brother Geng learned that during the question-and-answer session of the press conference, although some Chinese media had submitted relevant questions early on, asking Sherbul whether the United States was willing to seek cooperation with China, and also mentioned that China's rich joint law enforcement experience and outstanding results in combating electronic fraud crimes in Southeast Asia might be helpful to the United States, the US State Department personnel who hosted the press conference did not submit this question to Sherbul for an answer.
In this regard, some scholars who study Sino-US relations believe that the US's avoidance of the issue of cooperation with China at this press conference may be due to a relatively narrow geopolitical consideration.
The scholar believes that combating telecommunications fraud is something that is beneficial to the whole world. The United States should take a pragmatic stance and work together with China, which has shown a willingness to cooperate, to cooperate on this matter where there is no essential conflict of interest between China and the United States. Moreover, the scholar believes that the United States should openly acknowledge the benefits of such cooperation to the United States, because this will not only protect more people in the world from harm, but also help strengthen the relationship between China and the United States, a major country that has a far-reaching impact on the world.
Review | Lu Changyin
