The little Chinese actor had been missing for two days in Thailand when his girlfriend decided to ask the Internet for help.
“We have no choice but to borrow the power of the Internet to amplify our voices,” Wang Xing’s girlfriend wrote on Chinese social media platform Weibo on January 5.
The plea went viral after being shared by some of China’s biggest celebrities, including singer Lay Zhang and actor Qin Lan.
Wang, 31, has attracted the attention of the country – as well as his government.
On January 7, Wang was rescued from a fraud center across the border in Myanmar – news greeted with a wave of relief.
But the quick but mysterious rescue also raised questions about the fate of those trapped inside the fraud centers. The case is a grim reminder of the successful criminal businesses that still ensnare hundreds of thousands of people, driving them into cybercrime.
Families of Chinese nationals who may be detained in one of these facilities have started a petition calling on their government to help them as well. The petition document is shared online so that anyone can fill in the cases of those who are missing. The number of cases has already risen to more than 600 from the initial 174 and is still rising.
Wang told police that about 50 Chinese nationals were imprisoned in the same place as him.
“We are desperate to know if the rest are Chinese nationals [who were] with him they are saved,” reads one of the most liked comments on Weibo.
“Other people’s lives are also lives.”
Wang disappeared on January 3 in the Thai border town of Mae Sot, which has become a hub for human trafficking into Myanmar.
He flew to Bangkok for an acting job offered to him on WeChat. The person claimed to represent a large Thai entertainment company, according to Thai police.
The actor later told reporters that he was on set in Thailand around 2018 and had no idea it was any different. But he was picked up in a car and taken to Myanmar, where his head was shaved and he was forced to undergo training in how to scam people with phone calls.
His girlfriend wrote on Weibo that she and his brother tried to find him and involve the police, but “there was little result”: Chinese police have yet to report the case, while the embassy in Thailand simply advised Wang’s family to contact the police in Mae Sot .
But as discussions about Wang’s whereabouts grew louder on Chinese social media, the authorities began to act. The case was finally registered, and the embassy told the media that they attached great importance to the case.
The next day, Thai and Chinese officials announced that Wang had been rescued.
His first public appearance was with Thai police, but he said little, leaving officials to explain what happened.
Details about the rescue itself are scanty. Officials have not revealed which fraud center he was in as conflicting versions of the story circulate.
One reason could be that withholding more information was part of the deal that led to his release, according to a source who previously rescued people from fraud centers, who did not want to be named.
He told the BBC that these fraud centers want to avoid attention. This meant that letting Wang go was a better option, compared to risking the entire operation due to the attention his disappearance attracted.
And Beijing wanted to end the debate on Wang’s case. She wants her citizens to believe that she has done enough and that the centers of fraud along her border are no longer a problem.
A joint operation by China and ethnic rebel groups in 2023 sought to shut down fraud centers in Myanmar’s Shan State.
But those on the ground – NGOs and independent rescuers – tell the BBC that scams are still on the rise, with construction spreading to even more remote regions.
These days, the area along the border with Thailand is a major hub for international fraud in Myanmar, which exploits partnerships with various armed groups vying for power there.
New fraudulent settlements have been built south of the town of Myawaddy, near the border with Thailand, where the worst cases of forced labor and other abuses are now being recorded.
This has put a lot of pressure on Thailand, whose economy relies heavily on tourism, especially from China.
Wang’s case has led some Chinese to question how safe it is to travel to Thailand. “It seems that after this Wang Xing incident, fewer people will be going to Southeast Asia, including Thailand,” said a popular Weibo post.
His rescue may be a success for Thai officials and a victory for Beijing, but it hasn’t ended the debate or attention to the fraud links.
On Thursday, lines from his recent interview were trending on Weibo: “actor Wang Xing claims he couldn’t eat much food in Myanmar and didn’t have time to use the toilet”.
His brief disappearance only exposed how common the danger had become: others in the Chinese film industry have since shared their own accounts of being conned by scammers into jobs in Thailand.
Thai police are reportedly now investigating the case of another Chinese model who went missing on the Thailand-Myanmar border after being promised work in Thailand.
The China Federation of Radio and Television Associations said in a statement on Tuesday that “many actors” had gone abroad with false promises of filming, and had suffered “serious damage to their personal and financial security” as a result.
“We are very concerned about this,” the statement said.
“Please, save [Wang] out of harm’s way and bring the No More Bets story to life,” Wang’s girlfriend urged in her Weibo post — a reference to the 2023 film’s protagonists who were rescued after being sold to fraud centers.
Wang – like those in the film – is among the lucky minority.
Hundreds of thousands of victims from China, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore remain stuck in sprawling fraud complexes with little hope of escape.
But ahead of the Lunar New Year, when hordes of Chinese tourists are expected to visit Thailand, the Thai government is keen to stress that the country is a safe destination. Thai police also insist that no Thais were involved in Wang’s trafficking.
Wang, newly released from his ordeal, is not worried about returning to Thailand, a police official told reporters on Wednesday.
In fact, he added, Wang had promised to return.
