Philippine Senator demands that China do more to combat cybercrime gangs

MANILA – China should do more to crack down on illegal online gambling and fraudulent call centers run by Chinese crime syndicates in Southeast Asian countries that often use forced labor, a Philippine senator leading an investigation into the centers said on Friday.

According to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, such gangs have forced hundreds of thousands of people to participate in online scams that have included fake love affairs, bogus investment offers and illegal gambling schemes.

Senator Risa Hontiveros also called for greater international cooperation to put an end to cybercrime. She warned that the gangs were undermining the rule of law and could provide a platform for espionage activities. However, she acknowledged that there was no clear evidence that the gambling centers were linked to Chinese surveillance operations.

A number of Chinese gambling complexes shut down by Philippine authorities were located near a Philippine air force base north of Manila, where American forces have established an authorized presence, and near a residential complex occupied by American diplomats and military personnel, according to Hontiveros.

China has expressed concern about increased US military deployments in Asia, including in the Philippines, Washington's long-standing treaty ally.

There are estimated to be more than 400 Chinese-run online gambling companies in the Philippines, employing tens of thousands of Chinese and Southeast Asians, many of whom have been smuggled into the country illegally, Philippine authorities say.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered a ban on online gambling companies in July, saying they had violated Philippine laws and committed crimes such as financial fraud, human trafficking, torture, kidnapping and murder.

China has banned gambling, but most of the customers of online syndicates operating in the Philippines are mainland Chinese citizens who are defying their government's ban, Hontiveros said.

“China is not doing enough, despite the impressive power it uses and displays without hesitation on so many fronts,” Hontiveros said.

“We would all benefit from more regional and international cooperation, for example, in holding social media companies more accountable for the use and misuse of their products and services, their platforms and for these malicious activities,” Hontiveros told foreign news correspondents in a briefing.

There was no immediate reaction from Chinese officials in Manila or Beijing.

However, the Chinese government stated that it had cooperated with Philippine authorities to dismantle Chinese syndicates' online gambling and fraud operations in the Philippines and rescued a large number of Chinese and other Southeast Asians who had been illegally recruited and coerced into carrying out these illegal operations and scams.

Lucrative online gambling offerings for Chinese citizens are also flourishing in Southeast Asian countries allied with Beijing, such as Cambodia and Myanmar, Hontiveros said.

According to officials, the boom in the online gambling industry in the Philippines is largely due to corruption in government regulators and large bribes to officials.

The mayor of a town in Tarlac province, north of Manila, was fired by authorities after she was linked to an illegal online gambling complex involving dozens of buildings.

Former Mayor Alice Guo is also accused of feigning Philippine citizenship in order to run for public office in 2022.

Guo fled the Philippines after the Senate committee headed by Hontiveros ordered her arrest for failing to attend public hearings, but she was arrested in Indonesia two weeks ago and deported to Manila.

Guo, who remains in custody, denies any wrongdoing.