A Chinese court has handed down severe punishments — including multiple death sentences — to Kokang leaders long accused of running massive online scam operations in northern Shan State.

On November 4, the Shenzhen Municipal Court in Guangdong Province sentenced five people to death, including U Bai Suocheng, former chairman of the Kokang Self-Administered Zone, and his son Bai Yingcang. The court found the family-led network guilty of 12 major crimes, ranging from organized fraud and human trafficking to intentional homicide.

Two other defendants, Li Fushou and Li Zhide, received the death penalty with a two-year reprieve — often commuted to life imprisonment if no further crimes are committed during the reprieve period. Five people were sentenced to life imprisonment, and nine others received prison terms of 20–30 years, along with fines, asset confiscation, and deportation.

According to the court findings, Bai Suocheng and his son led a vast criminal enterprise that used the Bai family’s political influence to dominate Kokang. While still serving as chairman under Myanmar’s military council, Bai allegedly provided security protection for 41 cyber scam compounds, allowing thousands of Chinese nationals to operate online fraud schemes.

The family’s network facilitated illegal border crossings, operated scam compounds, and committed kidnapping, torture, and murder. These activities led to the deaths of six Chinese nationals, one suicide, and multiple injuries. Investigators documented over 30,000 online fraud cases, with losses exceeding 29 billion yuan (USD 4.1 billion).

A Global Times report further revealed that Bai Yingcang was also charged with conspiracy to produce and traffic 11 tons of methamphetamine.

The Bai Suocheng group, along with nine other key figures, was handed over to Chinese authorities by the Myanmar junta’s State Security and Peace Commission on January 30, 2024. Their trials began on July 11, 2025.

These sentences follow the Brotherhood Alliance’s launch of Operation 1027, a military campaign framed as a crackdown on cross-border cyber scam syndicates. Four powerful Kokang business-political clans — the Bai, Wei, Ming, and Liu families — long allied with the Myanmar military, are now facing prosecution inside China.

This case marks the second major sentencing linked to Kokang cybercrime. On September 29, a Chinese court sentenced 16 individuals, including Ming Guoping and Ming Zhenzhen, heirs to the Ming family, to death for crimes including online fraud, human trafficking, and homicide.

Bai Suocheng’s involvement in Kokang’s criminal economy dates back to 2009, when he sided with the Myanmar military junta (then SPDC) against the Peng/Pheung clan to seize control of the Kokang region — paving the way for what became one of Asia’s largest scam empires.