Mekong River massacre

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Mekong River massacre
Golden Triangle Mekong at Doi Pu Khao 06.jpg
Mekong River in the Golden Triangle region around where the incident took place
Thailand adm location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Approximate location
Location Chiang Saen District, Chiang Rai Province, Thailand
Date5 October 2011;12 years ago (2011-10-05)
Attack type
Hijacking of ships, massacre
Deaths13 Chinese crew members

The Mekong River massacre occurred on the morning of 5 October 2011, when two Chinese cargo ships were attacked on a stretch of the Mekong River in the Golden Triangle region on the borders of Myanmar (Burma) and Thailand. [1] All 13 crew members on both ships were killed and dumped in the river. [2] It was the deadliest attack on Chinese nationals abroad in modern times. [3] In response, China temporarily suspended shipping on the Mekong, and reached an agreement with Myanmar, Thailand and Laos to jointly patrol the river. [3] The event was also the impetus for the Naypyidaw Declaration and other anti-drug cooperation efforts in the region. [4] On 28 October 2011, Thai authorities arrested nine Pha Muang Task Force soldiers, who subsequently "disappeared from the justice system". [5] Drug lord Naw Kham and three subordinates were eventually tried and executed by the Chinese government for their roles in the massacre. [6]

Contents

Excessive media coverage and live broadcast of the execution were seen in Myanmar as a Chinese attempt to frame the ethnic Shans and the Burmese for the drug problems; China had previously allowed drug traffickers like Pheung Kya-shin to roam free in China. [7] After the defeat of the Kuomintang by the Communists in the Chinese Civil War in 1949 many Kuomintang soldiers in Yunnan fled with their families to Burma and Thailand. These soldiers were commanded by General Li Mi and were known as the "Lost Army." [8] [9] After attempting several failed invasions of Yunnan, in 1953 the Burmese government made an appeal to the United Nations and many Kuomintang soldiers and their families were expelled and flown to Taiwan. [9] [10] Many returned to Taiwan but since some Kuomintang veterans and their families stayed in Thailand and Burma, ethnic Chinese drug lords have set up a drug empire in the Golden Triangle, taking advantage of their global networks, which the natives lacked. Profits from the drug trade have allowed the Chinese to expand and replace the native populations. As a result, parts of northern Myanmar and the city of Mandalay have become effectively sinicized. [11]

Background

The Mekong is a major waterway of Southeast Asia. It originates in China, where it is called the Lancang River, and flows through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, where it empties into the South China Sea. It is a major trading route between China's southwestern Yunnan Province and the countries of Southeast Asia. [12] After leaving China, the river flows through the Golden Triangle area, where the borders of Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos meet. The region has long been plagued by lawlessness and is notorious for drug smuggling. [3] An owner of one of the hijacked ships stated that almost every Chinese boat in the area had been robbed by river gangs. [13]

Incident

According to the crew of a different boat who witnessed the attack, about eight gunmen stormed the Chinese cargo ships Hua Ping and Yu Xing 8 in the morning of 5 October 2011. [13] The hijacking reportedly occurred in Burmese waters. [3] Later during the day, Thai river police in the northernmost Chiang Rai Province recovered the ships after a gunfight, and found about 900,000 amphetamine pills worth more than US$3 million. [13] The bodies of the Chinese crew members were later retrieved from the river. They had been shot or stabbed, and some had been bound or blindfolded. [14]

Victims [15]
On Hua Ping
* Huang Yong (黄勇), captain
* Cai Fanghua (蔡方华), engineer
* Wang Jianjun (王建军), pilot
* Qiu Jiahai (邱家海), chief engineer
* Yang Yingdong (杨应东), sailor
* Li Yan (李燕), cook
On Yu Xing 8
* He Xilun (何熙伦), co-captain
* Guo Zhiqiang (郭志强), co-captain
* Yang Deyi (杨德毅), co-captain
* Wang Guichao (王贵超), chief engineer
* Wen Daihong (文代洪), pilot
* He Xixing (何熙行)
* Zeng Baocheng (曾保成)
* Yang Zhiwei (杨植纬), son of Yang Deyi
* Chen Guoying (陈国英)

Investigation

According to the police chief of Chiang Rai Province, drug gangs demanded protection money from boats on the Mekong and sometimes hijacked them to transport illegal goods. [14] The police suspected from the beginning that the mastermind of the massacre was Naw Kham (also spelled Nor Kham), an ethnic Shan Burmese national in his forties, an alleged drug lord and pirate in the Golden Triangle. [3] [13] He was believed to be a former aide of the notorious drug kingpin Khun Sa, [16] and leader of a gang with more than 100 members who had been involved in drug trafficking, kidnapping, murder, and piracy along the Mekong for years. [12] However, further investigations also implicated [17] nine Thai soldiers belonging to an elite anti-narcotics army unit. They were also investigated by Thailand. [3]

After a long manhunt involving Chinese and Thai authorities, in late April 2012 Lao security forces captured Naw Kham in Bokeo Province [16] and extradited him to China in May. [3] Naw Kham admitted to Chinese authorities that he was responsible for the massacre, while Myanmar planned to extradite to China Naw Kham's aide who was believed to possess key information about the attack. [16]

Criminal justice

On 6 November 2012, China's Intermediate People's Court of Kunming in Yunnan province sentenced Naw Kham and three of his subordinates to death: one from Thailand, one from Laos and one that "Chinese state media referred to as stateless". Two others, Zha Bo and Zha Tuobo, were given a death sentence with reprieve and eight years in prison, respectively. The six defendants were fined a total of 6,000,000 yuan ($960,000). Approximately 300 spectators were present at the verdict, including relatives of the victims, media, and diplomats from Laos and Thailand. [18] The death sentences were carried out on 1 March 2013. [6]

Reactions

The massacre sparked outrage among the Chinese public; China temporarily suspended all Chinese shipping on the Mekong. [3] In December 2011 China, Myanmar, Laos and Thailand began joint patrols on the Mekong after a security agreement was reached among the four countries, with more than 200 Chinese border police from Yunnan Province taking part. It was the first such joint deployment in Southeast Asia, [19] and is seen as an expansion of China's growing role in regional security. [3]

Further attacks

On 4 January 2012, a Burmese patrol boat and four Chinese cargo ships were attacked on the Mekong in Myanmar. Several grenades were fired, possibly from M79 grenade launchers, but all missed the boats. [20]

The film Operation Mekong (directed by Dante Lam), based on the incident, was released in September 2016. [17] With a box office of 1.18 billion yuan, it became one of the highest-grossing films in China. [21] [22]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mekong</span> Major river in Southeast Asia

The Mekong or Mekong River is a trans-boundary river in East Asia and Southeast Asia. It is the world's twelfth-longest river and the third-longest in Asia with an estimated length of 4,909 km (3,050 mi) and a drainage area of 795,000 km2 (307,000 sq mi), discharging 475 km3 (114 cu mi) of water annually. From its headwaters in the Tibetan Plateau, the river runs through Southwest China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and southern Vietnam. The extreme seasonal variations in flow and the presence of rapids and waterfalls in the Mekong make navigation difficult. Even so, the river is a major trade route between Tibet and Southeast Asia. The construction of hydroelectric dams along the Mekong in the 2000s through the 2020s has caused serious problems for the river's ecosystem, including the exacerbation of drought.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luang Prabang</span> District and municipality in Laos

Luang Phabang, or Louangphabang, commonly transliterated into Western languages from the pre-1975 Lao spelling ຫຼວງພຣະບາງ as Luang Prabang, literally meaning "Royal Buddha Image", is a city in north central Laos, consisting of 58 adjacent villages, of which 33 comprise the UNESCO Town of Luang Prabang World Heritage Site. It was listed in 1995 for unique and "remarkably" well preserved architectural, religious and cultural heritage, a blend of the rural and urban developments over several centuries, including the French colonial influences during the 19th and 20th centuries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shan people</span> Southeast Asian ethnic group

The Shan people, also known as the Tai Long or Tai Yai, are a Tai ethnic group of Southeast Asia. The Shan are the biggest minority of Burma (Myanmar) and primarily live in the Shan State of this country, but also inhabit parts of Mandalay Region, Kachin State, Kayah State, Sagaing Region and Kayin State, and in adjacent regions of China, Laos, Assam and Meghalaya, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand. Though no reliable census has been taken in Burma since 1935, the Shan are estimated to number 4–6 million, with CIA Factbook giving an estimate of five million spread throughout Myanmar which is about 10% of the overall Burmese population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chiang Rai province</span> Province of Thailand

Chiang Rai is one of Thailand's seventy-six provinces, which lies in upper northern Thailand and is Thailand's northernmost province. It is bordered by the Shan State of Myanmar to the north, Bokeo province of Laos to the east, Phayao to the south, Lampang to the southwest, and Chiang Mai to the west. The provinces is linked to Houayxay Laos by the Fourth Thai–Lao Friendship Bridge that spans the Mekong.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shan State</span> State of Myanmar

Shan State is a state of Myanmar. Shan State borders China (Yunnan) to the north, Laos to the east, and Thailand to the south, and five administrative divisions of Myanmar in the west. The largest of the 14 administrative divisions by land area, Shan State covers 155,800 km2, almost a quarter of the total area of Myanmar. The state gets its name from Burmese name for the Tai peoples: "Shan people". The Tai (Shan) constitute the majority among several ethnic groups that inhabit the area. Shanland is largely rural, with only three cities of significant size: Lashio, Kengtung, and the capital, Taunggyi. Taunggyi is 150.7 km northeast of the nation's capital Naypyitaw.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Khun Sa</span> Burmese warlord (1934–2007)

Khun Sa was an ethnic Chinese drug lord and warlord. He was born in Hpa Hpeung village, in the Loi Maw ward of Mongyai, Northern Shan State, Burma. Before he assumed the Shan name "Khun Sa" in 1976, he was known primarily by his Chinese name, Zhang Qifu (張奇夫).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Golden Triangle (Southeast Asia)</span> Opium-producing region in Southeast Asia

The Golden Triangle is a large, mountainous region of approximately 200,000 km2 (77,000 sq mi) in northeastern Myanmar, northwestern Thailand and northern Laos, centered on the confluence of the Ruak and Mekong rivers. The name "Golden Triangle" was coined by Marshall Green, a U.S. State Department official, in 1971 in a press conference on the opium trade. Today, the Thai side of the river confluence, Sop Ruak, has become a tourist attraction, with an Opium Museum, a Hall of Opium, and a Golden Triangle Park, and no opium cultivation.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ton Pheung district</span> District in Bokeo province, Laos

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chin Haw</span> Group of Chinese people in Thailand

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bokeo province</span> Smallest and least populous province of Laos

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Crime is present in various forms in Myanmar and is continuous with the activities of many drug trafficking financed militias at the eastern and western border regions, and with corruption within and challenges to the central government.

William Young was a Central Intelligence Agency paramilitary officer born in Berkeley, California and raised in Burma and Thailand. Although he was Caucasian, he was reared in the local hill tribe culture. Because his father and brother already worked for the CIA and knew Bill Lair, the Agency knew of his extensive cultural contacts with the Lahu people and other Southeast Asian hill tribes. With command of several Asian languages, he was made a natural recruiter of local guerrillas for the CIA's covert operations in the secret war in the Kingdom of Laos. He was then considered for the position of case officer to the Hmong Vang Pao. He was passed over in favor of sending him on an extended reconnaissance of the Kingdom of Laos. His tour ranged westward from his start at Long Tieng, which he reported as well sited for operations in the Plain of Jars, back to familiar territory in the Golden Triangle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1967 Opium War</span>

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<i>Operation Mekong</i> 2016 Chinese film

Operation Mekong is a 2016 Chinese-Hong Kong crime action film directed by Dante Lam and starring Zhang Hanyu and Eddie Peng. The film is based on the 2011 Mekong River massacre. It was released in China on 30 September 2016 and became one of the highest-grossing films in China.

The Kuomintang in Burma or Kuomintang in the Golden Triangle were Kuomintang troops that fled from China to Burma in 1950 after their defeat by the Chinese communists in the Chinese Civil War. They were commanded by General Li Mi. It attempted several incursions into Yunnan in the early 1950s, only to be pushed back into Burma each time by the Chinese Communist Party's People's Liberation Army.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone</span> Special Economic Zone in Bokeo province, Laos

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laos–Myanmar border</span> International border

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References

  1. ↑ Armstrong, Paul (2013-03-01). "China executes drug gang over Mekong river massacre". CNN. Archived from the original on 2021-10-06. Retrieved 2021-10-06.
  2. ↑ "中国13名船员在泰国境内惨遭劫杀". China.com (in Chinese). 10 October 2011. Archived from the original on 9 December 2011. Retrieved 16 August 2012.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Laos extradites suspect to China in Mekong massacre case". Chicago Tribune. 10 May 2012. Archived from the original on 8 April 2013. Retrieved 16 August 2012.
  4. ↑ Saw Yan Naing (10 May 2013). "Drug Trade a 'Significant Threat' to Region: Mekong Nations". The Irrawaddy. Archived from the original on 27 September 2013. Retrieved 4 October 2017.
  5. ↑ "Whitewash at Chiang Saen". Bangkok Post. 2 October 2016. Archived from the original on 19 October 2023. Retrieved 2 October 2016.
  6. 1 2 "China executes four foreign nationals convicted of Mekong river murders". The Guardian. 1 March 2013. Archived from the original on 5 October 2023. Retrieved 1 March 2013.
  7. ↑ တရုတ်မှောင်ခိုသမားတွေ အရမ်းကြောက်ခဲ့ရတဲ့ ရွှေတြိဂံနယ်မြေက နာမည်ကျော် စိုင်းနော်ခမ်း, archived from the original on 2021-09-21, retrieved 2021-09-21
  8. ↑ Qin, Amy (2015-01-14). "In Remote Thai Villages, Legacy of China's Lost Army Endures". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2021-03-08. Retrieved 2023-10-05.
  9. 1 2 Kaufman, Victor S. (2001). "Trouble in the Golden Triangle: The United States, Taiwan and the 93rd Nationalist Division". The China Quarterly (166): 440–456. ISSN   0305-7410. JSTOR   3451165. Archived from the original on 2018-11-30. Retrieved 2023-10-05.
  10. ↑ Wang, Ann (2017-03-27). "In Taiwan, the legacy of the KMT's Burma retreat". Frontier Myanmar. Archived from the original on 2017-03-27. Retrieved 2023-10-05.
  11. ↑ Chang, Wen-Chin (2014). Beyond borders : stories of Yunnanese Chinese migrants of Burma. Ithaca. ISBN   978-0-8014-5451-6. OCLC   904979076.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  12. 1 2 "Review: Mekong river murder tragedy". CNTV. 12 July 2012. Archived from the original on 3 November 2016. Retrieved 16 August 2012.
  13. 1 2 3 4 "Chinese crew killed 'by drugs gang' on Mekong River". BBC. 10 October 2011. Archived from the original on 5 March 2013. Retrieved 16 August 2012.
  14. 1 2 "China Suspends Boat Traffic on Mekong". New York Times. 10 October 2011. Archived from the original on 30 July 2012. Retrieved 16 August 2012.
  15. ↑ "中国船员泰国境内遭劫持杀害" (in Chinese). Sina. Archived from the original on 5 October 2023. Retrieved 20 August 2012.
  16. 1 2 3 "Naw Kham 'admits plotting sailor murders'". Bangkok Post. 24 July 2012. Archived from the original on 17 January 2013. Retrieved 19 August 2012.
  17. 1 2 "PM mulls 'Operation Mekong' ban". Bangkok Post. 28 September 2016. Archived from the original on 19 October 2023. Retrieved 4 October 2017.
  18. ↑ China Internet Information Center, "Mekong River Murderers Sentenced To Death", 6 November 2012, retrieved 7 November 2012
  19. ↑ "Mekong River four-nation patrols begin after attacks". BBC. 10 December 2011. Archived from the original on 5 October 2023. Retrieved 20 August 2012.
  20. ↑ "泰称该国军人涉嫌杀害中国船员已有充分证据". Sina (in Chinese). 7 January 2012. Archived from the original on 5 October 2023. Retrieved 20 August 2012.
  21. ↑ "湄公河行動（2016）". cbooo.cn (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 6 December 2016. Retrieved 2 September 2017.
  22. ↑ "湄公河行動 (2016)" (in Chinese). douban.com. Archived from the original on 8 August 2023. Retrieved 2 September 2017.
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