Photo: Sina Weibo

A half-marathon race scheduled in Zhenkang county, Southwest China’s Yunnan Province bordering Kokang in Myanmar has stirred heated discussion online, due to the rampant telecom scamming activities in northern Myanmar, a place for telecom fraud dens. 

After the half-marathon race titled with “China Zhenkang and Myanmar Kokang” was announced, many Chinese netizens were concerned about the safety of the competition. 

Some netizens wondered whether it is safe to hold the marathon race near the telecom fraud park in Kokang. 

The authorities in Zhenkang told media on Monday that this event is just a sub-project of the friendship games between China and Myanmar, which have been held in the region for over a decade. Since the county is on the border, it may appear as if the runners will cross the border. However, the entire race route is actually within China’s territory and the runners’ safety can be assured. 

Besides, there will be volunteers providing services along the marathon route. 

So far, more than 190 Chinese runners have applied for participating in the event, local officials said. 

According to the announcement released by Zhenkang, the 21.09-kilometer half-marathon and the mini-marathon of 5 kilometers will start at 8 am on October 1. The first prize of the half-marathon will be awarded 10,000 yuan ($1,370). 

To ensure the runners’ safety and normal participation in the race, specific sections along the marathon route will be closed during the race. 

Moreover, runners who fail to finish the marathon within the prescribed time have to stop running and withdraw from the race to avoid dangers. 

Besides, the location of the event is in Nansan township in Zhenkang county, with the starting point and finishing line of the half-marathon race located in Nansan Riverside Park. The starting point of the mini-marathon is also in the park and its finishing line will be set up on Huancheng Road in Nansan township. 

Since the reopening of the China-Myanmar border after the COVID-19 epidemic, there have been more and more personnel flows and trades on the border. Nansan borders the capital of Kokang autonomous region which the Myanmar government has no real control of. Lately, telecom fraud dens have been clustering in the region with its derived crimes of kidnapping, human trafficking and other illegal crimes becoming rampant.

In order to curb the high incidence of telecom fraud crimes in northern Myanmar with Chinese nationals involved, China’s Ministry of Public Security has demanded Yunnan police department to strengthen border law enforcement cooperation and to carry out multiple rounds of crackdown operations. 

A fresh group of 109 suspected telecom scammers were handed over to China from northern Myanmar, bringing the accumulated number to 1,482, following recent moves by China’s MPS to intensify border police cooperation efforts in cracking down on cross-border telecom fraud, reports said. 

Global Times