ECONOMYNEXT – China will provide its full cooperation to crackdown its nationals who have been suspected to have involved in financial scam after over 100 Chinese nationals have been nabbed by police over suspected online scam.
Sri Lanka police have arrested more than 150 Chinese nationals over their alleged involvement in online financial scam.
“China is closely following the recent reports that Sri Lankan police arrested a number of foreign suspects of online fraud, including Chinese nationals,” the Chinese Embassy in Colombo said in a statement.
“These cases not only pose a threat to the property of our two peoples, but also seriously damage China’s image and affect the traditional friendship between our two countries.”
“The Chinese Embassy provides full support to Sri Lankan law enforcement agencies in resolutely cracking down on suspects while protecting their legitimate rights and interests in accordance with the law.”
Sri Lanka police last week said it had arrested foreigners from China, India, and Thailand over online financial scams.
The Embassy said China has already implemented effective measures to curb telecom and online frauds with the incidence of such cases in China has declined year on year for 17 consecutive months since June 2021.
It said China has carried out fruitful cooperation with many countries, including Myanmar, Cambodia, and the United Arab Emirates, to combat such fraud in recent years.
“Due to Sri Lanka’s advantages in telecommunications infrastructure, geographical location, and friendly relations with China, as well as the public lack of awareness to online fraud, some electronic fraud criminal gangs have moved to Sri Lanka and continue to engage in fraud activities targeting Chinese citizens at home and abroad.”
“This is also an important reason for the recent trend of multiple telecom fraud cases in Sri Lanka.”
The Chinese Embassy said Beijing actively promotes China-Sri Lanka anti-online fraud law enforcement cooperation.
“In order to effectively crack down on telecom fraud and create a strong deterrent, the Ministry of Public Security of China sent a working group in September, to jointly carry out a special operation with the Sri Lankan police.”
“A large number of criminal suspects were arrested. The repatriation and other work are being steadily advanced. This cooperation has just begun and is far from over.”
“China stands ready to further strengthening law enforcement cooperation with Sri Lanka and taking swift and effective actions to jointly address this problem,” the Embassy said. (Colombo/October 14/2024)