Myanmar junta angry at China over crime blockbuster No More Bets
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Despite its recent release in August, No More Bets has become the third most popular film in China in 2023.
Follow topic:
YANGON - Myanmar’s junta has lashed out at close ally China over a blockbuster film on human trafficking and scam compounds that has “tarnished” its reputation, state media reported on Friday.
Chinese thriller No More Bets tells the story of a computer programmer who is trafficked to an unnamed South-east Asian country and forced to work as an online scammer for a syndicate.
The film does not mention Myanmar by name but its setting resembles the country’s lawless northern reaches, where Beijing says its citizens are regularly lured or trafficked and forced to scam their compatriots online.
The scams anger Beijing, a major ally and arms supplier for the internationally isolated junta.
The junta’s Consul-General in south-western China’s Nanning raised with Chinese officials the issue of “tarnishing of Myanmar’s image in the film... which was shot by China and released in China and around the world”, according to state newspaper the Global New Light of Myanmar.
“The storylines are related to Myanmar and there are reports that Chinese nationals are worried about visiting Myanmar,” he told government officials in Guangxi region earlier this week.
Despite its recent release in August, No More Bets has become the third most popular film in China in 2023, taking in 3.8 billion yuan (S$721.5 million) and super-charging online discussion about the dangers of visiting South-east Asia.
A month before the film’s release, China told Myanmar’s junta to “root out” online scam centres in its lawless borderlands that target Chinese citizens.
The film has not been shown in Myanmar cinemas. AFP
