China is closely following recent reports that Sri Lanka’s police arrested a number of foreign suspects for online fraud, including Chinese nationals, a media release from the Chinese Embassy stated.
“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 Lanka’s law enforcement agencies in resolutely tracking down suspects while protecting their legitimate rights and interests in accordance with the law.
“Due to Sri Lanka’s advantages in telecommunications infrastructure, geographical location, and friendly relations with China, and the public lack of awareness of online fraud, some electronic-fraud criminal gangs have moved to Sri Lanka and continue to engage in fraudulent activities targeting Chinese citizens at home and abroad.
“This is also a reason for the recent trend of multiple telecom fraud cases in Sri Lanka. The Chinese Government attaches great importance to this trend, and actively promotes China-Sri Lanka online fraud law enforcement cooperation. The Ministry of Public Security of China sent a working group in September, to jointly carry out a special operation with the Sri Lanka police to crack down on telecom fraud.
“A large number of suspects were arrested. Repatriation and other elatedwork are being steadily advanced. This cooperation has just begun and is far from over.
“In the era of globalisation, no country can remain insulated. China and Sri Lanka enjoy a traditional friendship. Cooperation in various fields is very close. Our two countries have always supported each other to bring benefits to our two peoples.
China stands ready to further strengthen law enforcement cooperation with Sri Lanka and take swift and effective action to jointly address this problem. China also hopes to gain understanding and support from the Sri Lankan government and people, especially the police and media.
In the world today, crimes of telecom and online fraud are rapidly developing and spreading in various countries and have become a worldwide common danger and a global problem to solve.
China has carried out fruitful cooperation with many countries, including Myanmar, Cambodia, and the United Arab Emirates, to combat such fraud in recent years. A great deal of criminal gangs were smashed and significant results were achieved, but some criminal groups moved to peripheral countries in Southeast Asia as a result.
