BEIJING/TAIPEI – China is battling an explosion of telecoms fraud that has cost billions of dollars in financial losses and driven some victims to suicide, according to authorities in Beijing who say criminal gangs based in rival Taiwan are behind many of the scams.
Chinese state media has blamed weak punishments in the self-ruled island, and reported that Chinese-speaking fraudsters recruited in Taiwan were increasingly setting up operations in East Africa or Southeast Asia.
Despite political tensions, the two sides have in recent years cooperated on investigating such scams, but Taiwan says mainland authorities sometimes do not provide enough evidence for them to do anything.