China airs confession from northern Myanmar crime boss Wei Hauiren

Criminal gangs in northern Myanmar targeted Chinese citizens with the support of local political and military leaders, state media has reported.

On Wednesday, the national broadcaster CCTV aired a confession from the head of an alleged crime family Wei Huairen, who is also known as Wai San.

Wei was handed over to Chinese law enforcement in January.

A police officer told the broadcaster that the criminal activities of the Wei family – one of the main ethnically Chinese crime gangs in Kokang – had been “state-authorised”.

The broadcaster said the Wei family was different from the other Kokang crime syndicates because its leader directly commanded an army unit, while the others hired militias.

In 2009 the Myanmar authorities reached a deal with ethnic Chinese militia groups that allowed them to form border security forces nominally under the national army.