Hong Kong Deputy Secretary for Security Cheuk Hau-yip (Source: Sing Tao Headline)
The recent rescue of mainland actor Wang Xing from cross-border wire fraud has attracted widespread attention. Meanwhile, Hong Kong is also facing similar challenges. on January 12, Hong Kong's Deputy Secretary for Security, Mr. Cheuk Hau-yip, led a task force comprising the Police Force and the Immigration Department to Thailand to tackle the problem of Hong Kong people being lured to engage in illegal activities outside the country.
Since the second quarter of 2024, Hong Kong has received 28 related requests for assistance, of which 16 persons have been successfully rescued and returned to Hong Kong. The Security Bureau (“SB”) advised that it had all along attached great importance to cases of Hong Kong people being lured to Southeast Asian countries to be confined to engage in illegal employment, and as early as August 2022, a task force was set up to co-ordinate the follow-up work of the law enforcement departments. The Task Force has been actively following up cases seeking assistance, maintaining close contact with the families of the persons concerned, the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China in Hong Kong, the Chinese Embassies and Consulates in the region and Interpol, and making every effort to facilitate the safe return of the persons seeking assistance to Hong Kong, including the proper handling of the quarantine arrangements in Hong Kong.
At present, 12 Hong Kong people, including seven men and five women aged between 21 and 43, are still trapped. Although the personal freedom of these trapped persons is restricted, they are all safe and able to maintain contact with their families. It is understood that most of the victims were lured through social media or communication software, with the fraudsters offering e-tickets to Thailand with the lure of well-paid jobs. In some of the new cases, the criminals have changed their tactics by falsely claiming to be traveling to Japan or Taiwan, among other places, to bring in goods, but then suddenly change their route to Thailand just before the trip.
The task force will meet with representatives of the Chinese Embassy in Thailand and the Committee on Combating Trafficking in Persons, chaired by the Thai Prime Minister, to enhance intelligence exchange and cooperation on rescue. The Thai Government attaches great importance to this incident and has arranged for senior officials to participate in the talks to discuss solutions.
Global border crimes threaten social security
The accelerated process of globalization has brought about frequent cross-border movements of people, and has also given rise to the spread of new types of cross-border crime. From traditional human trafficking to today's complex crimes combined with telecommunication networks, the modus operandi of crime is constantly being renovated. These crimes are often transnational, organized and hidden, posing serious challenges to global social governance.
From an ESG perspective, cross-border crime not only threatens social security, but also seriously undermines human rights and social equity. Taking the recent “pig-killing” scam as an example, criminals took advantage of people's demand for employment and economic pressure during the economic downturn to set up traps through false recruitment. This reflects that in times of economic downturn, enterprises and governments need to pay more attention to the standardization and governance of the employment market and strengthen the protection of vulnerable groups.
Cross-border law enforcement cooperation promotes social responsibility
Combating cross-border crimes requires the multi-party participation of governments, enterprises and social organizations. At present, many international organizations and regions have begun to explore innovative governance models. For example, the cross-border police cooperation mechanism established between Hong Kong and the Mainland, as well as the anti-trafficking cooperation network among ASEAN countries, have provided useful experiences for regional governance.
The most representative is the police and law enforcement cooperation between China's Ministry of Public Security and Myanmar. Since July 2023, the two sides have organized several rounds of crackdowns, and up to now 53,000 suspected wire fraudsters have been handed over to China. In particular, at the end of the previous year, the Chinese side, with the assistance of the Myanmar government, successfully cracked down on the Minh Group, one of the four largest local families of wire fraudsters, demonstrating a firm determination to fight crime and creating a strong deterrent to wire fraud syndicates. These successful cases not only effectively cracked down on crime, but also provided vivid material for global anti-fraud education.
At the corporate level, social media platforms and financial institutions are beginning to assume more social responsibility. A number of tech companies around the world identify suspicious accounts and behavioral patterns through artificial intelligence technology, while financial institutions establish cross-border funds monitoring systems. This governance model of public-private collaboration reflects the active role of enterprises in social governance.
Regional cooperation mechanism helps social governance innovation
In the face of cross-border social risks, it is often difficult to cope with governance means of a single country or region. The establishment of a regular regional cooperation mechanism has become an inevitable choice. In recent years, the Asia-Pacific region has made many useful attempts in this regard. For example, Hong Kong has taken advantage of its position as an international financial center to establish a multi-level cooperative relationship with ASEAN countries, while the Mainland has promoted regional law enforcement cooperation through the Belt and Road Initiative.
In terms of preventive governance, there is a need to establish a more comprehensive social risk prevention and control system. This includes strengthening public education, improving laws and regulations, and establishing an early warning mechanism at various levels. For example, the universal anti-fraud education program launched by Singapore and the cross-border labor protection mechanism established by Japan offer lessons to be learned.
Social governance capacity can be effectively enhanced through multi-level and multi-dimensional regional cooperation. This requires governments to deepen law enforcement cooperation, enterprises to take the initiative to assume social responsibility, and citizens to raise risk awareness. Only by building a government-led, multi-party participation and collaborative governance mechanism can we better meet the challenges of social governance in the era of globalization and achieve a higher level of social responsibility.
Editor's Notes:
The incident of Hong Kong people being trapped across the border reflects the new challenges of social governance in the context of globalization. From the ESG perspective, compound crimes such as human trafficking and cross-border fraud not only threaten the safety of citizens, but also expose the inadequacy of existing social protection mechanisms. The HKSAR Government has taken the initiative this time to establish cross-border law enforcement cooperation with Thailand and other places, reflecting the Government's proactive role in social governance. However, to combat such cross-border crimes, it is far from enough to rely on government forces alone. In the future, it is necessary for the Government, enterprises and social organizations to form a concerted effort to build a more effective regional governance system through a multi-pronged approach of improving the legal mechanism, enhancing corporate responsibility and raising public awareness. This also provides lessons for addressing similar social governance challenges on a global scale.
