Things have been loud and restless on the streets of Myawaddy over the past few days.
It all started when the "Hengsheng 4" scam compound, tucked away near Jetty No. 1 and run under Karen Border Guard Force (BGF) Major Mote Shwe, was exposed in media reports on September 18. Once the word got out, total chaos broke loose inside the complex on the night of the 19th.
More than a thousand Chinese nationals packed their bags overnight. A endless line of vans and trucks shuttled in and out of the back gate, hauling away everything from office desks and computer gear to Starlink satellite dishes. Everything was rushed over to a new site beside General Mountain. The place was barely finished, but nobody cared—they just needed to get inside, escorted the entire way by Myanmar military convoys.
How people were settled at the new spot depended entirely on their rank. Local media reported that Chinese executives, protected by Major Mote Shwe, were moved directly into the major’s battalion headquarters or checked into hotels across downtown Myawaddy to wait out the heat.
Low-level Myanmar workers received no such treatment. BGF troops confiscated their phones for inspection and locked them away in warehouses under forced isolation. Meanwhile, ongoing talks between the junta military and the BGF over troop entry have forced the Thai-Myanmar border at Jetty No. 1 to temporarily shut down its gates.
This sudden scramble follows a letter sent on September 15 by two US congressional committee chairs to Washington, demanding an investigation into Major Mote Shwe and calling out the Myanmar military’s scam raids as nothing more than a show.
While political powers trade shots in international headlines, the scene on the dusty, exhaust-filled streets of Myawaddy remains unchanged. The bosses find safe havens, while the low-level workers locked in dark warehouses end up paying the real price.
