Aspiring Actor Was Violently Kidnapped And Trafficked

A Chinese man’s venture into acting exposed a world of kidnapping and scamming.

37-year-old Xu Bochun was out of a job due to pandemic layoffs and going from temp job to temp job when he noticed an advertisement for an acting gig in June 2023. The ad offered 10,000 yuan (around 1,426 USD) for a month’s work as an extra in a movie in southwest China.

However, when he arrived, he and others were transported into the mountains, where ten men with knives hanging from their belts met them. They were then marched into Myanmar, taken through multiple checkpoints, and ultimately arrived at a walled compound that held other abducted individuals.

There, they were held and beaten into silence by guards as they awaited “purchase.”

He was eventually sold to an outfit run by a notorious crime family that scammed individuals using Instagram and Facebook, working 16-hour days. There, the beatings continued to encourage captives to meet goals.

Ultimately, Xu was only freed after a message sent to a friend during a supervised period on the phone led to police negotiating the terms of his release. Xu’s family paid 620,000 yuan (around 88,000 USD) as ransom, which was only gathered by his mother selling her house.

The horrors he experienced, including murder, have made a huge impact on his life.

I don’t know their names, don’t know where they were from, don’t know if they were Chinese, I just know they were cheated into going there. I bet their families don’t even know they were in Myanmar, don’t know that they died.”

— Xu Bochun

In the case of Xu’s captors, Liu Zhengxiang, the head of the crime family who owned the outfit, was arrested and deported to China, where he is waiting trial.

Though there was a crackdown in this specific area, more trafficking supplied centers have pop-up across the globe.