US presses China over alleged scam bosses despite growing police cooperation
Washington says Trump raised the issue with Xi as the FBI expands cooperation with Chinese police on cyberfraud
US President Donald Trump has personally pressed Chinese President Xi Jinping over transnational criminal organisations involved in Southeast Asia’s sprawling online scam industry, a senior State Department official said on Thursday.
Michael DeSombre, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that Washington was raising concerns about both fentanyl trafficking and scam centres “at the highest levels” with Beijing.
“President Trump has raised transnational criminal organisations with President Xi,” DeSombre said during a hearing on Washington’s response to global scam operations.
He said the US had urged Beijing to demonstrate that it was not helping alleged Chinese crime bosses evade international accountability.
“We’ve encouraged China to demonstrate that it is not abetting these crimes by allowing Chinese crime bosses to be held accountable internationally,” DeSombre said.
A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington confirmed that the two countries have been cooperating to combat transnational crime, calling it a “common responsibility” and saying the cooperation had yielded positive results.
“China and the United States have carried out a series of practical cooperation in such areas as combating telecom fraud and online gambling, repatriation and the pursuit of fugitives, and achieved many tangible results,” the statement said.