Philippine Leader Orders Shutdown of Chinese Gambling Industry

Things are about to get very interesting between China and the Philippines.

On Monday, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered all Chinese-run online gaming operations to cease.

This will be a significant blow to tens of thousands of workers in China and Southeast Asia, but shockingly, Beijing is backing the move.

Corrupt

The reason for the shutdown is the operations have been tied to various crimes, including financial scams, human trafficking, torture, kidnappings, and murder.

According to the report, this will impact roughly 400 operations and tens of thousands of workers.

But, as we noted earlier, this was a move that was backed by Beijing.

During his address announcing the operation, Marcos stated, “Disguising as legitimate entities, their operations have ventured into illicit areas furthest from gaming such as financial scamming, money laundering, prostitution, human trafficking, kidnapping, brutal torture, even murder.

“The grave abuse and disrespect to our system of laws must stop.”

This is an odd cooperation between two nations that have a long history of feuding and disputes, including a stretch of the South China Sea that Manila claims to be part of its territory.

On that, Marcos stated, “The West Philippine Sea is not only a figment of our imagination. It belongs to us.

“In the face of challenges to our territorial sovereignty, we will assert our rights and interests in the same fair and pacific way that we have always done.

“Proper diplomatic channels and mechanisms under the rules-based international order remain the only acceptable means of settling disputes.”

Recently, tensions have been running high at the Second Thomas Shoal, which is located in the Spratly Islands (South China Sea), only about 105 miles west of the Philippines.

This week, the Philippine government announced that China and the Philippines had reached an agreement to end those hostilities, but no formal agreement has been released to the media as of this report.