The Mekong River is known as the Lancang River in China. It has become a major maritime communication artery because it flows through several Asian countries. As the third longest river in Asia, it is known as the "Danube of the East".
At sunrise and sunset, the breathtaking scenery on the river always invites visitors to linger.
But it was also in such a place that there was a tragedy of the century - the "October 5 Mekong River Massacre", also known as the "October 5 Chinese Crew Golden Triangle Murder Incident".
And the murderer who caused this tragedy is called Nao Kang.
As the case was solved step by step, the murderer was caught. Many people have a question in their hearts: Why did Nao Kang specifically find a Chinese ship and kill Chinese?
The tragedy broke out
At noon on October 5, 2011, two Chinese transport ships "Yuxing 8" and "Huaping" were carrying vegetables, fruits, diesel and other materials, slowly sailing on the sea in the Golden Triangle according to the scheduled route.
The Chinese crew on board may be relishing what they have seen on this trip, or they are tired of running and taking a nap, but they are all dissatisfied with the longing for returning to China in the future——
But it was on such a calm afternoon, when no one knew what was going on along the way, and the two Chinese transport ships quietly lost contact with China.
By the time the Chinese side got the news of the Yuxing 8 and the Huaping Binh, the two ships, including the 13 Chinese members on board, had become what the Thai police called "drug carriers" and "drug dealers."
According to the Thai police afterwards, the Chinese ships were unwilling to cooperate during their routine inspections, so the two sides engaged in a fierce exchange of fire, and after killing all the Chinese criminals, the police seized a large number of guns and drugs on two boats.
This was the Mekong massacre.
As soon as this happened, the whole country was outraged! What the people cannot tolerate is not only the smear of this matter by the Thai side, but also the death of innocent compatriots!
Which of the originally conscientious transport crew members is not registered with clean identity? As a result, they were all beaten as "drug dealers" overnight, which made the murdered crew rest in peace? How can this be acceptable to the families of the victims?
Fortunately, the murdered crew was backed by a strong and reliable motherland, and just when the Thai side had already characterized the tragedy as a simple anti-drug case, the Chinese police, which did not accept this perfunctory fact, formed a special team and launched a covert investigation.
As a result, as the Chinese police deepened step by step, more details of this suspicious case also surfaced, showing the public the unknown dark and conspiratorial side behind it...
Doubts are set aside, where is the justice of the Chinese crew?
Under the lightning operation of the Chinese task force, the case has changed with the in-depth exploration of the crime scene by the Chinese side and the investigation of the recovery of the corpses of Chinese crews.
So what is enough for the Chinese police to overturn the conclusions given by the Thai side?
On the one hand, after several simulations and repeated demonstrations of many traces of gunfighting, such as bullet holes and ship bullet marks at the scene, experts from the Chinese task force determined that the situation presented by the traces was contrary to what the Thai police called "gunfire exchanges with drug dealers on the shore".
At the same time, there were also witnesses to the accident who said that the transport ship was a group of men in black who escaped from the Thai police.
On the other hand, the salvaged crew bodies all showed heavy wounds, almost all of them were tied and blindfolded, and the marks on the corpses also indicated that the crew members were killed by execution before they died.
Therefore, through the various abnormalities investigated, the Chinese police asked the Thai side: Does your country's arrest of prisoners not only have to shoot and kill Tuojiang, but also bind prisoners with their hands and faces?
In this regard, the Thai police, who originally arrogantly believed that Chinese crew members were trafficking drugs, were speechless.
Therefore, after determining that there was another hidden secret behind the Mekong River tragedy, a police force led by the Chinese police and united with the four countries of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos launched a pursuit of the tragedy.
The task force peeled the cocoon from the clues, and with their unremitting efforts, the biggest suspect of the case, Nuo Kang, also appeared in the field of vision of the task force.
It turned out that the criminal group headed by Nao Kham was often active in the Mekong River area, taking advantage of the fact that this area was a blind zone under the jurisdiction of various countries, and was a "famous" drug lord in the Golden Triangle.
However, even with a preliminary identification of the culprits, it will not be easy to apprehend them to comfort the souls of the Chinese crew on the Mekong.
Nuo Kham has been active in Thailand, Myanmar and Laos for many years, not only familiar with the routes of various places, but also established its own network and detection eyelines everywhere, because it is very good at controlling people's hearts, and local people often report to him during the police pursuit.
It is also because of this relationship that even if the task force captures several other main figures of its criminal group, such as Sang Kang and Yilai, it also allows Nao Kang himself to take the opportunity to escape from the arrest net.
It can be said that the arrest operation against Nao Kham has failed one after another.
The Chinese task force has never been discouraged. Knowing that several failures had alarmed Nao Kham himself, the task force adjusted its strategy in time and launched an intensive search and arrest in Myanmar in multiple special groups.
Under this heavy search, Naw Kham finally had no way to avoid it and decided to flee to Laos by boat in secret.
The Chinese task force, which had already possessed this information, took a step forward and joined hands with the Lao police to finally arrest Nao Kham.
The arrest of the main culprit has opened a suspicious cloud of the persecution that occurred during the disappearance of the Chinese ship on October 5 -
The "Yuxing 8" and "Hoa Binh" were hijacked by a group of armed speedboat robbers, and on the way to the forced escort of the boat to Thai waters, 13 crew members were brutally killed without escaping the bandits' hands.
After the murder, the Nao Kham Group gang maliciously left drugs and guns on the ship to blame China, and cooperated with the Thai lawless soldiers who came after receiving intelligence, which led to what the Thai police called "arrest and investigation of drug ships".
Since then, the Chinese crew has finally been unjustified, and the souls of the dead wandering on the Mekong River have finally been laid to rest.
Why Chinese?
With the arrest of Nao Kang and other major criminals by the police on April 28, this tragic case has finally been explained.
As a result, more puzzles around Nao Kang and others followed.
But among all the doubts and puzzles, there is a question that has been repeatedly asked——
Why Chinese?
Yes, why go to great lengths to mislead the Thai police and use knives to kill innocent Chinese crew members? Why were they targeting the two Chinese ships "Yuxing 8" and "Huaping"?
In this regard, not only the market is full of discussion, but even those who are concerned about this matter abroad are eager to know the answer to the question.
As a result, some people say that what the Nuokang Group is doing is just greedy for money and wants to rob their belongings by killing Chinese crews.
However, this reason was quickly defeated by another intuitive fact: through the search of the murdered crew members, it was found that the captain of the "Yuxing 8" still had 250,000 baht in his jacket pocket and was not robbed, which is enough to show that the perpetrators did not intend to do so at all.
So is it for revenge?
This reason is indeed worth pondering. From the scars of the bodies of the Chinese crew members killed, it can be seen that there is no obvious difference in the severity of the injuries suffered by each crew member, which at least confirms that the tragedy was not aimed at a single person on board.
But there is no doubt that Nao Kham Group has deep malice towards Chinese.
For this problem, through the interrogation of Nao Kang and his subordinates by the task force, combined with the relevant experience of his gang earlier, what was finally presented to the public were three main reasons -
First, during January 2006, the Myanmar military carried out a "successful operation" on the grounds of the joint assistance of China and Thailand, which led to a "sweep" of Naw Kham Group's warehouses and factories in Tachili and other places, seizing a batch of munitions and striking at one of its production lines of amphetamine pills.
This buried Nao Kang's hatred for Chinese and also sowed the disaster for this tragic case.
Second, the Naw Kham Group has been a scourge along the Mekong River for a long time, forcibly charging so-called "protection fees" to passing vessels.
In the past, ships of other countries obediently handed over the idea that "more is better than less". But only the captains of two Chinese transport ships ignored this barbaric act and refused to pay protection fees.
As a result, Nuo Kang Group's dissatisfaction with the Chinese deepened.
However, if the above two reasons can only be regarded as indirect and direct causes, then the fundamental factor that caused the Mekong tragedy lies in the sharp conflict of interests between the Naw Kham Group and the Chinese.
Third, in recent years, the Golden Triangle Golden Kapok Casino has risen rapidly, changing the traditional casino ecology of the Golden Triangle, and the Nuo Kang Group is resentful because its business has been affected, while the transportation of goods and tourists between casinos has become a pond fish.
More importantly, Nao Kang blamed the slow sales of its goods on Chinese merchant ships seizing their local market.
This is because China's developed manufacturing industry is known to the world, and the goods produced in China are also of high quality and low price, which naturally dominates the market competition at home and abroad, but did not think that this will become another reason why the Nao Kang Group hates China.
It is the deep resentment accumulated for a long time under various absurd reasons that Nao Kang came up with a "poisonous plan". This is why the Nao Kang Group later sent false information to the Thai side and achieved the purpose of provoking the Sino-Thai conflict by framing Chinese ships.
What did you see from the "10.5 Mekong Massacre"?
To fundamentally prevent the recurrence of incidents such as the Mekong massacre, it is necessary not only to make concerted efforts of multiple departments, but also to reach consensus among countries on the fundamental issue of anti-gang crime and anti-narcotics.
So, back to this incident, what does the Mekong massacre tell us?
First of all, from the "October 5 Mekong Massacre", we can see the attitude of the Chinese government - not only attach great importance to it at the first time, but also do a good job in the distribution of tasks at the level of various organs at the first time with a steely hand.
Secondly, the efficiency and strength of the Mekong massacre all demonstrate the dignity and rule of law of our country, and all reflect the warmth of human nature.
Finally, we also explored a cross-regional joint patrol enforcement model from this case.
For regions that span many countries, such as the Mekong River Basin, there are often many blind areas that cannot be administered by various countries, and these blind areas are dark corners that are easy to breed crime, murder, gambling, drug addiction and drug trafficking...
Therefore, it is urgent to explore a new model of law enforcement and security cooperation.
It is also the Mekong River massacre that enabled China, Thailand, Myanmar and Laos to reach a consensus on law enforcement and control evil, began to form a model of international law enforcement cooperation, and gradually normalized this law enforcement model and formed a stable system, so as to strengthen the fight against transnational and cross-border crimes and maintain peace and tranquility in surrounding areas.
As Kanvan, a Lao patrol and law enforcement vessel commander, said, "Maintaining security and stability in the Mekong River Basin is in line with the common aspirations of the people of all countries bordering the river, and is also the common interest and responsibility of the four countries. ”
I believe that with the joint efforts of many parties, the gunfire on the Mekong River will disappear!
epilogue
On February 26, 2013, the Yunnan Provincial Higher People's Court issued its final judgment against the main criminal of the Mekong River, Nao Kang: death penalty! The verdict was so heart-warming that rampant drug dealers finally paid the price in blood.
In June 2020, nearly a decade after the Mekong River massacre, Liu Yuejin, the retired head of the task force, was interviewed by the central media.
When talking about this case, he did not change his former fortitude, but still said in a sonorous and powerful tone: "Behind me is a strong motherland." The life of Chinese cannot be violated, and the dignity of Chinese cannot be trampled on! ”
With the quickest action and the most resolute attitude, China has shown the world that the Chinese government will always be the firm guardian of the rule of law and will always be the strongest backing for Chinese citizens.