On September 30, 2016, a film called "Operation Mekong" was officially released, and the film quickly caused a huge response after its domestic release.
The film's storyline is based on the 2011 "10.5" Mekong River tragedy, however, despite the murderous drug dealers portrayed in the film, the actual Mekong River tragedy is more sinister, dirty, and intricate.
In the aftermath of that incident, the mainland government took action to protect the rights and interests of the victims. They not only arrested the main drug lord Nuo Kang, but also exposed the ugly face of the Thai military and changed the situation in the entire Southeast Asian region through practical actions.
So, what is the truth about the Mekong tragedy? How did the mainland exert a profound influence in Southeast Asia?
To solve this puzzle, you first need to look back at the events of that year...
On the morning of October 5, 2011, the Thai military publicly released information claiming that there had been reports of two Chinese cargo ships on the Mekong River, loaded with large quantities of drugs.
The two ships, which were indeed China's Huaping and Yuxing 8, were claimed by the Thai military to have refused to be inspected when they entered and fled at high speed.
After warnings from the Thai military were ineffective, they quickly fired fiercely at both ships. After the crew lost their ability to resist, the military sent people on board to inspect it.
Inspectors found five gunmen on board, one was killed and the others fled. At the same time, more than 900,000 pills were seized from the ship.
Immediately afterward, the Thai military issued a statement claiming to have destroyed the drug trafficking case and explicitly referring to the drug traffickers as "Chinese drug traffickers" and attaching pictures of Chinese vessels.
As soon as the news reached the country, the mainland government responded that it did not accept the findings, stressing that the two boats had been sailing on the Mekong River for many years.
Neither the crew nor the captain of the two vessels had any criminal records, and the captain of the Yuxing 8 had sent a distress signal via radio before the incident.
China urges Thailand to conduct an impartial investigation, reveal the details of the case, explain to the Chinese people, and demand that the baseless accusations against China be stopped.
Despite this, the Thai side has not changed its claims to the outside world, firmly believing that these drug traffickers and drugs come from China.
In order to find out the truth, China can only set up an emergency task force to go to Thailand to investigate.
However, on October 7, two floating bodies were found at Chiang Saen Pier in Thailand, and the deaths were extremely brutal: two people were held in handcuffs, one died from a gunshot wound to the head and abdomen, and the other died from a fatal knife wound to the neck, and the eyes and mouth were still sealed with duct tape.
The investigation confirmed that the two deceased were the sons of Huang Yong, the captain of the "Huaping", and Yang Yide, the captain of the "Yuxing 8".
While the Chinese government was fighting for justice for the deaths of the two crew members, the next day nine other bodies surfaced, also from China, in almost identical circumstances to the previous two.
A total of 11 corpses appeared, directly slapping the Thai military in the face. If the Thai military has previously claimed that drug traffickers are telling us, then why did these people suffer such a tragic end?
In an effort to cover up previous smears against the crew, the Thai military turned the finger at foreign drug trafficking forces in Myanmar's Wa State.
The Myanmar side quickly issued a statement denying any involvement in the case, proposing that the Chinese side set up an investigation team to conduct a comprehensive investigation, and expressed its willingness to cooperate and accept the same investigation.
Similarly, in an effort to expose the ugly actions of the Thai military, the Burmese side made it clear that eyewitnesses saw Thai troops boarding a Chinese vessel, killing five crew members and pushing their bodies into the sea.
The Chinese-led investigation team obtained significant evidence confirming that there were no fingerprints of Chinese sailors on the drugs, nor were there fingerprints of Chinese sailors on the assault rifle and bullets.
In addition, the autopsy report showed that the crew was shot to death on their knees in an "execution-style" manner, indicating that they were restrained before death.
The conclusion is obvious: the two Chinese ships were hijacked by drug traffickers, and the crew members were brutally murdered by Thai soldiers. The case was actually a frame-up of China by drug traffickers in conspiration with the Thai military.
After the results of these investigations were made public, they attracted the continued attention of many countries, waiting for a reasonable explanation from the Thai government.
In the end, under pressure from many parties, nine Thai soldiers surrendered and admitted to participating in the murder. However, the Thai Government has not made public the reasons for the murder and the specific circumstances of the case.
Then, in response to questions that it claimed it was the personal conduct of the nine soldiers, the Thai government announced that it would try them.
However, the so-called trial is really just a formality. After the interrogation, the soldiers were released, and the details of the interrogation remain unannounced.
The brutality of 13 Chinese sailors (one of whom is missing), the brutal tactics of the Thai military, and the Thai government's cover-up of the truth have sparked the anger of countless Chinese people, and almost everyone who knows about this is deeply resentful.
Faced with Thailand's disregard for fairness and morality, the mainland government can only rely on its own strength to thoroughly investigate the case and seek justice for these innocent sailors.
Subsequently, in the course of the investigation, the mainland successfully captured a Chinese drug dealer named Iam Sang-jae. According to Iam Sang-jae, his superior is Eli, and Eli is a key member of the Nuokang drug cartel, the largest drug trafficking organization in the Golden Triangle. Eli revealed to Iam Sang-jae that the "10.5" tragedy on the Mekong River was carefully planned by Nuo Kang.
This key clue raised the suspicions of the investigation team, who wanted to understand why such a large drug trafficking organization as Nuo Kham would take action against several unarmed Chinese sailors.
In order to reveal the inside story, the investigation team set Eli as a new target for arrest, hoping that he could explain the truth of the case.
After careful planning and overcoming many difficulties, in December 2011, the mainland investigation team successfully captured Yilai, a core member of the Nuo Kang drug cartel group.
After being interrogated, Eli's confession revealed the truth about the "10.5" Mekong tragedy and the fact that the Nuo Kang drug cartel had been in collusion with some Thai military personnel for a long time.
It turned out that the reason for the collusion between the military personnel and the Nuo Kang group was that Nuo Kang provided drugs and scapegoats to help them achieve the so-called performance of solving the case, so as to get a promotion and a salary increase. In return, Nuo Kham was given certain privileges of drug trafficking after providing these false performances.
Although the truth of the case has been revealed, the members of the investigation team are facing new challenges. The Mekong River stretches across China, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and other countries, making the survey more complicated.
Across the Mekong Basin, the border between Laos, Myanmar and Thailand, known as the "Golden Triangle", is an area that cannot be effectively controlled.
Due to its unique geographical and political environment, this area became a safe haven for drug dealers and criminals, and most of Nuo Kham's forces were stationed here.
Drug traffickers are extremely cunning, and once caught, they can easily flee to another country, while the arresting party has difficulties crossing borders.
Therefore, it will not be easy for the mainland to arrest Nuo Kang, the main culprit who murdered the Chinese sailors.
In order to overcome these objective obstacles, the mainland government, after difficult negotiations, finally obtained approval to launch a joint arrest operation with these countries.
When formulating the arrest plan, the mainland took into account the relative weakness of Nuo Kham's power in Laos, and decided to force his organization to Laos, and finally arrest him.
However, the Nuo Kang drug cartel has been operating in the Golden Triangle and surrounding countries for many years, and its members are vicious outlaws and armed with heavy weapons.
In their opinion, Nuo Kang's orders are supreme, and they can engage their opponents fiercely without scruples.
In order to carry out the arrest of Nuo Kang, the mainland sent batch after batch of arresting police officers and informants. Eventually, on April 5, 2012, Nuo Kham was forced to a dock in Laos.
Although Nuo Kham tried to continue his escape, he was successfully captured alive by the Chinese police, who had been lying in ambush on the shore for a long time.
On November 6, 2012, Nuo Kang and three other cronies were escorted to the Yunnan Provincial Intermediate People's Court for trial. According to the laws of the People's Republic of China, all are sentenced to death.
In order to escape the death penalty, Nuo Kang appealed several times, but all of them were rejected by the court in accordance with the law. Faced with helplessness, he could only accept the verdict and put forward his last request before his death: he hoped to see his wife and children for the last time and explain what happened after his death. However, the court found that in this case, the victimized crew members also longed to see their families before they died, but Nuo Kang did not give them this opportunity. Therefore, the court ultimately rejected Nuo Kang's request.
On March 1, 2013, the day of Nuo Kang's execution, CCTV broadcast it live and showed it to audiences in China and around the world.
When Nuo Kang was escorted out, many viewers were shocked. The man on the screen does not look like the vicious drug dealer portrayed by the media, on the contrary, he has a beautiful face. Even more surprisingly, he had a smile on his face when talking to the people around him, as if the person he was talking to was not him who was about to be executed.
It wasn't until the police removed the handcuffs from his hands and tied them with ropes that his facial expression changed somewhat. Although he still tries to maintain the image of the "new godfather of the Golden Triangle" and behaves calmly, his trembling feet convey the fear in his heart.
The moment the deadly poison was injected into Nuo Kang's body, the heinous drug lord passed away completely.
Nuo Kang's death drew applause, but it also raised questions about why such a big drug lord would attack a group of unarmed crew members.
There are three main reasons for all this:
During that period, the Chinese government actively promoted the "opium poppy substitution cultivation" program, encouraging farmers to abandon opium poppy cultivation in favor of other crops, which directly undermined the economic interests of the Nuo Kham gang.
Chinese vessels have been sailing in the waters of the Mekong River for a long time, but have consistently refused to pay the so-called "protection money" to the Nuo Kham militants.
The two ships, which had transported troops from Myanmar and Laos, participated in the encirclement and suppression of the Nuo Kham group, sabotaged the drug transportation plan of the Nuo Kham group, and caused them serious economic losses.
Overall, Nuo Kham's attack on the innocent Chinese sailors was done in retaliation for his efforts to help police apprehend drug dealers and to warn the Chinese government.
However, Nuo Kang did not expect that it would be extremely stupid to provoke China and harm the Chinese people.
It is worth mentioning that after the incident that year, drug dealers in the Golden Triangle caused great panic among people, and many crew members were reluctant to sail to that area. Even if the shipping company raises the salary, there are still many crew members who are unacceptable, and everyone is afraid of experiencing a similar incident again. For a variety of reasons, the number of international shipping vessels in the Mekong basin has been significantly reduced, and seaborne trade in many countries has been severely affected.
At the initiative of the mainland, China, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar have reached a four-nation joint law enforcement and security mechanism to jointly safeguard the safety of shipping in the Mekong River Basin. On December 9, 2011, the mainland led the first joint patrol in the Mekong River basin, which played a key role in maintaining security in the region.
It can be said that the Chinese government's firm determination to crack down on drug trafficking has changed the situation in Southeast Asia where drug trafficking has been rampant for a long time.
Conclusion: The fate of Nuo Kham and his gang, as well as the establishment of the Mekong River Joint Patrol and Law Enforcement Mechanism, are facts that the Chinese government and the Chinese police have proved to the world through practical actions: China is no longer the weak and bullying country of a hundred years ago, and any vain attempt to infringe on the personal safety of Chinese will be resolutely cracked down!