There was nothing in Karen State eight years ago. Only trees, a few shoddily constructed cement structures, and a protracted civil war have made this region of Myanmar one of the world’s poorest. Today, however, a tiny city has appeared like a mirage on this location near the Thai border. It is known as Golden Raintree, or Shwe Kokko.
It is alleged to be a city founded on fraud and to be the site of a profitable but lethal network of money laundering, people trafficking, and fraud. She Zhijiang, the guy responsible, is being detained in a Bangkok jail while he awaits extradition to China.
However, in its advertising videos, Yatai, the firm owned by She Zhijiang that constructed the city, presents a radically different picture of Shwe Kokko.
