Vietnam, China pledge fight against cross-border bets

Nov 03, 2022 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck  

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Vietnam and China have agreed to promote bilateral cooperation against “cross-border gambling” among a number of law enforcement topics. The agreement was on the occasion of the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Nguyen Phu Trong, making an official visit to China on Monday and Tuesday this week (October 31 to November 1), Vietnam’s government news agency VGP reported.

The pledge to tackle cross-border gambling was mentioned in a statement issued jointly by the nations.

The Vietnam official’s visit to China was at the invitation of China’s leader, President Xi Jinping, and the two were pictured in Chinese and Vietnamese media meeting face-to-face.

The statement mentioned Vietnam and China would promote cooperation against “terrorism”, “colour revolution”, – a term China has used previously to describe protests in Hong Kong – “drug crime, cybercrime, cross-border gambling, human trafficking and high-tech crime”, as well as the “tracing of wanted criminals”.

The joint statement also included an agreement to promote tourism, but noted such effort would have to be in line with the two countries’ “pandemic prevention policy”.

A number of government departments in China has issued statements in the past few years regarding a crackdown on citizens travelling overseas for casino play, or having involvement in online betting: referred to collectively as “cross-border gambling”. China’s amended criminal code outlaws anyone assisting others in such activity. It came into effect from March 1, 2021.

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