Ton Pheung District

Given its location, the district has been the center of much conflict in the past. A dispute broke out in 1999 over Thai farmers cultivating on district lands and on 25 February 2008 an attack broke out on the Burmese border involving Burmese drug lords. A drug gang in Burma led by Naw Kham attacked a Chinese maritime police boat on the Mekong River, injuring Chinese border guards. They were sent to Kasemrad Sriburin General Hospital in Chiang Rai to recover.[2]

The district economy and also that of Bokeo Province is now dominated by the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone (GT SEZ) in Ton Pheung District.[3] In 2007, Kings Romans Group, owned by well-connected Chinese husband and wife Zhao Wei and Su Guiqin, entered into a 99 year lease for 10,000 hectares on the banks of the Mekong.[3] The company was granted 3,000 of these hectares as a duty-free zone, now the SEZ. As gambling is illegal in China, and the SEZ is only a two-hour journey by road from China, casinos and hotels catering to a Chinese clientele were built.[4] A robust industry involving trafficking in endangered animals has grown up around the Chinese tourist trade.[5] In January 2018, the US Treasury Department announced sanctions against what it called Zhao’s transnational criminal organisation, engaging in illicit activities, including human trafficking and child prostitution, drug trafficking and wildlife trafficking.[3]