In 2016, he struck a deal with a Karen warlord, Saw Chit Thu, to build a new city together. She Zhijiang would provide the funds, the Chinese construction machinery and materials, while Saw Chit Thu and his 8,000 armed fighters would keep it safe.

Glitzy videos by Yatai promised a $15bn (£12.1bn) investment and depicted a high-rise wonderland of hotels, casinos and cyberparks. Shwe Kokko was described as part of Xi Jinping’s Belt-and-Road Initiative or BRI, bringing Chinese funds and infrastructure to the world.

China publicly dissociated itself from She Zhijiang in 2020, and the Myanmar government launched an investigation into Yatai, which was building far beyond the 59 villas authorised by its investment permit and was operating casinos before these had been legalised in Myanmar.

In August 2022, acting on a Chinese request to Interpol, She Zhijiang was arrested and imprisoned in Bangkok. He and his business partner Saw Chit Thu have also been sanctioned by the British government for their links to human trafficking.

She Zhijiang claims to be a victim of double dealing by the Chinese state. He says he founded his company Yatai on the instruction of the Chinese Ministry of State Security, and insists that Shwe Kokko was then a part of the BRI.

He accuses China’s communist leadership of turning on him because he refused to give them control of his project. They wanted a colony on the Thai-Myanmar border, he says. China has denied any business relationship with She Zhijiang.

While he denied any wrongdoing on Yatai’s part, She Zhijiang, however, admitted to “a high probability” that scammers were coming to Shwe Kokko to spend their money.

“Because our Yatai City is completely open to anyone who can go in and out freely. Refusing customers, for a businessman like me, is really difficult. This is my weakness.”