FBIS3-59284
"jpcar001___94016"
JPRS-CAR-94-001
Document Type:JPRS
Document Title:China
4 January 1994
MILITARY, PUBLIC SECURITY
Journal Examines Criminal Societies
Overview of Organized Crime
94CM0068A Hong Kong CHIU-SHIH NIEN-TAI [THE NINETIES] in
Chinese No 11, 1 Nov 93 pp 43-45
94CM0068A
Hong Kong CHIU-SHIH NIEN-TAI [THE NINETIES]
Language: Chinese
Article Type:CSO
[Article by Cheng Ying (2110 1305): "Special Editorial:
Criminal Gangs Challenge Security on Mainland--The Rise of
Secret Gangs on the Mainland"]
[Text] In Shaoyang City, a secret gang openly proclaimed in
a public announcement that it had executed a policeman. This
gives us a small indication of the rise and rampancy of criminal
gangs on the mainland. Higher authorities acknowledge that
secret society organizations have appeared in a number of
provinces and cities. In Guangdong Province, at least 100,000
persons are suspected of being involved in secret societies.
Data reveal that crimes committed in various parts of the
mainland in recent years, such as gun running, drug trafficking
in the border regions, car and highway robberies, plundering and
murder, and also the overt and covert operations of underground
gangs leading to serious crimes of great viciousness committed
in groups, are becoming more blatant with each passing day.
Startling and Frightening
Let us first look at a few truly frightening incidents:
In the summer of 1991, a policeman of Shaoyang City in Hunan
Province was shot and killed on a public square in the middle of
the city. The next day, a public announcement was impudently
posted on the board for municipal judicial notices. It said:
"This is to give notice that the Xiao Xiong [Hsiao Hsiung]
Society of China has executed a policeman." It was signed Kuang
Long [Mad Dragon], president of the society.
The "Xue Shou [Hsueh Shou] Gang," that had been extinct in
Fujian Province for the last few decades, has been revived,
headed by a man named Hua Ruya [5478 1172 1509]. Membership of
the gang is made up of inkstone carvers. In a big fight that
erupted on 7 April 1991 with quarry workers, the gang, using
various weapons, enacted a slaughter that had blood flowing in
streams.
In October 1991, a series of murders occurred at Tangshan,
in
which the "Sanjianke [Three Swordsmen] Gang" were involved. The
"three swordsmen" were Liu Zuo [0491 0146], Wang Xincheng [3769
2450 1004], and Lei Yunhai [7191 0061 3189]. The "oath of
allegiance" sworn by gang members was: "Together in life and
death, together in enduring adversity, and no betrayals of the
cause." The purpose was stated as "causing the Communist Party
as much trouble as possible," and their principle of action was
"to perform world shaking deeds."
In May 1990, the public security department of Hebei
Province
broke up the "Jianghu Langren [Vagrants of Rivers and Lakes]
Gang," said to be the country's largest gang of thieves and
burglars. Its chief called himself "Langli Aoyou Yi Quexian,"
which translates as "a crippled immortal roaming
unrestrainedly." He has a 30 year history as pickpocket and
thief, and his real name is Yao Zunxian [1202 1415 6343]. This
gang has gathered up local thieves and burglars and plagued city
and countryside, raking in as much as 100,000 yuan every week
from thefts and burglaries. The gang has a chieftain, a person
in charge of public business, and also a person in charge of
military affairs. Some of its gang members come from highly
educated families, and some have also studied law and have on
several occasions evaded prosecution. The gang also controls a
group of female camp followers, on the one hand, for the purpose
of satisfying the desires of gang members when on long overland
treks without wives, and on the other hand, to screen
activities, having the women appear as serving as young lady
secretaries.
There have been reports that the lodges of the triad society
set up in Guangzhou control prostitution and trade in smuggled
pornography throughout the entire Huanghuagang district. Control
of all underground trades in Guangzhou is divided up between
different gangs, a fact that has already been verified very
early by security personnel.
Most of the independent small street vendors in the
country's
largest small commodities market, the Hanzheng Street in Wuhan,
are being harassed by hosts of self-styled "secret societies."
They enforce payment of "protection money," and it is suspected
that some wear military police uniforms, so that the vendors are
reluctant to report them.
Main Occupation of Criminal Gangs: Smuggling, Drug
Trafficking
Whether in the market towns of the southwestern border
region
or in the "opened-up" zones along the southeastern seaboard,
underground secret gangs have arisen everywhere in recent years,
and they live by victimizing the people. They expand their power
by depending merely on five lines of "trades," namely smuggling,
drug trafficking, arms trading, controlling the immoral trade,
and controlling gambling houses. The following are some
instances of such:
Car thefts and smuggling of stolen cars has been a serious
vexation for the police in Hong Kong and Macao since 1987. The
underground gangs in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Dongguan
collaborate with underground gangs in Hong Kong, have them steal
lots and lots of high class Hong Kong limousines, and then get
them shipped over in repeated successful operations. In 1992
alone, 6,500 limousines were stolen in Hong Kong, and every
month over some 600 cars were transported to the mainland along
secret routes.
Guangzhou's public security department acknowledges that the
criminal gangs on the mainland that steal and smuggle motorcars
are broadly organized and have also infiltrated security,
customs, and border defense agencies. In Huizhou City alone,
security personnel received "goodwill fees" from criminal gangs
amounting to over 10 million yuan.
A certain Tan [6223], leader of the car theft criminal gang
in the Huiyang district, has 34 underlings, and their equipment,
from communications to transportation, is much superior to that
of the security forces.
Some gangs have set for themselves extremely strict
regulations as "society admission" or "gang admission" rituals.
The reason why people are willing to face the risks and join the
gangs is no other than the lure of high reward. The sale of one
stolen car in Guangzhou can often bring a profit of from 30,000
to 50,000 yuan. Quite a few gangmembers are former convicts or
former inmates of "reform through labor" institutions, or have
escaped from prison. They will risk their everything to fight
the police to take personal revenge.
Arms Trading, A Casual Affair
On New Year's Day of 1986, a military convoy on its way to
relieve a garrison on the Sino-Vietnamese border was stopped
when it approached a small town near Menglian. A crowd of young
girls and boys swarmed around the vehicles, peddling
pornographic books and magazines and golden trinkets to the
soldiers. In the baskets of some of these people there were,
open for everybody to see, Soviet-made pistols and ammunition.
One pistol, to be given with 50 bullets in the bargain, was
marked out at 50 yuan. These trading activities were completely
uncontrolled, going on as nonchalantly as fruit sales on inland
railway stations. A few steps further on, in the people's homes,
you could discover baskets full of hand grenades and U.S.-made
semiautomatic weapons. Arms trading in the border region seems
to be a relaxed and free occupation, but actually in most cases
firmly in the hands of some criminal gangs. Some of these people
are indeed the "little Red Guard generals" who 20 years ago had
gone to Vietnam and Cambodia to "support the world revolution."
They have settled and become lawful residents in Laos and
Cambodia and have become quite powerful members of local gangs.
Some have mounted gangs at their disposal and have hired gunman
to protect the arms smuggling and trading on both sides of the
border. The local criminal gangs have their own "Ho Chi Ming
Trails" and are hard to catch and to bring to justice. All these
large and small weapons have a ready market among Hong Kong's
criminal gangs and among the bands of drug dealers in Southeast
Asia. On some routes of the drug trade, local people serve as
well-paid hired guards.
The following are some figures released by southwest border
defense units and other related agencies:
Nov 1988: Sichuan Province broke up an arms case, seized 17
pistols. Sep 1989: Fujian broke up an especially large arms
smuggling case, seized over 1,000 pistols and arrested 30
gangmembers. Apr 1990: Guangzhou broke up a gun and ammunition
case; seized over 100 rifles and over 1,000 bullets. In 1992:
the two provinces of Yunnan and Hainan broke up 21 arms
smuggling cases; involved were 84 rifles, 1,100 bullets, and 90
suspected gangmembers.
In the public security regulations promulgated after the
establishment of the PRC, unauthorized possession and
concealment of firearms is an extremely serious crime. However,
by the 1980's, smuggling of guns and ammunition by devious
routes is no more a unique occurrence. In the hands of the
criminal gangs, these weapons are like time bombs that can go
off at any time and do great harm to society.
Some Peculiarities of Criminal Gang Activities
Public security agencies are well aware of the rise of
criminal gangs all over the country. As early as at the
All-China Public Security Work Conference in May 1989, Ren
Jianxin [0117 1696 2450], president of the Supreme People's
Court, indicated: "The important and large burglary and robbery
cases that have occurred are clearly of a criminal gang nature."
This acknowledgment is more and more verified by actual facts.
In Shanghai alone, the following gang-type secret societies have
been broken up: The Qing Tian She [Blue Sky Society] (in the
suburbs), the Shisan Taibao [Thirteen Guardians] (in the Zhabei
district), the Jiangnan Qixia [Seven Heroes South of the
Changjiang] (in the Nanshi district), and also some others.
When a cadre of the Guangzhou Police Bureau, who did not
want
to reveal his name, was privately interviewed by a certain
Japanese writer, he made some frightening revelations about the
grouping and organization of criminal gangs in the Guangdong
region. He said, there are at least 100,000 suspected criminal
gangmembers in Guangdong. They generally operate as follows:
1. Most make a living in the free market. The government
leaves large loopholes in its control of illegal actions by
small vendors and individual entrepreneurs. Hiding among those
has become like a natural protective screen for the criminal
gangmembers.
2. The link between the criminal societies of the mainland
and the criminal organizations across the border, such as the
Triad Society and the Xin Yi An [Sun Yee On] Society, is
becoming stronger with each passing day. The forces of the
various factions establish "contacts and backing" with and from
the outside, always seeking behind-the-scenes backers and
accomplices for their deeds.
3. Although the territory on the mainland is divided up
between local gang powers, internal rivalry has not yet been
serious so far. For instance, the passenger minibuses in the
cities of Guangzhou and Dongguan are controlled by different
gangs for different routes. They either cajole people to ride
their buses and then halfway rob them clean, or they act in
collusion with the drivers and take from the passengers whatever
they have. This is the root of the scourge expressed in the term
"car thieves and highwaymen." However, if conflicts arise
between different gangs as to "territorial jurisdictions," they
have their own bigwigs who will privately arrange peace. In
Guangzhou there are over 1,000 minibuses that will have to buy
"insurance" from various gang lodges. At 20 yuan per day per
bus, it gives them an average daily income of 20,000 yuan.
4. Places of nightlife entertainment in such big cities as
Guangzhou and Shenzhen are about 80 percent, and to varying
degrees are controlled or infiltrated by underground gangs. Some
of them have their own security guards (thugs), some force girls
into prostitution, and some call all the shots in illicit
gambling operations.
5. Whenever they run afoul of the authorities or are
threatened with a police raid, they have immediate operative
underground "communications channels" that will take the matter
up with the police or the authorities in power and work out a
compromise. In serious cases, they will finally alert the high
and mighty in Hong Kong to personally allay the dispute. In
actual fact, much of the immoral trade in Shenzhen is tacitly
permitted by the police, and the criminal gangs have their
informers right inside the police.
6. It has come to light in recent years that the criminal
gang organizations, for more effective operations, have started
to hire intellectuals at great expense. For instance, the
criminal gang organization in Xiamen already has highly educated
people as ringleaders, and they even have the services of
specialized lawyers who will absolve them from guilt or blame,
besides criminal gangs do not just rob, kill, and commit
misdeeds all day long. They are also very much engaged in
legitimate trade as a shield, and that fact creates great
difficulties for investigating personnel.
"Secret Societies Have Become Part of Society"
It is not possible to narrate one by one all the large cases
of national significance, but it has to be emphasized: Although
their history is a short one, the underground criminal societies
on the Chinese mainland have a savage and cruel character that
is frightening, as they display an extreme hatred for society.
In April of this year, at the Mudanjiang railway station in the
Northeast, it was necessary to call up 300 fully armed policemen
to prevent interception by powerful criminal gangs of the
transfer to jail of a group of 15 prisoners convicted of serious
crimes, because the gangs had threatened that they would use
their guns to rescue the prisoners. Interrogation of the 15
prisoners led to the breakup of a criminal gang of over 90
persons. As a show of force against the police, these people had
committed over 200 crimes of various kinds and had publicly
declared that they would fight the police to the very end. This
case was a great shock to the state's public security and to the
heads of the Chinese communist regime.
To sum up, "secret societies have become part of society"
was
the conclusion reached in one of the internal documents of the
public security department of Guangdong Province. Communist
China has for a long time boasted that secret societies like the
"Qing Bang" and the "Hong Bang" societies, have disappeared from
mainland society. Now we witness their revival in such cities as
Shanghai, Nanjing, Guangzhou, and Hangzhou.
As I finish these lines, there is news that the city of
Harbin in Heilongjiang Province has won a "complete victory" in
wiping out its criminal gangs. Prior to this, the ringleader of
the criminal gang in the city of Harbin had just been planning
to take the precious seat of a member of the Municipal Political
Consultative Conference.