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Chinese Organized Crime Case Study:
The Growth of Chinese Organized Crime:
The common term for Chinese Organized Crime groups is the Triads. This is information that we gain from glossy Hollywood movies; however the reality is a lot closer to home and there are more than just the Triads. Sands describes Chinese society as a breeding ground for organized crime because of its social structure:
Chinese society is hierarchically organized and incorporates guanxi as a mechanism for social exchange1. This binds individuals into mutual obligate bonds; forming ' a dynamic relational network that sustains them in time of need and advances their social status.'2. In this society, 'law is marginalized and the legal system is relegated to a lowly position in a spectrum of meditative mechanisms'3. As the lines between legal and illegal actions are blurred, the establishment of criminal organizations is facilitated.
The growth of Chinese Organized Crime has grown with the immigration of Chinese communities throughout the world. One of the areas that the Chinese immigrated to was Eastern Europe in recent years when Western Europe, the original EU countries closed their doors to this cultural group. Yet in the EU the damage is still prevalent, for example the huge drugs problem in Holland. The problem with Chinese groups is that they are closely tied to so-called respectable officials in China, i.e. Communist politicians and businessmen making it a lot harder to combat organized crime. The activities of these groups pervade all areas of criminal activity ranging from fraud to human trafficking through to weapons smuggling. These organized crime groups are well established and work with other cultural organized crime groups because as Sands discusses the Chinese Organized crime is isolated to their society in certain criminal activities:
Sands covers these activities in Europe, which include:
In activities other than heroin trafficking, Chinese groups have not yet been able to expand their illegal operations out of their own communities into non-Chinese communities, but what will happen in the future remains to be seen. In these transnational activities, they collaborate with other criminal groups. For example, they have links with Russian groups in Austria.
The links between European Organized Crime in Eastern Europe, as well as Western Europe, and Chinese Organized Crime is especially threatening to EU integrity with the enlargement of the EU to include Eastern European Countries. This will make the crime problem twice as difficult to deal with; as well as making it easier for transnational crime to cross the borders within the EC, especially with the close ties between Chinese Organized Crime groups and so called respectable Chinese professionals.