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Overview With its 1.3 billion inhabitants and stable economic growth, China is becoming a very significant country. One might have heard of China being referred to as the Dragon, the Big Brother, or the World Market, the names reflecting on the country’s position. One thing is clear, though, even when considering the purchase of one item, the numbers become enormous when multiplied by 1.3 billion, which is why the name “China” works as an eye-opener. Not so long ago, when someone talked about...

Concerning these communities I would like to make two comparative remarks: one concerns Thailand and the other concerns Burma. 1) When we speak about the Chinese in this country there is a sort of taboo. As people in general do not like too much to speak about the Chinese during conversations with strangers some subjects concerning that community are never mentionned or are systematically concealed. The reason for such a discreet attitude is obvious. For most of the foreigners the inhabitants...

In most Southeast Asian countries, the members of the Chinese Diaspora have secured important position in the fields of administration, education and religion. Thanks to their capacity to work and to adapt as well as their frugality, their cultural influence continues to grow. Clans and factions form the essential structure of the ancient Chinese society. If Imperial China never developed a Civil Law, it's probably because the ancient Chinese society never really saw the need for it. This structure of relations could also explain why the Chinese civilisation didn't develop a real territorial reference. The Chinese Diaspora today covers different political and economical realities which could be conflicting. What primarily characterises the Diaspora is apparently its great capacity to organise itself in any economical, political, social or cultural environment. The capacity if its economic and administrative elites had been the determining factor of their development. However, the existence of informal and trans-national networks can also help the development of criminal activities. The presence of mafia groups and gangs of Chinese origin and their collusion with the world of finance and politics are historical facts in the region and could represent today a real threat for its stability. These criminal networks tend to forge business link with their Japanese, Russian, Korea, Italian or South American counterparts and sometimes could interfere with the process of political decision making.

From the neon-lit streets in the heart of triad territory in Hong Kong and China’s ganglands dominating the sex, extortion and drug trade; to counterfeiting luxury goods straight off the shelves of the Parisian fashion houses of Louis Vuitton, Pierre Cardin and Chanel; right down to hired assassins, the illegal shark fin trade and clandestine methamphetamine factories on the tropical island paradise of Fiji, they are everywhere. They run casino loansharking and operate multi-billion dollar bl...

I would like to tell you a word about what I think of the links between Organized Crime and terrorist networks. Because a lot of people pretend there are strong links between Organised Crime and terrorist networks, which is absolutely wrong. Both are professional, but they have not the same goals. Terrorist organizations can receive the help of petty delinquent groups, but not share their activities with organized criminal networks. First idea, for discussing about that, we have to come back ...

Among all the minorities in South East Asia, the Chinese Diaspora is by far the most influential. Its centuries-old presence, its demographic weight, the richness of its transnational network, its cultural, economical and political influence in some countries in the zone raise a series of question. The Diaspora role is essentially a political question. Who really are they? Who is Chinese and how integrated in their host country could they be? Does the multi dimensional influence of these grou...

Ethnic Chinese is considered one of so many minorities in Indonesia. The majority of Indonesians are Javanese and Sundanese making up to 50% of the total population of Indonesia which is about 220 million people. On the other hand, the fact shows the important role of the Chinese – Indonesians particularly in the economy and trade sector. Although the ethnic Chinese in Indonesia is the largest community among the other countries in South East Asia but they are still facing ongoing problem of ...

Summary This article seeks to portray a realistic picture of the current situation af the Chinese diaspora in this frontier region and perhaps defend the reputation of this community, the members of which are often systematically accused of being implicated in the flesh trade, in their capacity as the main people concerned as well as participants, for if some members of the Chinese community are indeed involved in prostitution and flesh trade, all are not necessarily concerned and there are r...

As an introduction to the second day, Alain Forest warns against the unfair association that can be made between the Chinese presence on the one hand, and illegal or underground activities on the other. That all the Chinese more or less belong to mafias is an old cliché, arising particularly from the existence of an organization (sometimes under colonial impulsion as in French Indochina) of congregations generally based on the origin of Chinese immigrants; a cliché that is obviously reinforce...

Antony, Robert James. (1988). Pirates, bandits, and brotherhoods: A study of crime and law in Kwangtung Province, 1796-1839. Thesis (Ph. D.) -- University of Hawaii. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii. Billingsley, Phil. (1988). Bandits in Republican China. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1988. Black, David. (1991). Triad Takeover: A Terrifying Account of the Spread of Triad Crime in the West. London, UK, UK: Sidgwick & Jackson. Bolton, Kingsley (ed.) (2000...

Overview In its most common form, the collective term triad refers to underground criminal fraternities. These fraternities are almost exclusively made up of Chinese membership, and although having originated in Mainland China, these societies have followed the migratory movements of the Chinese across the globe. Originally the triads were formed with political aims in mind, but over time they degenerated into criminal societies driven by greed. Today they are both opportunist and organized c...

“Na thi dai mi chao chin apphayop na thi ni cha mi samakhom yu duai samoe.” M.R. Ayumongkol Sonakul, a newspaperman from royal ancestry translates this sentence as “They (the secret societies) existed everywhere there was a large Chinese community” (Sonakul 1985: 16; Leotphanitkun 2525: 1; 2528: 72). The word ang-yi (อั้งยี่) is quite familiar with the Thai people. However, all Thai dictionaries do not include it. One of the largest Thai-English dictionaries gives “Chinese secret society” a...

1. Hong Kong Triads Triad societies appeared in Hong Kong even before the Chinese ceded it to be a British colony in 1842. Although the triads in Hong Kong had some indirect links with those in China, the take-off of Hong Kong triads was a direct response to the conflicts between different migratory dialect groups for job opportunities in the labour market by the turn of the 20th century. According to the record of the Hong Kong police, there were more than 300 triad societies in the ...