Center for International Policy

Northeast Asian Organized Crime Syndicates:
Japanese Yakuza, Russian Mafias and Chinese Triads

Although organized criminal groups have existed for centuries, transnational crime has flourished with the advent of global capitalism. First, the domestic transition of many countries to capitalism allowed for opportunities to take advantage of holes in the political economy. A sizeable émigré population overseas, new freedoms to travel internationally, increased contact with multinational companies and local political elites, and alliance formations with foreign criminal organizations have bolstered the size and scope of transnational criminal activities by the Japanese Yakuza, Russian Mafias and Chinese Triads.

In post-WWII Japan, the gurentai (hoodlums) exploited black market opportunities and the power vacuum in government and businesses, and recruited from the disillusioned unemployed and repatriated soldiers. The blurred line between right-wing nationalists, politicians, and underground entities provided today’s Yakuza with links to political circles, which eventually introduced them into the banking sector. The Yakuza later were able to infiltrate itself into the New Economy. Their main activities are in illegal drugs and the sex trade. A large portion of the bad debt held by Japanese banks is said to involve front companies linked to organized crime. The Yakuza also have infiltrated the West on the backs of multinationals through their sokaiya (corporate blackmailing) activities. Today’s Yakuza are engaged in the full range of criminal activities in alliance with organized crime groups around the world.

In post-Soviet Russia, wholesale economic transformation, coupled with weak macroeconomics, depressed industrial sectors, and widespread corruption, loosened the central government’s grip during the privatization process beginning in the mid-1980s. Today, there are tens of thousands of members in thousands of organized crime groups in Russia, a few hundred of which are active internationally. An estimated 40 percent of the GDP is controlled by Russian organized crime. In addition to ex-KGB members, there are also economists, bankers, engineers, military men, and a whole host of skilled workers forsaken by the fallen Communist regime. The skills that they bring to the world of organized crime are unprecedented.

The Chinese organized crime groups of today began outside of the mainland. After Mao Zedong’s victory, remnants of Chiang Kai Shek’s army fled to the fringes. The Burmese refugee group came to dominate Golden Triangle opium poppies. Taiwan’s United Bamboo originated from Chiang Kai Shek’s own sons. The Kuomintang party became heavily indebted to Triad groups for helping to mobilize votes. By the 1980s, Taiwanese Triads had become one of the most powerful ethnic Chinese groups. In Hong Kong, the end of WWII created opportunities for Triad expansion, first from a mass exodus of refugees from mainland China and second, from a large black market, which flourished after the British re-acquired Hong Kong and banned opium. As in Russia, the opening of China to the West beginning in the 1980s gave birth to free enterprise and diminishing state control over daily life. Crime groups based in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan expanded into the southern China provinces of Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejian, and Yuennan. Chinese authorities estimate that as many as 150,000 criminal gangs, either locally spawned or connected to large syndicates in Hong Kong and Taiwan, now operate in the People’s Republic of China. Since the early 1980s, China’s Ministry of Justice, Public Security Bureau, National Police Force, and People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have cooperated with private enterprises, some with Triad connections, in multi-billion dollar portfolio investments. Corrupt Chinese officials also are believed to be in bed with Triads in smuggling illegal aliens, stolen cars, cigarettes, and other commodities. Triad activities stretch overseas to Australia, Europe, Japan, Latin America, North America, Russia, South Africa, and Southeast Asia. Chinese Triads overseas are varied in size, structure, and activities, adapting readily to conditions in host countries. Triads employ both members and non-members to conduct their businesses, and these pragmatic assemblages dissipate and reconfigure over time, making detection more difficult.

Transnational criminal entities, not unlike the globalization of multinational corporations, forge cross-border linkages directly through expansion, or indirectly through strategic alliances, to strengthen their operational efficiency, minimize risks, and maximize returns. Globalization of trade, population mobility, technology, transportation, communications, information, and financial systems provide new opportunities for criminal enterprises to operate across borders. Many of the countries in question are characterized by weak governance and widespread corruption. The appeal of drugs and other criminal money to besieged rulers and political aspirants is obvious and potentially compelling. Also, the financial and manpower resources at the disposal of the crime syndicates far outweigh those of the police and regulatory authorities. Transnational crime represents a challenge to the national sovereignty and integrity of independent states and can threaten the survival of governments. Failure to address these problems reduces a government’s capacity to govern, weakens the credibility of financial institutions, and undermines social order by questioning the rule of law and increasing the level of violence.

Lawrence Wan
MSFS Candidate 2004, Georgetown University
CIP Intern, Fall 2003