15.06.2019

"Triad": Chinese mafia. A History of Organized Crime in Hong Kong. Triads Chinese criminal organization

The Chinese triads are the oldest, and at the same time the largest grouping of the world's ethnic business, the most organized mafia in the world. The date of origin of the organization is not exactly known, historians call the XVII century.

According to one version, the triads originally arose as partisan detachments from the Ming dynasty, whose goal was to overthrow the Manchus from the ruling Qing dynasty. Later, when the representatives of the Ming dynasty had a full-fledged underground network, they began to engage in crime.

Then the basic principles of the organization were laid down: the protection of Chinese culture and business from foreign influence, absolute and unquestioning obedience to a higher authority, an ideological component in the form of Confucianism. It was from Confucianism that the name of the organization came: according to Chinese philosophy, a person is the center of the universe, connecting the opposite poles in the form of heaven and earth, and forms a trinity with them. At the same time, the “triad” is not a self-name, this word in relation to the mafia appeared only in the 19th century. It was invented by the British administration of Hong Kong to somehow designate Chinese criminal groups.

Despite its long existence, very little is known about the organization. The reason for this lies in the extreme closeness of the organization. In addition, it is difficult to guess the representative of the triads both in an ordinary fighter and in a high-ranking head of an organization. Many triad leaders lead a lifestyle that borders on the ascetic, and do not have as many different body paintings as the representatives of the yakuza. It is almost impossible to infiltrate there: only an ethnic Chinese can become a member of the triad, who came on the recommendation of four current members and one leader of the group. Accordingly, the people who vouched for the newcomer are responsible for his actions with his head. At the same time, ordinary fighters of the gang - “brothers” or “monks” - do not know the leader of their cell by sight, therefore, even under torture, they cannot betray him.

The income of the triads is almost impossible to calculate. In the territories under their control, they have a share in virtually all types of businesses, both legal and shadow. Triad illegal activities include racketeering, extortion, contract killings, illegal gambling, murder, illegal migration, car theft, kidnapping, burglary, usury, theft, arson, fraud, pimping, arms trafficking, human trafficking, money laundering, counterfeiting.

Drug proceeds stand out. The triads have taken control of the circulation of opium and its derivatives since the beginning of the 19th century. Then the Middle Kingdom was flooded with cheap drugs, the profit from the sale of which was phenomenal. These events led to two so-called. "opium" wars, when attempts to limit the opium trade led to large-scale military conflicts. To this day, under the control of the triads is one of the three world centers of drug trafficking. The other two - Afghan and Colombian - are under the control of American intelligence agencies.

From the beginning of the 19th century, Chinese merchants and entrepreneurs began to migrate widely around the world. Almost every group of travelers included representatives of triads to control and protect Chinese business. Thus, the triads spread their influence all over the world: in every country where Chinese business is represented, there are also triads.

Of course, Russia, as a direct neighbor of China, could not avoid getting members of the triads into the country. However, the activities of the Chinese mafia in Russia are significantly different from the activities of other organized crime groups. The Chinese act with their characteristic secrecy, avoiding high-profile actions, murders, mass executions, and so on. In addition, recalcitrant members of Chinese communities often become victims of triads, who are also distinguished by secrecy and do not turn to law enforcement officers for help in case of problems.

In Russia, triads work mainly for Far East, next to the border. The main areas of activity are the export of timber, seafood, smuggling and drug trafficking. According to some reports, the Chinese annually export Russian timber worth about $300 million. In addition, the triads are engaged in the theft of precious metals and valuable minerals. In this case, they work closely with representatives of local organized crime groups: Russian bandits steal the necessary metals from Russian factories, and then resell them to the Chinese, who take the valuable cargo home.

In fact, the Chinese mafia brings home from Russia everything that is of some value. Separate smuggling items are trepang, ginseng, tiger skin, bear bile.

In return, the triads bring another “valuable” product to Russia: various fakes of world-famous branded equipment, all sorts of knick-knacks and clothes. Despite the apparent worthlessness of the product, it is widely distributed up to the capital, and its annual turnover is about 10 billion US dollars.

Chinese mafiosi consider it important to cooperate with Russian "colleagues" from among local groups and corrupt officials. Members of the triads try to avoid any conflicts with Russian gangs, preferring mutually beneficial cooperation to bloody showdowns. At the same time, the Chinese are very subtly playing on the vanity and thirst for power of regional gang leaders. Initially presenting themselves as a weaker rival, representatives of the triads very quickly take control of the local "kings". According to Russian operatives, such a thin psychological tricks members of the triads are trained by representatives of the Chinese intelligence services, who themselves are represented in large numbers in the triads.

Chinese organized crime groups have become one of the integral elements of the mysterious and mysterious East. " Triads"For a long time and confidently occupy the second place in the world ranking of criminal communities, second only to the "Italian octopus" in terms of the number of crimes committed. The headquarters of the Triads are scattered all over the world. From Hong Kong to New York. Their areas of interest cover not only the south East Asia, but also Russia, Europe, the United States.

The Triad organization appeared in China 2,500 years ago. The first attempts to create an organized criminal group in the country led to the fact that the bandits united in a kind of trade union, which they dubbed the "Shadow of the Lotus".

"Triad"appeared later, when in the 17th century three Shaolin monks who returned from their wanderings discovered the ashes on the site of their monastery. Then, in the name of justice, they decided to create the "Union of Earth, Man and Sky", which was later joined by the "Shadow of the Lotus".

Centuries have passed, but some things in the way of the "Triads" remain unshakable. A person who joins a gang must drink from a bowl where the blood of all his comrades and the blood of a chicken are mixed. Members of the "Triads" cover the body with tattoos, according to the hierarchy. Betrayal is punishable by death.

To date, more than 150,000 triad fighters, representing more than 50 clans, are based in Hong Kong alone. In China, their number is approaching one and a half million. The entire black market of the country is under their vigilant control. In the clans themselves, strict discipline reigns. The hierarchical ladder is steep, and the path along it is not strewn with roses at all. Each militant is under total control, and any violation of the established rules is most often punished by death.

However, experts have not been able to figure out the scheme by which this or that cell is managed. Modern "Triad" combines network and corporate management models. As a result, members in the field can act autonomously, depending on the degree of complexity of the operation they have to perform. The flexibility of the system allows, if necessary, to connect and disconnect the necessary links from the process of performing the operation.

"Triad"covered all areas of domestic and international crime. Extortion, trade in all types of legal and illegal goods, illegal migration, prostitution, gambling, "protection." Being pragmatic people, Chinese mafiosi meticulously approach accounting documentation. Every month, businessmen receive a "tax inspector" from the "Triad", who checks all documents and calculates the due 15% tax, which goes to the treasury of the mafia. To deceive the "Triad" is unhealthy. Tested by hundreds of generations of entrepreneurs.

To date, the Chinese have taken a leading position in the supply of heroin to the United States and Europe. According to the drug cops, they subjugated a quarter of all Asian traffic.

All the rulers of China tried to fight the "Triads". Since power in the clan passes from father to son, there have never been problems with inheritance. In modern China, two ancient dynasties stand at the top of the criminal pyramid - "14K" and "Green Dragon", which appeared in the middle of the last millennium.

Sometimes a woman can stand at the helm of a clan. by the most a prime example became Lily Wong, who terrorized the entire Malay coast for a decade. But the communists, led by Mao Zedong, could not solve the problem of the mafia, although they shot criminals without trial or investigation. Fallen fathers were replaced by sons. And you can't shoot all the criminals. In addition, when the homeland was in danger, the "Triads" turned out to be surprisingly patriotic organizations. For example, they carried out active subversive activities against the Japanese interventionists.

To get in " triad"It is impossible from the street, although there are more than enough people (there is a critical level of unemployment in the country). Therefore, first you need to get the recommendations of two current members of the Triad, after which the candidate passes an interview with a recruiter, as a result of which he is assigned the task. Most often this is a murder a cop who refuses to take a bribe. Such cops are also identified by psychologists. After such an action, a newcomer is tied to the clan by blood.

As already mentioned, Chinese mafia is the most patriotic criminal group in the world. They send their people to the streets of cities to keep order on a par with the police. The interest of the "triads" in the social order is quite understandable - the mafia supports the political course of the Chinese ruling elite. When Beijing was proclaimed the capital of world tourism, the criminals pledged to protect tourists, betting on increasing the profits of souvenir shops, taxes from which would replenish the clan's treasury.

The Chinese are not looking to make quick, risky money. They prefer to plan profit years in advance. And the money, unlike the Russian gangsters who launder their income offshore, the Chinese send by couriers to their homeland. Hiding income in accounts in Switzerland is considered bad form. The bosses of the "Triad" understand that the richer their country, the wealthier they will be.

Having made their way into the state apparatus of the country, the mafia still did not get to high-ranking officials. And, although small office rats periodically fly out of their warm places, convicted of bribery, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China still remains inaccessible to criminals.

And throughout South China, there was an organization "Tiandihui" (天地會, "Society of Heaven and Earth") or "Hongmen", from which came the "Sanhehui" (三合會, "Society of Three Concords", "Society of Three Harmonies" or "Society triads"), according to one version, founded at the end of the 17th century by fugitive Buddhist monks in the province of Fujian to fight the Manchus.

According to another version, the secret anti-Qing society "Tiandihui" was founded in the 60s of the 18th century in the Zhangzhou district of Fujian province, and soon spread its activities throughout China. In order to increase their authority in the eyes of the peasants, members of the Huidan created and cultivated the myth that the origins of the Tiandihui were five monks who escaped the destruction of the Shaolin monastery by the Manchus and swore to overthrow the Qing dynasty and restore the Ming dynasty. According to this legend, the 128 warrior monks who founded the "Triad Society" refused the Manchu demand to surrender the monastery and shave their heads as a sign of loyalty to the Qing dynasty. After a ten-year siege, the invaders were still able to burn Shaolin, but 18 brothers managed to escape from the ring. After a long persecution, the five surviving monks, who later became ritually called the "Five Ancestors", recreated the triad and began to teach the youth martial ear.

Several smaller groups separated from the Tiandihui, including the Sanhehui. This society took an equilateral triangle as its coat of arms, embodying the basic Chinese concept of "heaven - earth - man", into which the hieroglyph "han", images of swords or a portrait of the commander Guan Yu are usually entered (the number three in Chinese culture and numerology symbolizes the triad, plurality) . The term "triad" itself was introduced much later, in the 19th century, by the British authorities in Hong Kong due to the use of the triangle symbol by society, and from their submission became synonymous with Chinese organized crime. Anti-Qing secret societies also formed from other religious sects. For example, the secret societies Huanglonghui (Yellow Dragon), Huangshahui (Yellow Sand), Hongshahui (Red Sand), Zhenuhui (“True Martial Art”), “Dadaohui” (“Big Swords”), “Xiaodaohui” (“Small Swords”), “Guandihui” (“Ruler of Guandi”), “Laomuhui” (“Old Mother”), “Heijiaohui "(Black Peaks), Hongqiaohui (Red Peaks), Baiqiaohui (White Peaks), Dashenghui (Great Sage), Hongdenhui (Red Lanterns). Although the Chinese authorities banned the smoking of opium as early as 1729, the British began to import this drug into Guangzhou from India from the end of the 18th century, selling it through corrupt Chinese officials (to a lesser extent, but the Americans also imported opium from Turkey). At the end of the 18th century, Hong Kong turned into a camp for a powerful pirate army led by Zhang Baoji, who collected tribute from Chinese and Portuguese merchant ships (during the period of greatest power, Zhang Baoji's flotilla numbered several hundred ships and 40 thousand fighters).

First half of the 19th century

During the suppression of the peasant uprising of 1805, which engulfed the provinces of Hubei, Henan, Shanxi, Sichuan and Gansu, Chinese and Manchu feudal lords executed over 20 thousand members of the Bailyanjiao sect. After another repression by the authorities, one of the surviving leaders of the Baguajiao (Teaching of the Eight Trigrams) sect, Guo Zheqing, fled to Guangdong, where he founded a new Buddhist sect, Houtianbagua, and began to teach wushu to his followers. The merchant Ko Laihuang, also forced to flee from the persecution of the Manchus, brought the "Tiandihui" tradition to Siam and Malaya.

By the end of the first quarter of the 19th century, a powerful drug mafia had already developed in Guangdong province with connections at the very top (the governor and head of the Guangdong maritime customs covered the illegal business, and even the emperor himself received bribes). If in 1821 the British imported 270 tons of opium into China, then in 1838 the import of the drug reached 2.4 thousand tons. The British delivered opium to storage ships off the coast of Guangdong. The junks of local bigwigs and pirates transported the drug to Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shandong and the port of Tianjin, and from there opium dispersed throughout the country (corruption reached such a scale that even the customs ships and the navy of China transported the drug).

A European, who took the Chinese name Lu Dongjiu, led a detachment of several thousand Chinese who, since 1848, attacked only English ships. By the spring of 1849, Qiu Yabao assembled a new flotilla of 13 junks, but in March 1850 the British again defeated him in Dapengwan Bay. In the autumn of 1849, the Sapynchay fleet was also defeated (64 junks and 3.2 thousand fighters). In 1849, the Chinese population of Hong Kong exceeded 30 thousand people (construction workers, servants in the houses of Europeans, boatmen and small traders predominated among them). The Chinese united in fraternities and guilds, and secret societies began to play the role of shadow administration among them (ancestral temples served as centers of compatriots). In Hong Kong, the traditional system of “adoptive daughters” (mozi) was extremely widespread, when poor families sold girls into service, and underground syndicates took children to Singapore, Australia, San Francisco, where they sold them to brothels.

Second half of the 19th century

Among recent immigrants from China, other secret societies were also influential. Thus, the majority of immigrants from Guangdong and Fujian belonged to the members of "Sanhehui", from Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou and Sichuan - to "Gelaohui", from Shanghai - to "Qingbang" and "Hongbang", from Anhui, Henan and Shandong - to " Dadaohui", from Zhili (Hebei) and Beijing - to "Zailihui". But not everyone was able to remain faithful to the old Huidangs in the new place for a long time. In Hong Kong, that "melting pot" of Southern China, with its increased dynamism and mobility, most of the members of secret societies either joined the ranks of the local Sanhehui Huidang or emigrated. In 1887, a law was passed in Hong Kong to combat opium smuggling, but tax-farmers still continued to illegally export the drug to China, establishing links with pirates and officials. By 1891, about 17% of Hong Kong's Chinese population used opium. In May 1894, the homeowners, together with the leadership of the Huidangs, organized another coolie strike in the colony. In 1894, a plague epidemic claimed 2.5 thousand lives, the British authorities demolished several Chinatowns and burned some of the houses, as a result of which 80 thousand people left homeless were forced to leave the colony (in 1895, the entire population of Hong Kong was 240 thousand people). Human). In April 1899, the inhabitants of the "New Territories", under the leadership of the elders of the Dan clan, the largest landowners of the area, began armed resistance to the British, supported by members of secret societies.

In the 90s of the 19th century, Hong Kong served as a rear base for Chinese revolutionaries who were financed by local entrepreneurs Huang Yongshan, Yu Yuzhi, He Qi, Li Sheng and others. The colony also became a point of contact between the revolutionaries and representatives of the anti-Qing secret societies. So, at the end of 1899, in Hong Kong, a meeting was held between leaders of the Xinzhonghui (Union for the Revival of China) founded by Sun Yat-sen and representatives of the largest Huidans - the Gelaohui (Society of Elder Brothers), Qingbang, Hongbang and Sanhehui. ". Revolutionaries and members of secret societies made an alliance, and some Xinzhonghui figures received high positions in the Huidangs, for example, Sun Yat-sen's friend Chen Shaobo joined the Triad, becoming the head of financial management(he was also accepted into the highest hierarchy of the Galaohui society). On the basis of the Hong Kong Triad, the Zhonghetang (Loyalty and Harmony Lodge) alliance was created to assist the anti-Qing forces in the colony. By the beginning of the 20th century, Chinese guilds of traders in rice, sugar, butter, poultry, vegetables and fruits, metal products, fabrics, coal and firewood took shape in Hong Kong, which became an influential force in the economy of the colony. At the same time, the secret society "Sanhehui", which already occupied a strong position in Hong Kong and Guangdong province, began to actively penetrate the environment of Chinese entrepreneurs.

First half of the 20th century

Fellowships, often closely associated with secret societies, created schools for their countrymen, published newspapers, raised funds among the rich huaqiao to help refugees, and financed the maintenance of hospitals and orphanages. Detachments of patriotic Huaqiao from Malaya and the Dutch East Indies fought in China against the Japanese, receiving weapons and medicines from Hong Kong. By 1941, the Japanese had established their own residency in Hong Kong, with which many members of the Huidangs actively worked. Chen Liangbo, a major financier, chairman of the Guangzhou Chamber of Commerce and comprador of Huifeng (HSBC), Chen Liangbo, was even arrested for spying for the Japanese.

The most powerful during the years of Japanese occupation, the Guangdong and Fujian mafias divided the city into spheres of influence, controlled the black food market, many streets, collecting tribute from merchants and passers-by. Members of the Huidangs, who collaborated with the Japanese police, kept brothels (there were about five hundred of them in the Wanchai area alone), opium smokehouses (drugs were delivered by Japanese military aircraft from North China) and gambling houses, paying a share to the invaders. After the surrender of the Japanese in August 1945 and the outbreak of civil war in China, a new wave of refugees poured into Hong Kong. From 1950 to 1950, the population of the colony increased from 1.75 million to 2.23 million people (at the end of 1949, an average of about 10 thousand refugees a week arrived in Hong Kong from China). By 1950, about 330 thousand people lived in the slums and tents of Hong Kong. The British administration in 1950 demolished more than 17 thousand huts, leaving 107 thousand people homeless, and as a result of a strong fire that broke out in the slums of Kowloon, about 20 thousand more people were on the street. The Chinese refugee camps that arose in Hong Kong fell under the control of the mafia, and the system of illegal sale of children became widespread. The activated gangsters and pirates hunted by robbing warehouses and shops, attacking fishing junks and passenger ships, and racketeering entrepreneurs. In 1947, the Hong Kong government's campaign against the Huidang led to the defeat of 27 organizations, the deportation of more than 100 of their members and the arrest of 77 people. In 1948, more than 25 thousand people were arrested (4.5 thousand of which were flogged). In September 1949, the Kuomintang assassinated in Hong Kong a former associate of Chiang Kai-shek, General Yang Tse, who had become close to the Communists.

Second half of the 20th century

In October 1956, on the day of the celebration of the Xinhai Revolution (“Feast of the Two Tens”), members of the “14K” and Taiwanese agents provoked demonstrations in Kowloon that turned into pogroms of left-wing trade unions, trading firms and shops selling goods from China, arson of cars, robberies private houses, industrial enterprises and clinics. Initially, until the unrest escalated into riots (especially in the Chungwan region in the "New Territories"), the British authorities preferred not to intervene in the conflict. Yet the army had to use force to disperse the demonstrators, and the police had to shelter the surviving communists and other leftists. As a result of the riots, hundreds of people were killed, but according to the official version, about 60 people died and more than 500 were injured. Hong Kong authorities detained more than 5 thousand people during the week, and soon took strict measures that pacified the activity of local triads for some time. By 1958, about 15% of the inhabitants of the colony were members of the Huidan (before the war - only 8-9%); they made more than 15% of all serious crimes. The resolute struggle of the authorities against opium-smokers led in the late 1950s to an ever wider spread of heroin on the streets. In addition, Hong Kong has begun to turn into a hub for heroin smuggling in

The Hong Kong triads are secret societies that, in the course of a historical transformation, have degenerated from religious and patriotic organizations into crime syndicates that have spread their influence around the world. The origins of Hong Kong's modern triads lie in numerous religious sects and secret societies (huidans) of China, which were often in opposition to the authorities. Besides, big influence the triads were formed by pirates, traditionally influential in the South China Sea and the coastal regions of South China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.

For many centuries, secret societies have played the role of a unifying principle in the history of China. As the well-known Chinese proverb says, "The authorities rely on the law, and the people - on the Huidans." Iron discipline, deep secrecy, cruel reprisals against enemies and traitors were not the last factors in the vitality of secret societies. A long struggle against oppressors and invaders earned them the glory of a punishing sword, and only in the 20th century did secret societies (and above all the Triad Society) turn into openly criminal groups.

The secret Buddhist sect "Bailyanjiao" ("Union of the White Lotus"), from which, it is believed, the triads spun off in the future, arose at the beginning of the 12th century and traced its origins to an even more ancient organization - the "Lianshe" or "Lotus Society", founded at the beginning of the 5th century. In 1281, 1308, and 1322, the Bailiangjiao was banned by the authorities, but its adherents were not actually persecuted. In the second half of the 14th century, the "White Lotus" merged with other secret Buddhist sects in China and became mass organization, which actively participated in the armed struggle against the Mongol Yuan dynasty. Later, already under the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), members of the Bailianjiao sect raised anti-government uprisings in the provinces of Hubei (1406), Shanxi (1418), Henan (1505) and Sichuan (1566) .

Hong Kong itself has served as a haven for pirates since ancient times. In 1197, salt workers from the island of Lantau (Dayushan), who opposed the increase in tax oppression, revolted under the leadership of Fang Deng and seized government ships, temporarily subordinating coastal waters to their control. In the Ming era, the robber gangs of Ming Sungui, Wen Zongshan and Li Kuiqi became famous in the Hong Kong region, and the leaders He Yaba and Zeng Yiben even attracted Japanese smuggling pirates as allies.

In 1620, a strict ban was imposed on the activities of the Bailianjiao and the Wuwei and Wenxiangjiao sects close to it, to which the members of the White Lotus responded with an uprising in Shandong Province. With the accession of the Manchus (1644), the armed detachments of the anti-Qing secret societies (Huidans), which were active in the Hong Kong and Guangzhou region, began to periodically attack merchant and even military ships on their junks, rob the Manchus, Qing officials and Chinese compradors who collaborated with them.

The largest sects adjoining Bailyanjiao were Baiyangjiao, Hongyangjiao and Baguajiao, from among whose supporters the main secret societies of the country, Tiandihui and Qingban, were formed. At the origins of almost all secret societies of Guangdong and all of southern China was the organization "Tiandihui", "Society of Heaven and Earth") or "Hongmen", from which came the "Sanhehui", "Society of Three Concords", "Society of Three Harmonies" or "Society triads”), according to one version, founded at the end of the 17th century by fugitive Buddhist monks in the province of Fujian to fight the Manchus.

According to this legend, the 128 warrior monks who founded the "Triad Society" refused the Manchu demand to surrender the monastery and shave their heads as a sign of loyalty to the Qing dynasty. After a ten-year siege, the invaders were still able to burn Shaolin, but 18 brothers managed to escape from the ring. After a long persecution, the five surviving monks, who later became ritually called the Five Ancestors, recreated the triad and began to teach the youth martial wushu.

Anti-Qing secret societies also formed from other religious sects. For example, the secret societies Huanglonghui (Yellow Dragon), Huangshahui (Yellow Sand), Hongshahui (Red Sand), Zhenuhui (“True Martial Art”), “Dadaohui” (“Big Swords”), “Xiaodaohui” (“Small Swords”), “Guandihui” (“Ruler of Guandi”), “Laomuhui” (“Old Mother”), “Heijiaohui "(Black Peaks), Hongqiaohui (Red Peaks), Baiqiaohui (White Peaks), Dashenghui (Great Sage), Hongdenhui (Red Lanterns).

Although the Chinese authorities banned the smoking of opium as early as 1729, from the end of the 18th century, the British began to import this drug into Guangzhou from India, selling it through corrupt Chinese officials (to a lesser extent, but the Americans also imported opium from Turkey). At the end of the 18th century, Hong Kong turned into the camp of a powerful pirate army led by Zhang Baoji, who collected tribute from Chinese and Portuguese merchant ships (during the period of greatest power, Zhang Baoji's flotilla numbered several hundred ships and 40 thousand fighters).

First half of the 19th century

During the suppression of the peasant uprising of 1796-1805, which engulfed the provinces of Hubei, Henan, Shanxi, Sichuan and Gansu, Chinese and Manchu feudal lords executed over 20 thousand members of the Bailyanjiao sect. After another repression by the authorities, one of the surviving leaders of the Baguajiao (Eight Trigrams) sect, Guo Zheqing, fled to Guangdong, where he founded a new Buddhist sect, Houtian Bagua, and began to teach wushu to his followers. The merchant Ko Laihuang, also forced to flee from the persecution of the Manchus, brought the Tiandihui tradition to Siam and Malaya.

In 1800, the Chinese emperor issued a special decree that banned smoking, growing and importing opium, and closed the port of Guangzhou. This ban led to the dispersion of trade - from port warehouses, where it could be at least somehow controlled, it spread along the entire coastline, and soon passed into the hands of local pirates and smugglers. At the beginning of the 19th century, the largest pirate fleet in South China was headed by the widow of the pirate leader Qing (Jing).

Her junks attacked Chinese and European ships, twice defeated the imperial fleet, and also attacked coastal villages and cities. After the third expedition of the imperial fleet, led by the former assistant of the pirate leader Cong Mengxing, the pirates' forces were severely undermined, and the leader of the Qing, with the remnants of her fleet, began to trade in smuggling goods. In 1809, a battle took place between the pirate army of Zhang Baoji and the combined fleet of the governor of Guangdong and the Portuguese governor of Macau.

The British East India Company, which had a monopoly on the opium trade since 1773, renounced its privileges in 1813, which contributed to the involvement of a significant number of independent English and Indian firms in smuggling operations. From 1816, the British began to regularly use the port of Hong Kong to trade in opium, cotton, tea, and silk. After the bloody incidents that occurred in 1821, English opium merchants in China moved their warehouses to Lingting Island (Zhuhai), which remained the main base of smugglers until 1839.

The junks of local bigwigs and pirates transported the drug to Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shandong and the port of Tianjin, and from there opium dispersed throughout the country (corruption reached such proportions that even Chinese customs ships and the navy transported the drug).

In March 1839, the Chinese arrested British opium ships in Guangzhou and blockaded the British trading post. In response, the British fleet sank Chinese ships in November 1839. By the beginning of the 40s of the 19th century, several pirate fleets with a total number of 4 thousand fighters operated in the Hong Kong area, whose leaders Li Yajing, Deng Yasu and Shi Yusheng created several detachments - Zhongsintan (Society of Devotion and Will), " Lianyitang (Society of Unity and Fidelity) and others.

In April 1840, the First Opium War began, the British captured Hong Kong and resumed the supply of opium. By the summer of 1841, the Chinese population of Hong Kong Island was more than 5.5 thousand people (that year, as a result of a strong fire, the local Chinatown almost completely burned down). In June 1841, Hong Kong was declared a free port, after which the construction of opium warehouses by Jardine, Matheson & Co. (DMK) and Lindsay & Co. began there. In August 1842, China signed the Treaty of Nanjing, ceding the island of Hong Kong to the British and opening Shanghai, Guangzhou, Ningbo, Xiamen and Fuzhou to free trade.

In 1843, the Shengping (Society for Peace and Welfare) Cantonese secret society organized a strike by merchants and workers in Hong Kong against the construction of a commercial port. In April-May 1843, the pirates sacked the premises of the government office and the missionary school, as well as the offices of the firms "Dent and Co", "DMK" and "Gillespie", in 1844 they even stole the salary of the British garrison of the colony in Chizhu (Hong Kong Island). Local pirates acted in close contact with members of the secret Cantonese societies who were in Hong Kong.

In general, the Huidangs were anti-Qing in nature, but the authorities of Canton did not interfere with them, believing that attacks on foreigners did not contradict the interests of the state (in addition, many Chinese officials were on the payroll of pirates and informed them about raids by the Qing fleet). In 1845, the Hong Kong colonial authorities issued a decree branding criminals and suppressing the activities of the Sanhehui, but members of the Triad continued to inform the pirates about the movement of ships and the cargo they carried. In the same 1845, in an attempt to stop the prostitution that was increasingly flourishing in Hong Kong, the British authorities expelled a large group of public women from the colony.

In the years 1845-1849, about ¾ of the Indian opium crop passed through Hong Kong, which was used as a giant transit warehouse, from where the drug was distributed along the entire Chinese coast. The dominant position in the drug trade off the coast of China belonged to the British companies "DMK" and "Dent and Co."

When Chinese opium buyers began to come directly to Hong Kong for the goods, these companies sharply reduced prices in the coastal areas, thus putting an end to the practice of buying in the colony itself. In 1847, the Hong Kong government began to sell licenses to opium smokers, opium growers and traders. In 1847, 26 small secret societies functioned in Hong Kong, which were part of the “triad” system (they had more than 2.5 thousand members in their ranks).

As a result of several battles that took place in September and October 1848, Qiu Yabao's pirate fleet, consisting of 23 junks and numbering 1.8 thousand fighters, was defeated (the British also burned two shipbuilding docks built by pirates on the Chinese coast).

In the autumn of 1849, Shap Ngtsai's fleet (64 junks and 3.2 thousand soldiers) was also defeated. In 1849, the Chinese population of Hong Kong exceeded 30 thousand people (construction workers, servants in the houses of Europeans, boatmen and small traders predominated among them). The Chinese united in fraternities and guilds, and secret societies began to play the role of shadow administration among them (ancestral temples served as centers of compatriots).

In Hong Kong, the traditional system of “adopted daughters” (mozi) was extremely widespread, when poor families sold girls into service, and underground syndicates took the children to Singapore, Australia, San Francisco, where they sold them to brothels.

From the beginning of the 50s of the XIX century through Hong Kong to North America, Southeast Asia and Australia rushed Chinese emigrants. Having reached a peak in 1857, when more than 26 thousand people left through the colony, emigration then began to decline, amounting to less than 8 thousand people in 1863.

In general, over 500 thousand Chinese emigrants left Hong Kong and Macau in 1850-1875. Following them, from the mid-50s, local gangsters began to move abroad, taking control of Chinatowns (by the end of the 19th century, offshoots of the Tiandihui called Hongmen already existed in many Chinatowns in the USA, Canada and Australia).

The owners of the Hong Kong transport offices, in alliance with the Huidans, robbed the coolies who went to work, often kept them locked up until their departure, and then sold them into virtual slavery on the plantations and construction sites of America. Most of the huaqiao funds transferred from abroad to their homeland settled in the colonies.

Hong Kong Chinese merchants have arranged the supply of huaqiao traditional goods and foodstuffs, which emigrants so lacked in a foreign land. In general, if the European capital of Hong Kong until the 70s of the XIX century was mainly engaged in the super-profitable trade in opium, then the local Chinese actively mastered such areas as importing fabrics, servicing exports, banking and usury.

The approach of Taiping troops to Guangzhou in the summer of 1854 increased the influx of refugees into the colony, especially wealthy Chinese. In September 1854, the Taiping fleet even entered the port of Hong Kong. In September 1856, a new Taiping flotilla under the command of Mao Changshou arrived in Hong Kong, joining forces with the local pirate leader Lu Dongjiu.

But especially warm relations between the Taipings and the triads were not observed, since the leaders of the Sanhehui were prejudiced against the religious fanaticism of the Taipings. In 1855, 1859 and 1869, the British destroyed the largest pirate fleets in the area, but they did not succeed in completely stopping sea robbery in the second half of the 19th century. Pirates continued to collect tribute from fishing and trading junks, receive food and weapons from Hong Kong merchants, and sell looted goods in their shops.

In 1856, the British, French and Americans started the Second Opium War. In 1858, China was forced to legalize the opium trade, but the war continued. The British captured Beijing, and in 1860 China signed a new, Beijing Peace Treaty, according to which Tianjin was opened to foreign trade, allowed the use of the Chinese as work force(coolie) in the colonies of Great Britain and France, and also ceded the southern part of the Kowloon Peninsula to the British.

In 1857, the authorities of Hong Kong, caring little for the fate of ordinary Chinese, taxed the "fun districts" and brothels, and in 1858 - the colony's pawnshops, through which the purchase of stolen goods and the trade in bonded people were carried out. The barrier between the Chinese and the British in Hong Kong was so significant that the resulting vacuum was quickly and easily filled by the Huidangs, who took over the functions of the shadow administration.

The gangsters subjugated the professional and compatriotic guilds and associations of the Chinese to their influence. By 1857, the triad had established control over the labor market, levying regular levies on Chinese workers in Hong Kong, as well as organizing the shipment of coolies from Hong Kong to the United States, Australia, Singapore, and Malaysia.

In 1858, the chief registrar of the Caldwell colony was removed from his post, who for many years robbed Chinese merchants, threatening them with arrest on suspicion of having connections with pirates.

In 1847, he helped free the pirate Du Yabao from prison, who became his agent in relations with the pirates who paid Caldwell compensation. And in 1857, after the arrest of underworld boss Huang Mozhou, it turned out that Caldwell received bribes from underground casinos and brothels, becoming an intermediary for the owners of the shadow gambling business in their relations with the British authorities in Hong Kong. Despite the efforts of the colonial administration, Chinese criminals continued to arrive en masse in Hong Kong by steamboats from Guangzhou.

In 1860, with the participation of the Huidangs, who were gaining weight, porters went on strike in Hong Kong, and in 1863, palanquin carriers. In 1864, the British authorities resorted to mass deportation of professional beggars who literally filled the streets of the city, but they soon returned again. In 1867, the Hong Kong authorities began to sell licenses to open casinos, from which local policemen and officials were fed. Huidan members who oversaw underground gambling houses began to open their own pawnshops near legal casinos. In 1871, the licensing policy was abolished and the gambling business of the colony finally went into the shadows.

In October 1867, the Qing authorities established a blockade of Hong Kong in the coastal regions, which was actually inspired by the Guangdong governor, who wanted to collect duties on opium that went to China.

The blockade ended only in 1886, when a department of Chinese maritime customs was opened in the colony, selling licenses to import opium into the country. In the 60s of the 19th century, the DMK company was confidently leading in the supply of opium to China, however, the fall in prices due to the competition of the Chinese-made drug and the gradual withdrawal of DMK from smuggling led to the fact that in the early 70s passed to the company "Laoshasun" ("D. Sessun, Suns & Co"), founded by an influential family of Sephardic Jews Sessun.

In the early 70s of the XIX century, one of the adherents of the anti-Qing Buddhist sect "Houtian Bagua" created a new sect "Xin Jiugongdao" (" New way nine palaces"), which was divided into communities (hui) and branches (tian). In 1872, the Huidangs organized a coolie strike in the colony, in October 1884, in protest against the arrest of longshoremen who refused to serve French ships - a strike of Hong Kong Chinese workers. But gradually the patriotic anti-Qing Huidangs degenerated into criminal syndicates.

By 1880, the annual import of opium from India to China exceeded 6.5 thousand tons. If in 1842 the population of the Qing Empire was more than 416 million people, of which 2 million were drug addicts, then in 1881, with a population of just over 369 million people, already 120 million Chinese, or every third inhabitant of the Celestial Empire, were considered drug addicts.

During the police offensive of 1887, a stage of some consolidation began in the activities of the Huidangs of Hong Kong on the basis of the struggle against the authorities. The first large Huidan, which included 12 small ones, was "He" ("Harmony"), which was headed by a native of Dongwan County, Guangdong Province, a Wushu master and a graduate of the Hong Kong missionary school, Lai Zhong.

Then, in a fierce struggle, both with the authorities and among themselves, four more Huidangs arose - “Quan” (“University”), “Tong” (“Unity”), “Lian” (“Unification”) and “Dong”, formed "Udagunsy" ("five big companies"). This union extended its influence to port workers, street vendors and moneylenders, the protection of theaters and restaurants, brothels and casinos, pawnshops and money changers, and the smuggling of salt.

Among recent immigrants from China, other secret societies were also influential. Thus, the majority of people from Guangdong and Fujian belonged to the Sanhehui members, from Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou and Sichuan - to the Gelaohui, from Shanghai - to the Qingbang and Hongbang, from Anhui, Henan and Shandong - to the " Dadaohui", from Zhili (Hebei) and Beijing - to "Zailihui". But not everyone was able to remain faithful to the old Huidangs in the new place for a long time.

In Hong Kong, that "melting pot" of Southern China, with its increased dynamism and mobility, most of the members of secret societies either joined the ranks of the local Sanhehui Huidang or emigrated. In 1887, a law was passed in Hong Kong to combat opium smuggling, but tax-farmers still continued to illegally export the drug to China, establishing links with pirates and officials. By 1891, about 17% of Hong Kong's Chinese population was using opium.

In May 1894, the homeowners, together with the leadership of the Huidangs, organized another coolie strike in the colony. In 1894, a plague epidemic claimed 2.5 thousand lives, the British authorities demolished several Chinatowns and burned some of the houses, as a result of which 80 thousand people left homeless were forced to leave the colony (in 1895, the entire population of Hong Kong was 240 thousand people). Human). In April 1899, the inhabitants of the New Territories, under the leadership of the elders of the Deng clan, the largest landowners of the area, began armed resistance to the British, supported by members of secret societies.

Revolutionaries and members of secret societies entered into an alliance, and some Xinzhonghui figures received high positions in the Huidangs, for example, Sun Yat-sen's friend Chen Shaobo joined the Triad, becoming the head of the financial department (he was also accepted into the highest hierarchy of the Gelaohui society) .

On the basis of the Hong Kong Triad, the Zhonghetang (Loyalty and Harmony Lodge) alliance was created to assist the anti-Qing forces in the colony. By the beginning of the 20th century, Chinese guilds of traders in rice, sugar, butter, poultry, vegetables and fruits, metal products, fabrics, coal and firewood took shape in Hong Kong, which became an influential force in the economy of the colony. At the same time, the Sanhehui secret society, which already occupied a strong position in Hong Kong and Guangdong, began to actively penetrate the environment of Chinese entrepreneurs.

First half of the 20th century

In 1909, the British administration significantly tightened control over the distribution of opium within the colony, and the drug gradually lost its role as a significant component in Hong Kong trade. In 1910, almost all opium censers were closed in Hong Kong, and since 1912, the colony authorities banned the import of Iranian opium into China. After the death of the founder of the Xin Jiugongdao sect in 1911, its subdivisions (hui and tian) acquired complete independence and significantly expanded the geography of their activities (the tian became more active in Northern China, and the Hui - mainly in the Northeast).

After the Xinhai Revolution of 1911-1913, when the Manchu Qing Dynasty was overthrown, some of the patriotic Huidans began to curtail their activities or disappear under pressure from the mafia. The Tiandihui Society, which was actually left without a goal and donations from the population, split into two parts. One, outside of China, turned into a brotherhood like the Freemasons, the other, inside the country, accustomed to an underground lifestyle, degenerated into a criminal organization.

After the removal of military posts from the Chinese side of the border (1911), which actually opened the way to the south for refugees and criminal elements, there was a sharp surge in street crime in Hong Kong. Army patrols of the streets were introduced in the colony, but robbers and pirates continued to operate in Hong Kong itself, and in the Pearl River Delta, and on railway Kowloon-Guangzhou.

Underground weapons workshops even functioned in the colony, supplying both gangsters and revolutionaries who found refuge in Hong Kong with their products. In May 1915, the Huidang organized an anti-Japanese boycott in Hong Kong, accompanied by pogroms of shops selling Japanese goods.

In 1916 pilots went on strike en masse, and in July 1918 riots swept the colony, caused by a significant increase in the price of rice. In 1919, a new anti-Japanese boycott and pogroms began in the Wanchai (Wanzi) area, the main area of residence of the Japanese in Hong Kong. In 1920, at the suggestion of the Hong Kong Huidangs, workers at the shipbuilding docks went on strike. In the 1920s, the largest Huidans, belonging to the Triad group, divided Hong Kong into spheres of influence.

The “Five Big Companies” (“Udagunsy”) were joined by the secret societies “Sheng” (“Overcoming”), “Fuixing” (“Happiness, Justice and Revival”) and “Yan” (“Justice and Peace”). Many Huidangs even registered as public or commercial organizations, thus trying to give their activities a legal look. For example, Huidan "Fuixing" was listed as the General Association of Industry and Commerce "Fuyi", which had branches in all corners of the colony.

The legal "roofs" of the Huidangs patronized merchants, controlled gambling and brothels, opium-smokers and street prostitution, and collected tribute from pedlars, porters, and painters. The need to resist racketeering led to the unification of representatives of a number of professions in self-defense unions, which gradually acquired the character of Huidangs - “Lian” among metallurgists, “Guan” (“Breadth”) among painters.

Also in the 20s of the XX century, the pirate groups of the region did not reduce their activity. The largest pirate fleet in South China was led by Lai Shuo, who inherited the business from her father. From 1921 to 1929, her numerous motor-sailing junks plundered and sank 28 large ships and hundreds of small ships.

Before the mass strike of Hong Kong sailors, which occurred in January-March 1922, there were more than 130 intermediary offices in the colony, closely associated with shipping companies and engaged in hiring crews for merchant ships. With the help of the Huidangs, these offices received money for getting a job and a lifetime percentage of the sailors' earnings. In China in the mid-1920s, with the coming to power of Chiang Kai-shek, who himself was a member of a secret society, the triads began to play the role of the militant wing of the Kuomintang party.

Gradually, they were assigned to such sensitive operations in which the use of the army and police was considered inappropriate (for example, in Shanghai, thugs from the underworld staged a massacre of members of the communist-led union of port workers). After the actual legalization of triads by the Kuomintang, officials, military men, and merchants began to join them. An offshoot of the "Triad" - "Jiangxiangpai" ("Soothsayers' Union"), whose Hong Kong branch was headed by He Liting until 1928, expelled criminals from its ranks and, following its unwritten code, used various fraudulent methods (chiromancy, fortune telling) for a peaceful struggle with compradors.

By the beginning of the 1930s, Jiangxiangpai had practically disappeared from Hong Kong, having been forced out by gangster groups, and the Zhonghetan union, which had previously acted as an ally of the revolutionaries, gradually turned into a large criminal association, Heshenhe (Harmony Overcoming Harmony). The Hong Kong authorities were able to finally ban brothels only in 1932, and the sale of girls (“mozi”) did not stop. If in 1922 there were about 10 thousand “domestic slaves” in the colony, then in 1930 there were already more than 12 thousand.

In the 1930s, the Kuomintang created a powerful intelligence network in Hong Kong, and also bought medicines, cars, military equipment. The Hong Kong branch of the Chinese Red Cross and the foreign exchange operations of the Kuomintang government offices in Hong Kong were managed by Shanghai mafia boss Du Yuesheng, which brought him and his henchmen considerable profits.

Through Hong Kong agents, the Guangdong militarist Chen Zitang, who had been betrayed by his aviation, bribed by the Kuomintang special services, was neutralized in June 1936 against the Chiang Kai-shek clique. The Kuomintang controlled the Jiulou Yuekan Restaurant and Tea Workers Union, through which they collected the necessary information.

After the occupation of Guangzhou by the Japanese in October 1938, a massive flow of refugees poured into Hong Kong (the population of the colony increased to 1.64 million by 1941). Members of secret societies from Canton joined the ranks of criminal gangs, which led to an increase in the number of robberies and murders. Conflicts between gangs fighting for control of the refugee camps often resulted in bloody battles. Intensified sea pirates robbed ships, robbed refugees heading to Hong Kong, and traded weapons smuggling.

By the beginning of the 40s of the 20th century, there were influential communities of immigrants from Dongwan County (Guangdong) - "Dongwan Dongyi Tang" (formed in 1897), merchants from Shunde County (Guangdong) - "Luigang Shunde Shanghai" (1912) .), merchants from Fujian Province - "Fujian Shanhui" (1916), other people from Fujian - "Fujian Luigang Tongxianghui" and "Luigan Minqiao Fuzhou Tongxianghui", immigrants from Chaozhou County (Guangdong) - "Luigan Chaozhou Tongxianghui" ( 1929), Hakka - "Chongzheng Zonghui Jiuji Nanminhui" (1938), people from Nanhai County (Guangdong) - "Nanhai Tianxianghui" (1939), as well as people from Zhongshan County (Guangdong), people from the provinces Zhejiang and Jiangsu.

In December 1941, Japanese troops occupied the colony. During the defense of the "New Territories" and Kowloon, the Hong Kong authorities, with the assistance of the Kuomintang, attracted about 600 members of the Shanghai Hongban secret society who fought against the Japanese. After the retreat of the British, Kowloon was in the hands of the Huidans for several days, who subjected it to complete looting (the gangsters collected "security fees" from the remaining residents).

With the help of secret societies, the disgraced South Chinese militarist Chen Zitang fled to China. Also, a prominent member of the Hongmen secret society in the United States, an associate of Sun Yat-sen, Situ Meitan, fled from the Japanese. In April 1942, the Japanese disbanded the local self-defense forces, which became the scene of a bloody struggle between partisans and traitors from secret societies. The guerrillas ousted Huang Murong's gang from Mount Taimoshan (Daushan) in the "New Territories" and created their main stronghold there.

They agreed to cooperate with some members of secret societies, organized customs points where they collected duties from local merchants, robbed landowners and compradors.

After the surrender of the Japanese in August 1945 and began in China civil war A new wave of refugees poured into Hong Kong. From 1947 to 1950, the population of the colony increased from 1.75 million to 2.23 million people (at the end of 1949, on average, about 10 thousand refugees a week arrived in Hong Kong from China). By 1950, about 330 thousand people lived in the slums and tents of Hong Kong. The British administration in 1950 demolished more than 17,000 huts, leaving 107,000 people homeless, and as a result of a strong fire that broke out in the slums of Kowloon, about 20,000 more people were on the street.

The Chinese refugee camps that arose in Hong Kong fell under the control of the mafia, and the system of illegal sale of children became widespread. The activated gangsters and pirates hunted by robbing warehouses and shops, attacking fishing junks and passenger ships, and racketeering entrepreneurs.

In 1947, the Hong Kong government's campaign against the Huidang led to the defeat of 27 organizations, the deportation of more than 100 of their members and the arrest of 77 people. In 1948, more than 25 thousand people were arrested (4.5 thousand of which were flogged). In September 1949, the Kuomintang killed in Hong Kong a former associate of Chiang Kai-shek, General Yang Tse, who had become close to the Communists.

In the late 1940s, in order to resist the communists, the Kuomintang Okhrana united all the secret societies under its control, creating the Zhongihui (Union of Loyalty and Justice), headed by Lieutenant General Ge Zhaohuang (Cat Xuwong). The Hong Kong branch of the union, known as "Hongfangshan" ("Mountain of Justice Hong"), united several large local Huidans.

By the end of the civil war in China, the alliance included many military and civilians who had nothing to do with the Huidang proper. Therefore, the name of the union had to be changed to "Association 14" (similar to the address of the former headquarters in Canton), and later it was transformed into "14K". The remnants of the defeated 93rd Kuomintang division went to the south of Yunnan province and, after the proclamation of the PRC in 1949, they settled in the area of the so-called Golden Triangle, at the junction of the borders of Burma, Laos and Thailand.

The Kuomintang established their own rules in the jungle, forcing the local population to pay off the atrocities of the soldiers with raw opium. Thus, under the control of the Kuomintang, a chain of drug trafficking was formed, which included the Golden Triangle, Hong Kong (which after the war became the main transit point for transporting drugs from the mountainous regions of Indochina to the United States) and Taiwan.

Second half of the 20th century

After the end of the civil war, the headquarters of the largest secret society in Shanghai, the Qingbang, settled in Hong Kong, which until 1951 was headed by Major General Du Yuesheng of the Kuomintang army. Together with the financier Qian Xinzhi, he founded the Fuxing Hangye Gunsi transportation company in Hong Kong, which was transferred to Taiwan after the death of Du Yuesheng. Qingbang specialized in racketeering in refugee camps and heroin trafficking, its members spoke a Shanghai dialect and acted in a purely conspiratorial manner, which made it difficult to fight them.

But in the early 50s, the Hong Kong police managed to weaken the Qingbang, whose position in the drug business was also shaken due to the intervention of strengthened competitors from Chaozhou (the Chaozhoubang group). In the early 1950s, the largest pirate fleet in the region was led by Madame Wong. On the eve of World War II, Chinese official Wong Kunkit began to engage in piracy and smuggling, and during the period of Japanese occupation, also espionage.

After becoming a millionaire, he settled in Hong Kong after the war, where he married a nightclub dancer. After Wong was murdered by competitors, his widow shot dead two of her late husband's assistants who wanted to lead the syndicate, and went into the criminal business herself. By the early 1950s, Madame Wong had imposed tribute on many shipping companies that paid compensation for the safety of their ships and cargo, and invested the proceeds in restaurants, casinos and brothels not only in Hong Kong, but also in Macau, Singapore and Manila.

Until 1953, the Kuomintang Huidang Union was led by Ge Zhaohuang, who tried to give the organization a political coloring. After his death, the union was headed by Yong Sikho, and the "Association 14" ("14K") turned into an influential criminal syndicate, which even members of other Huidans feared. People from "14K" occupied empty lands in Kowloon and in the "New Territories", where immigrants from China settled, were actively involved in the drug trade and racketeering of entrepreneurs.

At the same time, in the Golden Triangle, the commander of the 93rd Division, General Li Mi, who had established mutually beneficial relations with the military dictatorship regime in Thailand, was smuggling opium into Hong Kong almost without hindrance. He maintained regular contact with the head of the Thai military police, General Piao Sriyanon, through whom all the opium mining of the 93rd Division passed (part of the proceeds from the drug trade also went to the then Prime Minister of Thailand, Sarit Thanarat).

After the failure of attempts to invade China in 1951 and 1952, the Kuomintang made a sortie to Burma at the end of 1952, but under the blows of government troops were forced to retreat to the territory of Thailand. As a result, by decision of the international military commission, part of the 93rd division was evacuated to Taiwan, but the Kuomintang secret services took out mainly the sick, wounded and elderly, and transferred new American weapons back into the jungle. Instead of the deceased General Li Mi, General Tuan Shiwen became the head of the Kuomintang, who expanded the drug business even more widely.

In 1953, a massive fire in Hong Kong left 50,000 people homeless overnight. By the mid-50s, the authorities settled 154 thousand people in state-owned multi-storey buildings, but 650 thousand people still continued to live in slums, and the number of refugees who settled in the colony was 385 thousand (16% of them were former Kuomintang military personnel). and policemen, 19% - officials, urban bourgeoisie and landowners).

The slums constantly accepted more and more refugees from China (in just a decade that passed from 1948 to 1958, about 1 million people moved to Hong Kong). These areas were outside the control of the British authorities, the mafia actually dominated there, crime, prostitution and drug addiction flourished. But the main center of dens, gambling and brothels remained the Wanchai area, located on Hong Kong Island, not far from the administrative and business center of the colony.

In October 1956, on the day of the celebration of the Xinhai Revolution (“Feast of the Two Tens”), members of the 14K and Taiwanese agents provoked demonstrations in Kowloon that turned into pogroms of left-wing trade unions, trading firms and shops selling goods from China, arson of cars, robberies private houses, industrial enterprises and clinics.

Initially, until the unrest escalated into riots (especially in the Chungwan region in the "New Territories"), the British authorities preferred not to intervene in the conflict. Yet the army had to use force to disperse the demonstrators, and the police had to shelter the surviving communists and other leftists. As a result of the riots, hundreds of people were killed, but according to the official version, about 60 people died and more than 500 were injured. Hong Kong authorities detained more than 5 thousand people during the week, and soon took strict measures that pacified the activity of local triads for some time. By 1958, about 15% of the inhabitants of the colony were members of the Huidan (before the war - only 8-9%); they committed more than 15% of all serious crimes.

In the late 1950s, the decisive struggle of the authorities against opium-smokers led to an ever-wider distribution of heroin on the streets. In addition, Hong Kong began to turn into a hub for heroin smuggling to the United States and Western Europe. This trend was particularly intensified after the number of monthly visits to the colony for rest of American soldiers who fought in Indochina (usually about 10,000) dropped sharply.

A significant part of the workshops and workshops owned by refugees from China was not officially registered (at the end of the 1950s, over 200 thousand people worked at such enterprises). Also, the growth of organized crime was facilitated by the preservation until the beginning of the 60s of a significant layer of street peddlers, day laborers and beggars, from among whom new members of criminal gangs were recruited. By 1960, there were about 300 thousand mafiosi in Hong Kong, united in 35 Huidans, who divided all the districts and business areas of the colony among themselves (of which eight were considered the largest - Heshenghe / Woshinwo, Wohopto, Fuixing / "Sunyong", "14K", "Lian" / "Luen", "Tong", "Quan" / "Chuen" and "Sheng" / "Shin").

In addition to traditional criminal activities, the triads also mastered new ways of making money, for example, counterfeiting Chinese currency and used books. Although the Hong Kong administration settled 360,000 people in state-owned houses by 1960 (another 85,000 people moved to houses built in 1955-1962 by private firms for their workers), by 1961 more than 510,000 people lived in slums, in hostels - 140 thousand, on open verandas - 70 thousand, on roofs - 56 thousand, in shops, garages and on stairs - 50 thousand, on boats - 26 thousand, on sidewalks - 20 thousand, in basements - 12 thousand and in caves - 10 thousand.

In 1962, a new wave of refugees flooded into Hong Kong, and by 1967 the population of the colony reached 3.87 million people (in 1968, more than 400 thousand people still lived in the slums). Corruption of the administrative apparatus, primarily the police, reached enormous proportions by the beginning of the 1970s.

For example, Sergeant Lai Manyau, who retired in 1969, turned out to be the owner of a fortune of $ 6 million earned on criminal connections with the Huidangs. In 1963, the Kuomintang 93rd Division, dug in in the Golden Triangle, split into two parts. The leaders of both retained the name "division", only one part, led by General Li Wenhuang, became the 3rd division and was located in the village of Tamngob in Chiang Mai province, and the other - the 5th division - under the command of General Tuan Shiwen, made the village of Meisalong in the province its stronghold Chiangrai.

Enmity sometimes flared up between the divisions, which turned into typical triads, when dividing zones of influence and booty, but they joined forces against common enemies. So it was in 1967, when the opium war broke out in the Golden Triangle between the Kuomintang, the "army" of Kun Sa and independent Shan detachments, as well as the Laos army that got into the conflict. In 1970, the Thai government decided to subjugate the Kuomintang to its power and put an end to the drug trade, and entrusted a special forces detachment, which received the status of military region "04", to monitor the implementation of the "taization" program.

The presence of American troops in South Vietnam has led to the fact that opium, which previously dominated the market, began to be replaced by heroin. In the Golden Triangle, where before there were only a few clandestine laboratories for the production of smoking opium and morphine, by the beginning of the 70s there were already about three dozen laboratories operating, half of the total production of which was heroin for injection. And the lion's share of this heroin was consumed by american army in South Vietnam (part of the stream was also for American soldiers vacationing in Hong Kong).

By the end of the 70s, the first contacts of the Hong Kong Huidans with the emerging Guangdong mafia date back. And for the flourishing of the local mafia, there were good prerequisites. In exchange for supporting economic reforms, the Guangdong elite received guarantees of inviolability and some autonomy from the central authorities, which led to an increase in corruption and clannishness. With the increase in incomes of the population and the emergence of the first large capitals, local groups in Guangdong intensified the drug business, prostitution, smuggling, gambling, currency exchange and usury, and began to racket the new rich.

By the beginning of the 1980s, the Hong Kong authorities still managed to partially deprive the Huidangs of their freedom of action, and more than a hundred mafia leaders were forced to move to Taiwan, including the major heroin dealer Ma Sikyu and former Hong Kong policemen - Lui Lok, Choi Binglong, Cheng Chunyu, Nam Kon and Khon Quinshum ("five dragons"), convicted of corruption. However, the youth maintained ties to Hong Kong by participating in sweepstakes and all sorts of scams with Hong Kong-Taiwan intermediary companies.

Unlike the older generation of Hong Kong secret societies, who defended traditional forms of activity, young people were primarily occupied with drug trafficking, which often caused conflicts between them. The young leaders of the Huidangs began to strive to go beyond Hong Kong and gain a foothold in the international market, since in the colony itself the trade in heroin and cocaine, with the exception of retail, had been monopolized by Chaozhoubang since the 50s.

In the Chinatowns of England, France and Holland, which became the centers of the heroin trade, a struggle began between the Huidans of Hong Kong, Singaporean, Malay and Vietnamese origin.

In anticipation of the transition of Hong Kong under the jurisdiction of China, the leaders of the Huidangs "14K", "Heshenghe" and "Fuyixing" began to transfer their operations from the colony to the United States, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, the Netherlands, France and Germany. In 1982, a large-scale meeting of leaders of local secret societies and representatives of the largest Huidans from Toronto, Boston, San Francisco and Los Angeles was held in Hong Kong.

Another reason for the outflow of members of Hong Kong secret societies abroad was the fact that the “Big Ring” of the Huidangs, formed among emigrants from China, among which the “Hunanbang” (“Hunan Brotherhood”) was in the lead, entered into fierce competition with local gangsters and thoroughly pressed them into colonies. The Huidangs of the "Big Ring" were constantly in contact with the underworld in China.

Bandits from the mainland arrived in Hong Kong for several months, received false documents and allowances from the local mafia, as well as specific tasks. After committing crimes, they received their share and either emigrated or returned home.

The Huidangs actively replenished their ranks with students and young workers of the colony, who often united in street gangs, often causing serious riots and pogroms (late 1980 and April 1982). In March 1985, in the Chyunwan (Quanwan) region, the Guangliansheng gang was uncovered, recruiting students to join secret societies. But, despite this, in the 80s the total number of gangsters was reduced to 80 thousand people.

Since the late 1980s, when Chinese economic reforms began to gain momentum, the Huidangs of the colony established corrupt ties among officials and law enforcement agencies of China, starting to invest huge capital there (some firms controlled by the Huidans even established control over Chinese ephedra producers). They also stepped up penetration into the political and business circles of Hong Kong itself.

There was also a reverse process. The Beijing authorities took control of some trade unions and part of the Hong Kong triads, with the help of their special services, state-owned companies and pro-Beijing lobbying organizations, infiltrated both the legal economy, becoming the largest player in the Hong Kong foreign exchange market, and the “shadow economy” of the enclave (especially that concerns illegal trade and foreign exchange transactions, transactions with gold, weapons and stolen technologies, as well as informal ties with Taiwan).

In the 1990s, Hong Kong's largest Huidans 14K, Fuixing, Dajuan (Big Ring Brotherhood) and Xinian (New Virtue and Peace) strengthened ties with Chinese gangs, actively engaging in car smuggling, cigarettes, electronics, luxury goods and weapons. They organized the "laundering" of money from Chinese syndicates through their companies, and also became involved in the ever-increasing transfer of Chinese illegal immigrants to the United States, Canada, latin america and Europe.

Gradually, members of the Hong Kong syndicates began to act as intermediaries or dealers in sending large consignments of drugs, weapons, illegal immigrants and contraband, entrusting the rough work to young immigrants from China. In addition, the 14K and Fuixing Huidangs have monopolized the wholesale market for counterfeit CDs of films, music, software and other counterfeit products (branded watches, perfumes, clothing and accessories), have increased their influence in the Hong Kong music and film industry, and information technology and stock market fraud.

By 2000, the six largest Hong Kong Huidangs had more than 100,000 members, and their branches existed in Macau, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Shanghai, USA, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Mexico, Brazil , Argentina and Taiwan. The largest triad "Fuishin" (60 thousand members) retained a strict hierarchical structure, while "14K" (20 thousand) was divided into 15 separate groups.

XXI Century

The triads are still very influential and play a significant role in the life of Hong Kong. Traditionally, they trade in drugs and weapons, pimping, smuggling illegal immigrants, gambling and clandestine sweepstakes, racketeering, kidnapping for ransom, money laundering, usury, financial fraud and piracy.

In addition, the triads have a lot of weight in the shadow labor market, loading operations at the port, restaurants, bars, nightclubs and cinemas, the film industry and show business, the construction business and real estate, transportation, and gold trading. The triads have extensive connections among businessmen, politicians, officials, lawyers and policemen of Hong Kong, in airlines and ships, as well as in the consulates of a number of Western countries.

They oversee maritime piracy in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan and the Philippines, as well as the sale of stolen ships and goods. The interests of the triads include the smuggling of Chinese and Russian weapons to Southeast Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East, the black market for expensive cars, yachts, jewelry and antiques (both stolen and smuggled).

Structure and customs of triads

Accustomed to a secretive lifestyle, members of the triads still use their slang, secret handshakes, gestures and signs, as well as numeric codes to designate ranks and positions in the grouping hierarchy (they come from traditional Chinese numerology based on the Book of Changes).

The hierarchy of triads is simple, but deliberately confusing. "489" means "master of the mountain", "dragon head" or "lord of incense" (i.e. clan leader). This number is composed of characters meaning "21" (4+8+9), which in turn is a derivative of two numbers: "3" (creation) multiplied by "7" (death) equals "21" (rebirth). "438" means "steward" (deputy leader, or operational commander, or master of ceremonies).

The sum of the digits that make up this number is 15, and the number "15" in every superstitious Chinese is reverent, because meeting with him, including various combinations, promises great luck. "432" - "straw sandals" (that is, a liaison between the various divisions of the clan), "426" - "red pole" (that is, the commander of the militants or the executor of power decisions), "415" - "white paper fan" (that is, financial adviser or administrator), "49" - an ordinary member.

This number also has its own meaning. It decomposes into "4" and "9". Their derivative "36" means the number of oaths pronounced upon entry into the triad. It is no coincidence that all codes begin with the number "4", because according to ancient Chinese belief, the world is surrounded by four seas. With the number "25" members of the triads designate a police agent embedded in a group, a traitor or a spy for another gang.

According to other sources, the “yellow dragon” (leader) is in charge of the overall leadership and strategy of the triad, the “white paper fan” is responsible for education and counterintelligence, as well as general issues and finances, “straw sandals” (aka “sandal stick”) - for contacts with other secret societies, the “red pole” (aka “red rod” or “red staff”) - for protection and power operations, including showdowns with competitors and the elimination of traitors, and the nickname “monk” denotes ordinary members.

In the structure of each triad there are departments (or directions) of protection, information, communications, recruitment and education, each of which is headed by a deputy leader or a very authoritative gangster. For example, the information department is engaged in intelligence and counterintelligence, including among competitors and the police; the recruitment department works in schools and universities, and also looks for informants among rickshaws, taxi drivers, waiters, street vendors and prostitutes. Members of the triads are linked by a complex system of rituals, oaths, passwords, and even ceremonial mixing of blood.

They unmistakably recognize each other by many conventional signals invisible to outsiders: the order of the dishes placed on the table, the special manner of holding chopsticks and tea cups during meals or on riddle questions. For example, to the question "What is three times eight?" the member of the triad will answer: "Twenty-one", because he knows that the character "han" (the Chinese name for the triad) consists of three parts, indicated by the numbers "3", "8" and "21".

To join the “brotherhood”, you need not only to get the recommendation of a triad member with experience, but also to go through a preparatory period, during which the newcomer is subjected to severe and dangerous tests, including him in the operations carried out by gangsters. In addition, "recruits" learn the history and rituals of a secret society, secret signals with gestures and fingers, verbal passwords. By the time of entry, it is necessary to memorize 21 rules of the disciplinary code and 10 points of punishment for violating it, as well as 36 oaths.

During the mystical ritual, you will have to give the correct answers to questions in the form of allegories or riddles. The ceremony is attended by Shang Qiu (Lord of Incense) and Han Qiu (Ruler). The passage of the Mountain of knives is the name of the initial stage of the ritual. The ruler writes down the names, addresses, ages of those who enter. They pay small fees. The lord of incense lights scented sticks in front of the shrine and announces: "The Han Brotherhood will live for millions of years."

Then he reads a long poem about the exploits of the ancestors, about the cordial union of the brothers, about the prosperity of the triad, after which he explains the 24th oath of those 36 that will be pronounced later. Paragraph 24 states that a new member of society can rise to the hierarchical level no earlier than after three years. Next, the newcomers have to go through three gates, each of which has two high-ranking members of society.

The guards strike them flat on the backs with their swords and ask each one: “Which is harder: the sword or your neck?” “My neck,” follows the answer, meaning that even under the threat of death, the secrets of society will not be revealed.

Then the “recruits” pronounce all 36 oaths, and with the last words, each of them sticks the smoldering end of the stick into the floor, thereby showing that the light of his life will also disappear if the oath is violated. At the next stage of initiation, a lot of time is devoted to checking the knowledge of secret signals, passwords.

Then the word is taken by the third-ranking leader - the Red Staff - the guardian of order and discipline, the executor of sentences. Beginners, remaining on their knees, stretch out their left hands, palms up. The red staff pierces the middle fingers with a needle with a thick red thread, from which blood oozes.

It is added to the mixture in the goblet, poured into cups and given to everyone to drink. From this moment on, newcomers are considered accepted into a brotherhood sealed by an oath on the blood, from the bonds of which only death can release. Ceremonial objects and various structures are put on fire so that everything remains a mystery. A celebration begins, which is paid for by those who join the triad.

Also, as in other criminal communities, tattoos are of great importance in triads (they can be depicted both in the form of drawings and in the form of a hieroglyph denoting them).

For example, the dragon means prosperity, nobility and power, the snake - wisdom, clairvoyance and will, the turtle - longevity, spruce - patience and chosenness, pine (the emblem of Confucius) - longevity, courage, loyalty and stamina, plum - longevity, purity, strength, perseverance and hermitage, cherry - courage and hope, olive - peace, perseverance and generosity, orange - immortality and good luck, clover - triad, orchid - perfection, harmony and sophistication, lotus - wealth, nobility and fidelity, peony - masculinity, glory , luck and wealth, marigolds - longevity, magnolia - self-esteem, plantain - self-education.

In various regions of China and the world, the divisions of the parent society "Tiandihui" are known as the triad, hui, hongmen (refers more to the political or social component of the secret society) or tong (mainly in the USA and Canada).

The struggle of power structures with triads

The first law against the Hong Kong triads was passed in 1845, after which it was successively amended and supplemented in 1887, 1911, 1920 and finally in 1949. In its original version, Decree No. 1 of 1845 outlawed triads "like other secret societies", making participation in them a criminal offense.

This original wording was soon changed, and Decree No. 12 of 1845 defines membership in triads as criminally prosecutable. The 1887 amendment (Decree No. 8) defined as the object of police prosecution any criminal formation that posed a threat to "law and order in the colony."

In addition, conscious participation in secret gatherings held by such organizations became a criminal offense. Decree No. 47 of 1911 introduced the concept of officially registered communities, prescribing special registers for legally permitted associations. Any organization whose name did not appear on the register was automatically declared illegal.

The same decree defined under the name "organization" any association that included more than 10 people, regardless of its goals. The laws of the following years clarified the definition of a criminal organization as a society whose purpose is criminal activity and / or disruption of public order, as well as a subsidiary organization associated with some foreign society that sets itself such goals. The current law (Cap 151) essentially continues the line begun by the colonial administration, with the responsibility for suppressing the activities of the triads being placed on the local police.

In 1949, after coming to power in China communist party, which began a brutal fight against organized crime, members of the Chinese triads began to emigrate in large numbers to Hong Kong, where they could continue to do their usual business. In 1951, there were 8 largest triads in Hong Kong, dividing spheres of influence among themselves, and by the beginning of the 50s, about 300 thousand people were in the triads of the colony.

Clashes between nationalist and pro-communist forces, which led to mass riots in 1956, in which members of the triads also took part, caused an immediate reaction from the Hong Kong authorities - more than 5 thousand people were detained by the police, about 600 members of the triads were expelled from the colony.

Between 1955/1956 and 1959/1960, the number of arrests for participation in illegal formations jumped from 70 to 3,521. In 1958, a special police unit was formed, whose immediate responsibility was to fight the triads.

The result of such a policy was almost immediate, from 1960/1961 to 1967/1968 the number of arrests on charges of participation in illegal formations fell from 747 to 110 respectively.

In 1973, a large-scale campaign against secret societies was carried out, during which the Hong Kong police detained about 1.7 thousand people. In 1974, the police broke up two underground syndicates and discovered seven drug factories, where they confiscated more than 309 kg of opium, 67 kg of morphine and more than 46 kg of heroin. Despite this, there was a fear that corruption had also penetrated the police environment. The triads were sometimes allowed to operate with impunity, as long as public order was not violated. Soon the fears were confirmed, and the 70s were marked by high-profile cases against bribe-taking police officers.

In January 1974, a special, independent commission to fight corruption was created, which was not subordinate to the police authorities, and in July of that year the authorities launched a further attack on the triads. As a result, 3,123 people were under arrest - almost three times more than in the entire previous year. In 1976, this figure was already 4,061 people and in the same year the police officially announced that the triads were now defeated, and their miserable remnants, bearing only the same name in the old fashioned way, no longer pose the same danger.

But it soon became clear that this statement was somewhat premature, and in the 80s, the already seemingly disappeared triads appeared again, only having changed in the conditions of the new time. There has been a merging of triads with criminal organizations in other countries, in particular, Australian and American ones, as well as their active penetration into rapidly developing China. By the end of the 90s, it becomes clear that the decrees on illegal formations have become obsolete and the fight against the triads of a new generation has entered the agenda, in which the experience of fighting organized crime as such should be used.

In 2009, on the eve of the XVI Summer Asian Games, held in 2010 in Guangzhou, Chinese law enforcement agencies carried out a large-scale "cleansing" of the criminal world of Hong Kong, Macau and Guangdong.

Directly in Hong Kong, dozens of brothels and gambling houses were closed, more than 2 thousand gangsters were arrested, and in November 2009, the leaders of the largest triads 14K, Shuifong, Woshinwo and Wohopto fell into the hands of the police.

Currently, to combat the triads, the technique of introducing police agents into their environment, recruiting informants among gangsters who are promised judicial indulgences and a witness protection program are being used.

In addition to this, a law was passed in 1994 allowing the confiscation of funds belonging to triad members. The trials of the leaders of the triads also continue, but the fight against these centuries-old secret societies is far from over.

Films about the Triads and the Pirates of Hong Kong

Movie. "Shadowboxing 3D: Last Round" (2011)

Movie. "City on Fire" (1987)

Movie. "Infernal Affairs" (2002)

Movie. "Double Impact" (1991)

Movie. "Hitler" (1989)

Movie. "New Police Story" (2004)

Movie. "Isle of Fire" (1991)

Movie. "Until the tears dry" (1988)

Movie. "Police Story 2" (1988)

Movie. "Police Story 3" (1992)

Movie. "Police Story" (1985)

Movie. "Project A: Part 2" (1987)

Movie. "Project A" (1983)

Movie. "Five Lucky Stars" (1983)

Movie. "Bright Future 2" (1987)

Movie. "Bright Future" (1986)

Movie. Super Squad 2 (1985)

Movie. "Rush Hour 2" (2001)

Movie. "I Come With Rain" (2009)

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Gertz, for the Washington Times. British authorities in colonial Hong Kong dubbed the groups triads because of the triangular imagery.

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Volume 10, p. 14 (quote based on the book by P. M. Ivanov "Hong Kong. History and Modernity", Moscow, publishing house "Nauka", 1990)

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For all their closedness, the triads are the oldest criminal organization in the world - they are already more than 2500 years old: the first mention of them appeared in Chinese chronicles during the reign of Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi (221-210 BC). But actually they began to be called triads much later.

The evolution of triads: from the national liberation movement to the criminal community

The first reliable information about the triads dates back to 1644, when the last emperor of the Ming dynasty was overthrown and power passed to the Manchu Qing dynasty. A group of 133 Buddhist monks who swore on their blood to restore the Ming Dynasty waged a guerrilla war against the Manchu conquerors for many years, but never achieved success. In 1674, all the fighters, except for five people, were captured and brutally executed, and the monastery that served as their stronghold was destroyed.

These five surviving monks (their members of the triad are called the founding fathers or the Five Ancestors, and their names are always the five main leaders in any of its links) created a secret society whose goal was to overthrow the Manchus. The motto "Overthrow the Qing, restore the Ming" (Fan Qing, Fu Ming) is still solemnly pronounced at the meetings of the triads as a tribute to tradition, although it has long lost all meaning.

A triangle was chosen as the emblem of the organization created by five monks, the sides of which symbolized heaven, earth and man - the main elements of the Chinese universe. But not only this was the reason for choosing a triangle. In Chinese culture, the numerological tradition is highly developed and the number 3 is believed to have special properties especially when it comes to criminal activity. (For example, in extortion, the rate is often calculated on the basis of three.) Although the five surviving monks, known today as the Five Ancestors, gave their organization the name "Hong Mun" (this is the name taken in Russian historiography, although in the original it sounds "Hong Men") , or Society of Earth and Sky (Tiandihui), in the West it is better known in connection with the mentioned symbol. Thus, the term "triad" is used almost exclusively by Westerners. The native Chinese usually refer to this organization as "Heishehui" - the black society.

Although Hong Mun failed to overthrow the Manchu dynasty, the organization existed for many years. Teaming up with the previously created "White Lotus", she constantly disturbed the imperial forces and repeatedly moved the population to revolts. According to the principles of Buddhism, the members of the organization had to respect the rights and share the aspirations of the peasants; this tactic was used with great success almost 300 years later by the communists under the leadership of Mao Zedong. At the same time, the thesis that "armies protect the emperor, and secret societies protect people" became widespread.

The triads wielded power and influence, although they never succeeded in realizing their original goal of overthrowing the Manchu Qing Dynasty, never popularly loved due to the brutal, repressive nature of power. A stable positive image of this organization remained until 1842 and the establishment of British rule in Hong Kong. Although the triads remained focused on political and cultural goals, the UK was concerned about their presence and as a result they were declared "inconsistent with the maintenance of order" and accused of creating preconditions for the commission of crimes and harboring criminals. Following the example of the imperialist authorities in China, the British authorities made it a crime not only to actually belong to the triad, but even to intend to join it. Punishment - up to three years in prison. If at this stage the triads had no obvious criminal goals, such an attitude undoubtedly pushed them in this direction.

In 1848, Hong Mun merged with a new secret society that arose in the Canton region, the Warriors of God. Together they organized the Taiping uprisings. Canton was besieged, the uprising spread to Shanghai and other cities. At this point, the rituals of the triad were still aimed at emphasizing the positive image of the organization. A new state of Taiping tyanguo was proclaimed - the Heavenly State of Great Prosperity. By then, China had become a semi-colony of Britain, the United States, and France, and the triads were the only force that organized resistance to foreign exploitation and oppression.

But the "Boxer Rebellion" of 1900 marked the transformation of the triads into organizations pursuing exclusively criminal goals. The uprising, which got its name because it was led by the Yihetuan Fist, a secret society, was aimed at driving foreigners out of the country through murder and intimidation, directed primarily against the settlements and missions located in Beijing and Shanghai. When besieged diplomats and trade representatives turned to their governments for help, eight countries sent expeditionary forces to China.

A combined force of 2,000, which included soldiers from Britain, Germany, Russia, France, the United States, Japan, Italy, and Austria, under the overall command of the British Admiral Sir Edward Seymour, landed in June 1900. Strong resistance from the rebel and imperial Chinese troops forced Seymour retreat and call for reinforcements. In August, the number of his forces increased immediately by 20,000 people. After the capture of Tianjin, foreign armies began to fight their way to Beijing and reached the capital on 14 August.

Over the next few months, the invasion force continued to grow. In the end, they captured Beijing and rushed into the provinces to pursue the rebels. In February 1901, the Chinese authorities were forced to ban the "Yihetuan" society, and on September 7 of the same year they signed the "Final (or" Boxing) Protocol), which was the official end of the uprising. The country was completely demoralized, a crushing blow was dealt to the prestige of the authorities, but the imperial government had to go to even greater humiliations, allowing foreigners to consolidate their interests and continue to exploit the people and resources of the country. The consequences of the uprising continued to affect throughout the 20th century.

From that moment it became absolutely clear that the triads would not be able to exert any noticeable influence on the formation and implementation of China's national interests. The Boxers, who were a similar secret society, not only failed to defend the nation, but were defeated, and China's foreign enemies were stationed throughout the country, armed to the teeth and determined to brutally suppress any internal resistance.

And then the activities of secret societies turned inland. Since they were unable to throw off foreign oppression, it means that they will have to engage in the exploitation of their fellow citizens, building up forces and avoiding any influence or threat from non-Chinese forces. True, for some time they retained an interest in politics. Their most outstanding achievement was their support of Dr. Sun Yat-sen in overthrowing the Manchu Qing Dynasty and establishing a republican system of government. Many researchers believe that Sun Yat-sen actively used triads to ensure success; this is a well-founded assumption, especially considering that in his youth, according to numerous testimonies, he occupied a fairly prominent place in the triad "Green Gang" - "Society of Three Harmonies".

By the way, it is worth remembering that the triads, in fact, saved Sun Yat-sen, when he, while still a "rebel", was captured in London by agents of Empress Ci Xi and placed under arrest on the territory of the Chinese embassy. He was expected to be smuggled to China for trial and execution. However, information about this reached the representatives of the triads operating in London, who took the unprecedented step of openly appealing to the authorities and the press. As a result of the scandal that broke out, the Chinese were forced to release Sun Yat-sen, and he returned to China a decade later as a winner.

Chiang Kai-shek, who replaced Sun Yat-sen as leader of the Kuomintang Party, also experienced their strength first hand. So, once, during a business visit to Shanghai, his wife was kidnapped. The problem was solved quite quickly - soon one of the leaders of the local triad called him in the presidential number, and politely explained that his wife was in complete safety, and you had to pay for security. Chiang Kai-shek did not bargain, and soon his wife was taken to a hotel. With this incident in mind, Chiang Kai-shek tried to use the power of the triads as a last resort in the war against the communists led by Mao Zedong, but it was too late. After Mao's victory in 1949, Chiang Kai-shek and his followers fled to Formosa (Taiwan), and those triad leaders who remained on the mainland were executed. Some still managed to escape to the Portuguese-owned Macau and the British-occupied Hong Kong, which in the second half of the 20th century became the base of the triads. Representing many separate groups (the total number is approximately 1 million 200 thousand people), now they completely control all illegal business in China. In their hands are the supply of drugs, the "black market" of currency, human trafficking, smuggling of biological resources, underground brothels, arms trafficking, etc. But the basis of the business of the triads is still extortion - monthly "tax inspectors" of the triads come to Chinese merchants in the PRC, the USA, Europe and other regions of the world, who check the documents and take away the 15 percent of profits due to them.

Triads in China...

It is believed that mafia agents have long been introduced into the state apparatus and the police, but at the same time, the triads buy only minor officials - they do not have access to the big bosses. And if the mayor of a small town in the province can work for the triad, then she, as is commonly believed, cannot influence a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Although from time to time both police officers and petty officials fly out of their places for "connections with crime", official authority does not admit that the triads have agents in their ranks, and representatives of the triads themselves, of course, prudently do not confirm this.

Meanwhile, a study of modern organized crime in the PRC by the Chinese scholar Xin Yan suggests that the leaders of “mafia-type organizations” are increasingly infiltrating economic and economic structures and strengthening corruption ties, and crimes in the economic sphere have become more sophisticated. At the same time, cases have become more frequent when triads seize the administrative power of the lower level (in villages and villages, small towns), including taking on the functions of law enforcement agencies.

The leaders of the triads rise to ever higher levels of the hierarchical ladder of the state, become deputies of the National People's Congress (NPC) or members of political advisory councils in the provinces. Triads are more likely to intervene in the process associated with the reshuffling of high-ranking officials. Moreover, as noted in Xin Yang's study, some leaders in certain regions of the PRC sometimes asked the leaders of local triod cells to take over the administrative power of the lower level (for example, village management). Of course, many local leaders approached the triads with requests for financial assistance, deliberately placing themselves in a dependent position. As the criminal cases studied by Chinese experts show, it is not uncommon for organized criminal groups - local cells of triads - to be created and led by former party and administrative managers, high-ranking employees of a number of prosecutors' offices and even current representatives of the National People's Congress, secretaries of party cells and heads of local public security organs.

The structures of triads have recently been increasingly trying to "work" under the guise of legally functioning firms and enterprises and penetrate into the economic spheres of the state. Receiving superprofits, the triads have established a system for laundering "dirty money". In China, according to Chinese experts, about 200 billion yuan (24.7 billion dollars) is laundered annually. Significant sums pass through underground money changers.

The triads are more active in the coastal provinces, and especially in Hong Kong. In their hands - the supply of heroin and opium, the "black market" of the currency; transporting prostitutes to brothels; arms trade; providing a "roof" for local businessmen. In 2005, the official China News Weekly Review published an article stating that Chinese mafia ties were not limited to Hong Kong and Macau, but spread to large industrial centers of China, such as Guangzhou, Tianjin and Shanghai.

The Chinese mafia structures keep pace with the progress brought about by the reforms, and widely use all the achievements for their own purposes. Given the rapid development of the Internet, the triads organized online sales of pirated audio and video materials and then expanded the scope of criminal online trading. Now the range of goods includes drugs, prostitutes, stolen cars, weapons, forged documents and even human organs for transplants. Despite the fact that the authorities in China are trying to strictly control the Internet by creating more than 30,000-strong army of Internet policemen, the criminal business is flourishing online, and new sites are replacing closed sites.

Triads are quite responsive to changes in market trends and consumer preferences. In the mid-2000s, during a period of rapid growth in demand for fuel, criminal gangs began stealing crude oil from oil pipelines, and the annual amount of stolen oil, according to police, was estimated at more than $120 million. No less attention is paid to changes in consumer demand. Income growth in the PRC and the rapid formation of a "middle class" has led to an increase in demand for exotic expensive seafood dishes, including those that are prohibited from being harvested and traded. In particular, in cooperation with the Mexican drug cartels, the Chinese triads have arranged the supply of dried totoaba swim bladders to Hong Kong, an endangered species of fish that is illegally caught and smuggled into Hong Kong from North and South America. The international trade of totoaba is officially prohibited, and its extraction has been considered illegal since 1975, since this fish is listed as a rare endangered species. At the same time, the poaching of totoaba is accompanied by the simultaneous illegal production of another rare species- vaquita porpoises, which live only in the Gulf of California and often get stuck in the nets set for catching totoaba.

According to Greenpeace, the illegal harvesting and sale of endangered species of fish and marine animals has attracted the attention of the Hong Kong triads and Mexican drug cartels, since this type of underground business brings in hundreds of millions of dollars annually. The totoaba swim bladder is highly valued in Hong Kong and mainland China as a delicacy, priced at HK$1 million per kilogram. The swim bladder of totoaba contains a number of rather rare substances used in Chinese medicine. In addition, the insides of fish are used to prepare expensive gourmet dishes. In mainland China, a bowl of totoaba soup can cost as much as $25,000. Despite the high price, demand in China far exceeds supply.

Greenpeace says Hong Kong has become a hub for the illegal wildlife trade, fueled by weakness customs control- Dried totoaba swim bladders are safely transported here through the airport, and then sold in the markets and transported to mainland China. In two years, customs detained only two totoaba swim bladders, while an unofficial inspection of 70 outlets conducted by Greenpeace representatives in March-April 2015 revealed 13 cases of sale of this product. At the same time, a number of traders offered to organize shipments from Mexico, and some were willing to send samples to mainland China for an additional fee of 2,000 Hong Kong dollars.

Organized crime in China, no matter how hard they tried to destroy it, outlived both the empire and the republic. No matter how hard the authorities different times to destroy the triads by killing their leaders, criminal gangs still continued to exist, only strengthening the conspiracy. At the same time, the triads, which suffered noticeably from the authorities of communist China, behave quite loyally towards the authorities. Moreover, some even call the Chinese triads "the most patriotic mafia in the world." So, when Beijing proclaimed 2002 "the year of tourism", the triads took all measures to prevent crimes against foreign tourists. Representatives of the triads were even on duty on the streets, like law enforcement officers. In fact, there is quite a clear logic in this - the more comfortable foreigners feel in China, the more often they will come and the more money will earn Chinese shops, hotels and restaurants, monthly giving triads 15 percent of their profits. The triads' statement, made at the height of the SARS outbreak in China, about a million-dollar prize for a doctor who can find a cure for this disease was dictated by the same considerations. The triads also offered generous funding to research centers working on the problem.

A characteristic feature of the activities of the triads is that the bulk of the capital earned from operations around the world returns to China. In fact, that is why many researchers call the triads the "patriot mafia", stating that the triads are trying to strengthen the Chinese economy and want their country to be richer. However, everything is not so obvious.

The bulk of the capital of the triads, based after 1949 in Hong Kong, Taiwan and scattered their units around the world, poured into the PRC after Beijing, as part of the reforms, announced a strategy for large-scale attraction of foreign investment, including huaqiao capital. Taking advantage of this, the leaders of the largest and most influential triads established contacts with representatives of the Chinese leadership at all levels, which ensured the safe penetration of their capital to mainland China, mainly to its southern provinces. The triads' money was used to set up various lucrative joint ventures, including nightclubs, hotels, restaurants, and casinos. At the same time, in many cases, on the Chinese side, the co-founders of these institutions were regional representatives of the PRC law enforcement agencies, in particular the Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security and the People's Liberation Army of China. Thus, the triads could safely launder the funds received from illegal business abroad and extract additional profits, while China received the necessary investments for reforms.

… and beyond

Over time, however, Beijing came to the conclusion that support from the triads was becoming unnecessary and even burdensome, in connection with which a new round of the fight against organized crime began. At the same time, almost simultaneously, the slogan “Go outside” was put forward, encouraging the purchase of assets abroad and the creation of new enterprises there. Under these conditions, the leaders of the triads quite naturally turned the direction of their activity outward. Using the processes of globalization, the Chinese triads have taken a leading position in organizing human trafficking and establishing illegal migration flows to the EU and the US, as evidenced by the reports of Europol and the US State Department for 2005-2006.

Yes, one of the most well-known organizations triad - "14 K", named after its postal address (house 14 on Xiguan baohualu), took key positions in organizing the supply of heroin to the Netherlands, Great Britain, Canada and the USA. It has branches in all these countries. Investigators of the Canadian Royal Mounted Police claim that "14 K" and other triads have permanent representatives in every Chinese community in the slightest degree across North America, are associated with almost all areas of criminal activity that can bring profit, from extortion and fraud from loans to credit card scams and video piracy.

Unlike other ethnic criminal communities, which do not care who they rob, the triads, working abroad, choose only the Chinese and Chinese organizations as their main sources of income. Although at one time the triads, Cosa Nostra and the Japanese yakuza concluded certain agreements among themselves, the triads to the greatest extent retained independence and closeness from the outside world. Another notable difference between the triads and the mafia concerns structure and discipline. As anyone who has watched The Godfather or even one episode of The Sopranos knows, Italian organized gangs are highly structured and run with a firm hand, like any corporation (or rather, it was; we will discuss the details in the next chapter). Before undertaking any profitable business, members of the mafia must obtain the approval of the leadership and agree in advance to transfer part of the income to it. Negligence or willful failure to comply with these rules can result in the most severe penalties.

The triads do not have such strict discipline and completely lack the concept of top-to-bottom negotiation and transfer of share of the booty from bottom to top. Here is how one of the participants in the already mentioned Hong Kong triad “14 K” during interrogation described the situation in his organization to an Australian parliamentary investigator: “I was not required to pay a mandatory share to the management of 14 K. This is not accepted in triads. Members of the triad treat each other kindly, provide mutual support and help to colleagues in criminal groups, but in triads, as a rule, there is no that strict disciplined organizational structure that exists in other groups, for example, in the Italian mafia. A member of the triad is not required to obtain permission from the "Dragon Head" of his triad to participate in this or that criminal act ... On the other hand, during ... traditional Chinese holidays, such as Chinese New Year, members of the triad, according to custom, present gifts to their "big brothers" or "uncles", who often occupy a leading position in the triads.

It can be said that the triads act "smarter" than the mafia, whose brutality has become the talk of the town. Triad fighters can be just as brutal, but they often preface their actions with subtle or very direct threats. One Hong Kong businessman who did not want to reckon with threats from the triad was sent a severed dog's head - perhaps the gunmen did this under the influence of the famous horse head scene from The Godfather. They killed him only a few days later, after he defiantly ignored this threat as well.

Insularity makes it particularly difficult for Western intelligence agencies to access the triads. Chinese communities in North America are the most closed of all ethnic groups, and are justifiably wary of attempts by outsiders to gain access to their culture. As a result, in order to penetrate to the leaders of the triad, it is necessary to overcome two defensive barriers: the general cultural barrier with which all Chinese are fenced off from foreigners, and the veil of secrecy that protects the triads as such.

Another complication for law enforcement is the ability to bribe or threaten to compromise local police control. For many years before the transfer of Hong Kong to China (1997), the Royal Hong Kong Police Force did not have an effective criminal unit, and, apparently, the influence of the triads and the scope of their activities in the colony were greatly underestimated. Only a detailed investigation carried out in 1983 showed the true extent of secret criminal groups. At the same time, it became known about the colossal corruption in the KKE, in particular, that the police elite for many years covered up the drug trade carried out by the triads. Many police officers have made a fortune from triad connections, and according to police sources, many of them emigrated to the UK and Canada before Hong Kong became part of communist China in 1997, where, thanks to their accumulated wealth, they settled down safely and turned into respectable wealthy businessmen.

Joining mainland China in July 1997 also prompted an exodus of members of the triad abroad for fear of imminent reprisals, but numerous observers who imagine the level of corruption under the communist regime are confident that since then the triad has regained its former influence. It is possible that the Hong Kong triads have now fallen under the control of Beijing to some extent, but now their influence, albeit to varying degrees, is spreading throughout the world. In the UK, the National Crime Police conducted an investigation of triad activity in the country, which took place under the unpretentious code name "Chopsticks". A 1996 NPC report stated that there were four triads operating in the UK, none of which were controlled from Hong Kong; therefore, these groups were not part of the international criminal community. The victims of the triads were mostly Chinese immigrants involved in small businesses; they generally did not report crimes to the British authorities. The investigation also found that triads do not play a significant role in the drug trade - in contrast to the situation in Australia, Canada and the United States.

In 1988, an investigation by the Australian government revealed that 85-95% of all heroin entering that country was imported by Chinese triads. However, ten years later, a similar investigation conducted by the Americans showed that the proportion of triads had noticeably decreased as a result of competition from criminal organizations in Southeast Asia, primarily Vietnam, Cambodia, Burma (Myanmar) and the Philippines.

In the 1970s and 1980s the highest quality heroin entering North America was produced in Turkey, processed in Marseille, from where it entered the United States (the famous "French Network"); All this happened under the control of the mafia. Emigration of triad leaders from Hong Kong in the 1990s allowed the Chinese to partially seize control of drug networks. The Triads found their way around Marseille, through which the bulk of the potion had previously passed. Now routes run either through Amsterdam, or directly to Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, and from there to the main market - in the USA. Most researchers consider the triad "14 K" as the primary source of drugs.

In Japan, the Chinese triads have even pushed back the yakuza a bit, taking control of two-thirds of the heroin trade. According to American experts, Chinese mafia structures have penetrated deeply into the legal and shadow economy of the United States, ahead of the Colombian cartels. In Italy, in 2006, law enforcement authorities conducted a major investigation into the connections of Chinese triads with the Italian mafia, during which criminal money investments in real estate and trade in Milan were revealed, and in Rome, investigators found front companies and banks in which money was laundered. 22,000 Chinese came into the field of view of the Italian police, 250 criminal cases were opened against members of the triads.

Chinese organized crime has also shown that it is quite capable of provoking global economic crises and influencing market prices. So, in 2005, the world copper market was on the verge of disaster due to a grandiose fraud on the London Metal Exchange. At that time, Liu Yulbin, a trader working for the triads and well-known in business circles, sold 200 thousand tons of copper on the exchange, acting on behalf of the Chinese state corporation State Reserve Bureau. After the sale of non-existent copper, the trader disappeared, and when, as a result of the scandal, world copper prices reached a historical record.

Of course, the expansion of the Chinese triads could not bypass Russia. As Vitaly Nomokonov, a well-known expert on transnational crime, noted, these processes in the Far East were characterized by the intensive integration of Russian and Chinese mafia structures. For example, in Ussuriysk, representatives of the triads built relationships with local leaders of the criminal world on a purely business basis. Thus, representatives of Russian organized criminal groups helped the Chinese to buy metal here and ship it abroad. In addition, Russian "colleagues" created transport companies, whose services were used by representatives of Chinese criminal communities, and also provided them with warehouses for storing goods, including contraband.

One more characteristic feature activity of the Chinese triads in Russia is the active creation of companies registered by nominees - citizens of the Russian Federation. Many of these firms are created for conducting one-time transactions, for example, for the sale of any counterfeit products in order to legalize them, cash out or transfer funds abroad, etc. Thousands of such companies were registered in the Chita and Novosibirsk regions, mainly for the export of strategic raw materials to China.

Although almost nothing has been said about triads in Russia lately, this does not mean at all that they do not exist and they do not work here. It's just that many of their former crime boss partners have now become famous businessmen, public figures and deputies of different levels, having legalized part of their business. It is the same with the triads - they still skim the cream off Chinese firms operating in Russia, organize the supply of timber, bioresources, raw materials, etc., simultaneously controlling a significant part of the Chinese tourist flow, directing it to their hotels, restaurants and cafe.

Triads are part of Chinese history and part of modern global peace. They have an exceptional ability to survive, developed over millennia, which makes them change according to changing conditions. But at the heart of this survival is following the traditions, without which the triads would be an ordinary ethnic criminal community, and not a criminal historical phenomenon.

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"Triad": Chinese mafia. A History of Organized Crime in Hong Kong. Triads Chinese criminal organization

First half of the 19th century

Second half of the 19th century

First half of the 20th century

Second half of the 20th century

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