Chinese organized crime groups are triads. Triads: criminals with an ancient history A secret criminal organization in China

Today's researchers consider organized crime in Hong Kong to be the direct heir of the secret societies of the past, but what of their features have Hong Kong organized crime groups retained today?

During the reign of the Qing Dynasty, in the territory of several provinces of South China and among overseas Chinese, the already mentioned people's secret society (民间秘密会党) "Union of Heaven and Earth" (天地会) was active. It is believed that it got its name in honor of the idea: "Worship Heaven as a father, worship the Earth as a mother" (一拜天为父二拜地为母). For internal use in the "Union of Heaven and Earth", the name "Triad of the Great Teaching" (洪门三合会) was generally accepted.

According to the records of archival materials of the Qing era, the "Union of Heaven and Earth" originated in the Zhangzhou (漳州地区) region of Fujian Province. There is evidence linking secret societies in Hong Kong with organizations in Guangdong, whose origins can be retrospectively linked to societies originally operating in Fujian.

Today, Hong Kong does not legally use the term "criminal organization-heishehui" (黑社会), instead officially using the term "triad" (三合会). There, the term "triad" has become a household name and does not indicate a specific organization with that name. This principle has been taken up by Western scholars, often transferring the name "triad" to Chinese organized crime in general.

In modern Hong Kong and Macao, the names of many criminal organizations are just names without deep hoaxes and secret meaning, although these gangs trace their history back to the secret societies of the past. As an example, Chinese researchers cite the criminal communities "Xin and an" (新义安) and "Shenghe" (胜和). Or take at least the criminal organization "Shuifang" (水房), which includes various smaller groups. There are organizations with this name in both Macao and Hong Kong. From 1996 to 1998, the Macao "Shuifang" (水房), together with the Shenghe (胜和) gang, fought with the Hong Kong "Shuifang" (水房).

Many criminal organizations in Hong Kong are so small that it is hard to imagine - 3 - 5 permanent members. That is, they do not even fall under the operational criterion of the danger of a criminal organization that exists in inner China - "553", which means - "the organization includes 5 or more people, and out of 5 cases of the organization - 3 criminal ones." From this point of view, not every criminal group in Hong Kong can be called a "mafia" (黑社会) or a mafia-type criminal organization under the classification of the CPC of mainland China.

Today, members of criminal organizations from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and other countries visit the PRC from time to time, where they arrange birthday celebrations or funerals for members of criminal communities - natives of the provinces of mainland China, as well as some ceremonies related to the history of those secret societies from which they trace their history. The PRC police are trying to control the holding of such events and act in such a way as to reduce the influence of criminal organizations on society to the minimum possible level.

In 1900, in Guangdong province, for the first time in China, "entering the country in order to expand the activities of organized crime" (入境发展黑社会组织罪) was qualified as a crime. Then six people arrived in Shenzhen to attend the "coronation" (搞职位升迁仪式) ceremony. Their rank rose from the level of "ordinary members of the organization looking after individual streets" (草鞋四九仔) to the level of "lawyers and executioners" of the mafia (红棍). On their way back to Hong Kong, five of them were caught by the police and thrown into jail.

Chinese experts do not deny the existence of a process of infiltration of foreign criminal groups into mainland China. In 1981, 4 mafia groups connected with crime in Hong Kong were identified in Shenzhen. In 1991 their number rose to 29.

However, according to Chinese experts, the majority of members of criminal organizations visiting the PRC, including major criminal authorities, do not end up there in order to organize a criminal business. Their main goal is to visit spiritually significant places for them, meetings with relatives, tourism, shopping, less often they arrive with the aim of starting a legal business, attaching criminally acquired capital, protecting them from both their competitors and the Hong Kong police. Undoubtedly, organs public safety The PRC is documenting the travel of identified organized crime members and is cooperating with the Hong Kong police on this matter.

The position of the PRC police in relation to foreign crime in general, and foreign Chinese ethnic crime in particular, can be formulated in the form of three principles:

Prevent them from entering the country for the purpose of organizing criminal activities, and immediately stop them if such intentions are detected;

Do not allow criminals who have committed crimes abroad to take refuge in the territory of the PRC;

Do not allow them to commit crimes in China.

In terms of combating organized crime, Hong Kong law enforcement agencies have accumulated a lot of experience. In 1956, the first specialized police unit was created there to deal with this phenomenon. For comparison, in the PRC only in 1997 were amendments made to the Criminal Code, which made it possible to prosecute members of organized criminal groups in a targeted manner.

The history of Hong Kong organized crime goes back almost 100 years. As we mentioned, today the term "triads" (三合会) is used collectively for them, this happened because most of these criminal organizations trace their roots to the secret society "Triad" or as it was also called "Great Triad Teachings" (洪门三合会) - branch of the Union of Heaven and Earth.

It is said that around 1760, the well-known anti-Qing movement "Union of Heaven and Earth" (天地会) in China established a branch in Guangdong. Members of this organization contributed to the preparation and implementation of the Xinhai Revolution in China. Modern triads have lost their political significance, having degenerated into an organization of criminals. Chinese historians describe the process of the arrival of the triads in Hong Kong in this way.

In 1846, a rather influential secret society, the Hezixi (和字系), was formed in Hong Kong. At that time, those who had strayed from their local organizations members of the Great Triad Teachings flocked to Hong Kong and concentrated around the inns. They marked such courtyards with the hieroglyph "Calm-"He" (和). Gradually, these gangs were joined by vagrants and persons with no specific occupation, multiplying the number of criminals who were ready to commit atrocities for a small fee. At the same time, the current system of organized crime in Hong Kong began to take shape, giving the gang the right to engage in criminal activities strictly within the territory (地盘) ​​or district (区域) recognized for it.

In 1866, the people who flooded Hong Kong huddled together in the Wan'anbang (万安帮) grouping, and in 1919 it split under the influence of internal centrifugal forces. Some of the gangsters united in the Yanbang gang (义安帮), which in 1921 appeared on the political stage of Hong Kong as an organization representing the interests of the Chinese in the face of the British colonial administration - the Honor and Peace Trade and Industrial Association (义安工商总 会).

In 1909, the head (堂主) of the association or “temple” (secret societies very actively used religious terminology and symbols) “Yyuntan” (义勇堂) Hei Guren (黑骨仁) convened the first in Hong Kong, a gathering of representatives of the triads (洪门大会). At the meeting, among other decisions, it was determined that in front of the entrance to the “temple” (gathering place) of the gang, the hieroglyph “He” (peace, tranquility) would be displayed as a symbol of the fact that “peace and tranquility” in relations between gangs - the most expensive thing that can be (以和为贵). So in the ranks of the triads from the gangs present at the meeting, the “He” (“和” 字派三合会组织) faction was formed.

The secret association "He" ("和" 字头帮会) was represented by more than 30 communities (堂口) operating in 9 districts of Hong Kong. The most active of them were the Heanle (和安乐), Heshenghe (和胜和), Hehetao (和合桃) gangs.

"Heanle" is the largest of the gangs of the "He" ("和"字派) faction, it traces its history from the so-called "Prosperity Temple" (安乐堂). Its first members were workers in tea shops, diners, and food vendors. For this reason, its main headquarters was the Anle Soda Water Plant located in the Jiulong District (九龙安乐汽水厂). That is why the gang was called the "House of Water" (水房) or "House of Soda Water" (汽水房) - the same one that still exists today "Shuifang".

The Hehetao (和合桃) gang was formerly known as the Hehetu (和合图). It was formed in 1886, still exists today and is one of the oldest gangs of the Hong Kong triads.

The Hong Kong police force in the 19th century was quite small and had a vague idea of ​​how Hong Kong's gangs fought each other. The police reacted only to individual facts of killing people and disturbing public order. Failing to face resistance, Hong Kong's criminal communities evolved into professional criminal associations that engaged in certain types of criminal activity and controlled certain territories.

In the middle of the 20th century, after the formation of the PRC, the activities of religious sects and other secret associations (会道门) on the Chinese mainland were banned, and again some of them rushed to Hong Kong. So in 1949, the "Society for the Great Teaching of Selfless Devotion and Sense of Duty" (洪门忠义会) settled in Hong Kong. In October 1949, the People's Liberation Army of China entered Guangzhou. Members of this organized group have abandoned open armed resistance. Their head, Ge Zhaohuang (葛肇煌), took refuge in Hong Kong, organizing there the "Society of the Great Teaching of Selfless Devotion and Sense of Duty" (洪门忠义会). For the purposes of conspiracy, the address of the then headquarters of the organization in Hong Kong - Xiguan Baohualu Street, Building 14 (西关宝华路14号), was briefly called "Number 14" (14号).

The secret password of his organization (山头诀) Ge Zhaohuang made the following combination of words difficult to translate into Russian: “洪发山、 忠义堂、珠江水、白云香”, and the ancient motto of the Great Teaching is “hongmen” (洪门) “Overthrow the Qing Restore the Ming Dynasty" (反清复明) he changed to "Overthrow the Communists Restore the Republic" (反共复国). The gangs that were part of the Hong Men community began to be called in accordance with the names of the 8 virtues of the Chinese people, proclaimed by Chiang Kai-shek in the formula "Loyalty, respect, philanthropy, love, faith, justice, consent, impartiality" (忠、孝、仁、 爱、信、义、和、平). Later, the phrase "number 14" (14号) became the name of the criminal organization "14 K".

At different stages of its existence, Hong Kong's criminal communities have been split and merged. For example, in 1930, Heshenghe (和胜和) seceded from the Hehetu (和合图) gang, which is the second most influential community of the He faction after Heanle (和安乐).

In 1947, for its connection with crime, the British administration of Hong Kong revoked the official registration of the Trade and Industrial Association "Honor and Tranquility" (义安工商总会), then the organization changed its name to "Xinan Company" (新安公司) and its branch "Yunan » (永安公司). Today it is the Xin'an (新义安) criminal association.

The He (和字系), 14K, and Xin'an (新义安) faction gangs are Hong Kong's most powerful criminal corporations today.

In 1956, the "Kiulong riots" (九龙暴动) took place in Hong Kong. The 14K gang and members of other groups participated in looting and pogroms. This turned out to be enough for the British colonial administration to begin to increase the amplitude of the struggle against the triads in all their complex diversity. However, one decision to fight organized crime was not enough. The British immediately faced the problem of the coalescence of power with criminal organizations that had occurred over a long period of their peaceful coexistence. An attempt to combat this state of affairs led in the 60s and 70s to an aggravation of the social situation in Hong Kong. The fact is that the triads actually ensured public order in Hong Kong at the level of blocks and streets. Interaction with the police reached such a level that in the event of a missing child, for example, the police turned to them for assistance in the search, the police and the triads jointly solved the problems of maintaining public order in the territories controlled by the gangs. Of course, when new demands were made by politicians, the old system had to be scrapped, and it should be noted that it was effectively broken.

In 1974, when a more democratic form of government was introduced in Hong Kong, the interaction between the police and criminal organizations was put to an end and the criminals had to transfer all their activities to a canspiratory basis.

During the 1980s, the 14K gang's positions were constantly attacked, both by the police and by the rival factions Xin'an (新义安) and Heshenghe (和胜和).

According to Hong Kong police statistics, there are currently between 12,000 and 20,000 people associated with 14K in one way or another, united in 31 “dui” (堆) groups, which are located in all districts of Hong Kong and Kowloon. However, a greater number of these groups exist in name rather than as viable organizations. There are only 6 really functioning gangs in “14K”, the rest are of an amorphous nature and are not actively involved in criminal activities.

The Xinian (新义安) community has developed rapidly in recent decades, becoming today an oligarchic group among the triads. In the 1980s and 90s, this community controlled the film industry in Hong Kong, which contributed to the emergence of a large number of films in that period, in which the main characters were martial arts and mafiosi.

After the police in Hong Kong joined forces with the police in mainland China in the fight against organized crime, the scale of the activities of criminal communities began to noticeably curtail. At the same time, the activities of organized crime have gone beyond their traditional fishing grounds and spilled out beyond the previously controlled areas of the criminals. Today, organized crime groups control prostitution and the production of pornography, the production of videocassettes and videodiscs. Most of the small nightclubs, massage parlors, saunas and dens that provide sexual services are under their control. Investment and management of these establishments is carried out by criminals through nominees, which makes it difficult to find the actual owners of these properties.

Each of Hong Kong's criminal gangs is now taking part in the drug trade, receiving significant income from this item in their shadow budgets. The degree of participation of a particular group in the drug trade varies from small sales in specific establishments to participation in international drug trafficking.

The areas of professional interests of criminal organizations in Hong Kong are racketeering, usury, smuggling, fraud, gambling, as well as providing patronage to various economic entities and participating in their profits.

In the 1980s and 1990s, criminal organizations in Hong Kong rushed into legal business, including in mainland China. The objects of capital investment of funds flowing from the "shadow" area of ​​the economy to its "light" part of the steel - the construction industry, transport, public catering and entertainment. An example is the Xiang brothers (向氏), known to every citizen of the PRC, who are suspected of having links with the Xinian (新义安) community. Under the Xiang brothers, such large film studios as Vince Entertainment (永盛), Chinese Star (中国星), One Hundred Years (一百年), which released many films popular in China, operate.

Speaking about today's day of organized crime, Chinese experts admit that in Chinese cities and villages, as in ancient China, still, unofficially, there are two opposing systems, two systems, two regimes. The first - exists thanks to people who respect and protect the law, the basis of the second - people who do not act as prescribed by the law of the country.

Since this division is conditional, and the psychology of people is very diverse, it is impossible to draw a clear line in this confrontation and, therefore, two opposing tendencies coexist inextricably and it is not possible to get rid of any of them today. Moreover, history shows us that the "white" and "black" vessels communicate, people flow from one to the other following changes in the situation and the situation in the country. Throughout Chinese history, this unity and the struggle of opposites manifested itself as a confrontation between the "official" culture and the culture of freemen - "jianghu".

The secret Buddhist sect "Bailianjiao" ("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 a mass organization that quickly 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. 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.

XVII-XVIII centuries

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 quickly operated in the Hong Kong and Guangzhou area, began periodically attacking merchant and even military ships on their junks, robbing 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 Tiandihui (, Society of Heaven and Earth) or Hongmen organization, from which came the Sanhehui (, Society of Three Concords, Society of Three Harmonies, or “Triad Society”), according to one version, founded at the end of the 17th century by fugitive Buddhist monks in Fujian province 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 five monks stood at the origins of the Tiandihui, who escaped the destruction of the Shaolin Monastery by the Manchus and swore to end 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 still managed to burn Shaolin, but at the same time, 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.

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 of Hong Kong due to the use of the triangle symbol by society, and with 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 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 prohibiting smoking, growing and importing opium, and, in addition, closed the port of Guangzhou. This ban entailed a dispersion of trade - from port warehouses, where it could be 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, in addition, attacked coastal villages and cities. After the third expedition Imperial Navy, which was headed by the former assistant to the pirate leader Cong Menxing, the pirates' forces were severely undermined, and the Qing leader, with the remnants of her fleet, began to trade in smuggling of 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 base base of smugglers until 1839.

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 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 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, pirates sacked the premises of the government office and the missionary school, as well as the offices of Dent & 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 at the same time, 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 colonial authorities of Hong Kong 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 sent large group public women.

In the years 1845-1849, Hong Kong, which was used as a giant transit warehouse, from where the drug was distributed along the entire Chinese coast, passed about the Indian opium crop. 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).

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, 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 their children to Singapore, Australia, San Francisco, where they sold them to brothels.

Second half of the 19th century

From the beginning of the 1950s, Chinese emigrants rushed through Hong Kong to North America, Southeast Asia and Australia. 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-1950s, local gangsters began to move abroad, taking Chinatowns under their control (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 there was no especially warm relationship between the Taipings and the triads, 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 to the British southern part Kowloon Peninsula. In 1857, the authorities of Hong Kong, caring little about the fate of ordinary Chinese, taxed the "fun neighborhoods" and brothels, and in 1858 - the colony's pawnshops, through which the purchase of stolen goods and the trade in enslaved 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 a check on the labor market by exacting regular levies on Chinese wage earners 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 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, in fact, was 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 a confident leader in the supply of opium to China, but 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 "Houtianbagua" created a new sect "Xin Jiugongdao" ("New Way of the 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 the recent immigrants from China, other secret societies were also influential. Thus, most of the people from Guangdong and Fujian belonged to the Sanhehui, from Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou and Sichuan - to the "Gelaohui", from Shanghai - to the "Qingbang" and "Hongbang", "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 down 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.

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 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. To 'five big companies” (“Udagunsy”), the secret societies “Sheng” (“Overcoming”), “Fuixing” (“Happiness, Justice and Revival”) and “Yan” (“Justice and Peace”) were added. 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 vessels. 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 the 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 until 1928 was led by He Liting, 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 early 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, and military equipment from the colony. 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 aircraft, 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 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 Shanhui" (1912), traders from Fujian province - "Fujian Shanhui" (1916), other people from Fujian - "Fujian Luigang Tongxianghui" and "Luigan Minqiao Fuzhou Tongxianghui", immigrants from Chaozhou County (Guangdong) - "Lyuigan Chaozhou Tongxianghui" (1929), Hakka - "Chongzheng Zonghui Jiuji Nanminhui" (1938), natives of Nanhai County (Guangdong) - "Nanhai Tianxianghui" (1939), as well as natives of Zhongshan County (Guangdong), natives of Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces.

Fellowships, quite 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.

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.

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 1947 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 17,000 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 people were left 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 40s, 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 union included many military and civilians who had nothing to do with the Huidangs themselves. Therefore, the name of the union had to be changed to "Association 14" (similar to the address of the former headquarters in Canton), and then 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 special services took out mainly the sick, wounded and elderly, and transferred back to the jungle new american weapons. 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 police officers, 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. The 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 has become especially strong since the number of monthly visitors to the rest colony american soldiers, who fought in Indochina (as a rule, there were about 10 thousand of them), fell 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 crafts, the triads also mastered new ways of making money, for example, counterfeiting Chinese currency and used books. Although the Hong Kong administration settled 360 thousand people in state houses by 1960 (another 85 thousand people moved to houses built in 1955-1962 by private firms for their workers), by 1961 more than 510 thousand 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 appearance of the first big capital local groups in Guangdong have stepped up 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 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, youth retained ties with Hong Kong by participating in sweepstakes and different kind scams with Hong Kong-Taiwan intermediary companies. Unlike the older generation of Hong Kong secret societies, who defended traditional forms of activity, the youth were primarily involved in the drug trade, which quite 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 the 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 took place 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 Huidans 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 total number gangsters decreased to 80 thousand people. Since the late 80s, 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 money laundering of 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 fake CDs of movies, music, software and other counterfeit products (branded watches, perfumes, clothes and accessories), increased their influence in the music and film industry in Hong Kong, engaged in information technology and fraud on the stock exchange. By 2000, the six largest Hong Kong Huidans 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 currently 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 sweepstakes, racketeering, kidnapping for ransom, money laundering, usury, financial fraud and piracy. In addition, triads have big weight in the field of the shadow labor market, loading operations in the port, restaurants, bars, nightclubs and cinemas, the film industry and show business, the construction business and real estate transactions, transportation, 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).

Chinese Triad

The Chinese Triad The Chinese mafia is the largest in the world. Triad. Lotus shadow.
3:01 min.

The history of Chinese triads goes back almost 2,500 years. The triad is a traditional form of criminal society that has existed in China since the 2nd century BC. e. and up to our days. The first mention of triads in the Chinese chronicle appeared during the reign of Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi (221-210 BC), when small groups of pirates and slave traders decided to unite into three large communities called “Shadow of the Lotus”.

According to researchers, the mafia of China borrowed its name from the sacred symbol of the Chinese society “heaven, earth, man”, which form a symbolic triangle. Finally, this name was assigned to the Chinese triads only in the 17th century. According to some written manuscripts that have survived to this day, in 1644, the nomadic horsemen of the Manchu Qing dynasty captured China and destroyed the Shaolin Monastery, famous for its martial arts. Only three monks survived, who left for provisions. Returning, the trio saw only the blazing ruins yes dead bodies comrades. It was these three monks who founded the first "triad" - "Union of Earth, Man and Heaven in the name of justice."

The fighting cells of the new secret society engulfed the country, and all the shopkeepers paid him a tax, on which weapons were bought for the detachments of the “triad” partisans who fought against the invader Manchus. After the monks died, their followers were given power over an organization held together by iron discipline, unquestioning obedience, and supporters ready to obey any order. However, the new leaders of the "triad" instead of guerrilla warfare preferred to engage in the slave trade, piracy, illegal gold mining and racketeering, citing the fact that financial resources, mined by society, is not enough to fight the Manchus. It was then that the “triad” became the mafia.

Today Chinese gangs, “tongs” ( organized groups The United States, consisting mainly of ethnic Chinese and immigrants from China) and the "triads" rank second among the world's criminal groups in terms of the number of crimes committed after the Italian mafia. They are based in China itself, Hong Kong, Taiwan and other places. South-East Asia. "Triads" have an extensive system in Western Europe, in the Chinese communities of North America and in the Russian Far East.

According to some estimates, there are about 160,000 triads in Hong Kong today, belonging to 50 various organizations. There are thousands of separate groups operating in China itself (their total strength is 1 million 200 thousand people), who today completely control all illegal business in the country.

According to experts, in recent decades, the Chinese "triads" have significantly strengthened their ranks. Since the second half of the 1980s, among ethnic Chinese organized crime, there has been a high growth in the number of cohesive, highly organized underground-type formations that do not allow outside penetration.

Close to the Chinese “triads” in terms of organization model is the Vietnamese mafia, which received the nickname “snake”. In structure, it really resembles a snake, since the principle of transnational activity is as follows: first, a “head” appears, establishing contacts with powerful national structures, then the main forces are slowly drawn up – the endless “body” of the snake. Inside the group, a rigid hierarchy, iron discipline and total control over each member of the community are established. Modern triads are mainly of a transnational nature of activity, they are closely connected with ethnic diasporas of emigrants in European, Asian and American countries. For example, in the United States, Chinese "Tongs" and mixed Chinese-Vietnamese groups are active.

Traditionally, the triad organization model is a rigidly centralized hierarchy with six main positions:

The first position is occupied by the leader “san shu”, also known as “lung tao” (dragon head) or “tai lo” (big brother). In his submission are four ranks of leaders responsible for various specific aspects of the organization's activities, and ordinary members.

The second position is occupied by the leaders of individual organizations or a number of them, included in the triad, called “fu shan shu”, and a special person “sing fung”, who manages the recruitment of new members.

The third position is occupied by enforcers, militants - “hung kwan”, who lead the operational groups of triads.

There is a special position for interfacing with other criminal communities and organizations - “sho hai”, as well as an expert in administrative and financial issues “pak tse sin”, who are respectively in the fifth and fourth positions.

At the very bottom, in the sixth position, are ordinary members, or soldiers - "sei kou jai."

The hierarchical authoritarian style of organization emphasizes the following fact. All positions in the Chinese "triads" are usually designated by certain numbers. Persons holding significant positions in this criminal organization are designated by a three-digit number starting with 4, which corresponds to the ancient Chinese legend that the world is surrounded by four seas.

Thus, the leader of the “san shu”, who leads the society of triads in a particular city or geographical area, is called “489”;
hung kwan enforcers - 426; “sho hi”,
responsible for relations with other criminal groups - 432; a
administrative and financial expert - 415.
Simple members that do not have ranks are called the two-digit number "49".

The ruling elite is a kind of “think tank” that determines the direction and nature of the activities of the “triads”. In fact, the latter are feudal-patronymic organizations, the leaders of which have unlimited supreme power. Relatively large organizations are divided into separate detachments with their own names.

Each of the members of such a brotherhood, depending on age, belongs either to a large or to a small detachment and obeys the orders and orders of his commander. When determining the model for organizing the transnational criminal activity of the Chinese "triads", one can undoubtedly draw a conclusion about the corporate nature of the structure of these organizations. This is evidenced by their hierarchical structure with the centralization of leadership powers at the top.

Meanwhile, legal practitioners and analysts still cannot agree on the degree of organization of the “triads”. This happens because in the presence of a strictly formalized structure of the management level, the executive links that carry out direct criminal activity operate within a flexible network system that can change depending on a particular criminal operation.

So perhaps it would be more accurate to say that they are like college alumni associations. Membership in the "triad" means the expression of a certain degree of trust, and its members form a single working team, designed to help other members, even strangers. Therefore, although the "triads" have a certain formal structure, a significant part of their criminal activity, as a rule, is carried out by those members who are involved on a case-by-case basis within a flexible network system that can change as needed. The Triads are involved in many types of transnational criminal activity, including extortion, drug trafficking, illegal migration, prostitution, gambling, arms trafficking, racketeering and protection for local businessmen.

According to employees law enforcement The People's Republic of China, the "triads" conduct their business and bookkeeping very severely. So, at the end of each month, the tax inspectors of the "triads" come to the Chinese merchants, who check the documents on profits in order to take away the 15 percent due to the mafia. At the slightest attempt to deceive the “triad”, cruel punishment immediately follows. On the same night, the businessman who decides to spend will be killed, and his store will be burned.

Today, the Chinese "triads" are one of the major suppliers of heroin to the United States and Western Europe. According to various sources, 1/4 of the drug trafficking on the Asian continent passes through the channels of the Chinese "triads". However, another paradoxical phenomenon in the history of Chinese organized crime is that the “triads” have long become part of criminal Russia - the mafia from China controls the export of timber cut down in Primorye, holds a “roof” over Russian prostitutes in Hong Kong and Macau, and transports them to the territory Russian Federation tens of thousands of illegal immigrants.

The history of the relationship between the state and organized crime in China has evolved in a very peculiar and unusual way. As you know, power in the “triads” almost always passes from father to son, so now in China there are two mafia dynasties (“14K” and “Green Dragon”), which originated during the reign of the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang.

It is not uncommon for the “triads” to be headed by the daughters of mafia bosses, including the famous pirate captain, Madame Lily Wong, who, after the Second World War, with the help of flotillas of combat boats commanded by mercenaries from former officers The SS ravaged the entire Malayan coast for nearly a decade.

At the same time, history knows other examples when Chinese mafiosi took the side of the people. For example, during the period of the liberation struggle against the Japanese invaders. Historians note such a striking historical fact that the “triads” have existed for as long as China itself has existed.

The tyrant-emperors failed to destroy the "triads" for two millennia. And the rigid authoritarian power of the People's Republic of China over the past 50 years has not even managed to slightly shake the power of the mafia. However, such attempts were nevertheless made by the Chinese comrades. At the very beginning of the reign of Mao Zedong, the Chinese communists decided to solve the problem radically - they shot the leaders of the main mafia groups.

However, repression did not help. Their sons immediately stood at the head of the gangs. Before they had time to put them against the wall, their brothers took their places: it turned out that you couldn’t shoot the whole mafia. Thus, over the hundreds of years of their existence, the “triads” have accumulated a unique experience of confronting law enforcement agencies. According to many veterans of the Chinese police, even if all their leaders are jailed, not a single screw in the “triad” mechanism will fail.

Nowadays, on the streets of Beijing and other cities, one can often meet athletically built young people with a blank look and colored tattoos on their arms depicting a skull, a dragon and a cobra. These are representatives of the modern "triads" of China, who, along with the police, keep order on the city streets. Such an interest of the “triads” in maintaining law and order is explained by the fact that today the elite of the Chinese mafia is closely following the policy of the Chinese leadership and in some way (however paradoxical it may sound) supports it. For example, “triads” never rob foreign tourists in China, because since 2002, China has been proclaimed the country of “world tourism” - the more tourists come, the more money can be squeezed out of the owners of souvenir shops and restaurants.

One of the life principles of the Chinese says: "Take your time, sit down and think." The Chinese mafia thinks through everything and plans for many years to come, it does not live for today. Having established a company, founded a restaurant, opened a store, the mafiosi are not going to make a huge profit in a month: they have been waiting for this for years. There is no point in rushing somewhere if the work begun is right. It is in patience that the “triads” differ from the current “shadow bosses” of the CIS, who usually need everything at once.

In addition, the “triads”, paradoxically, are trying to strengthen the Chinese economy. Unlike the Russian “Solntsevo” or “Podolsk” organized crime groups that launder money in offshore companies in Cyprus, Chinese mafiosi even transfer the currency “earned” in the United States from the sale of heroin back to China. Dollars received from the racketeering of Chinese restaurant owners in Europe, from arms smuggling to Africa, from the activities of pirates in the South Seas - are also transported by couriers to China: it is not customary to put them on accounts in Switzerland. It's just that Chinese criminals want their country to be richer.

It is believed that mafia agents have long been embedded in the state apparatus and the police. But at the same time, the "triads" buy only petty officials - they do not have access to the big bosses. According to the leaders themselves, if the Chinese mafia can today buy the mayor of a small provincial town and force him to work for the “triad”, then it cannot influence a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. And although from time to time both police officers and petty officials fly out of their places for “connections with crime”, the official authorities do not recognize that the “triads” have agents in their ranks, and the mafia prudently does not confirm this. One thing is clear - the organized mafia in China, no matter how they tried to destroy it, survived both the empire and the republic. There is no doubt - if necessary, she will outlive the communists.

Of all the existing criminal communities, national groups are the most organized, cohesive and invincible. On hearing the Italian Japanese yakuza, the Chinese triad. Grown into local traditions, they become an almost ineradicable element in their homeland. public life. And having gone beyond the borders of the country of origin, they seize the living space thanks to strict discipline, deep secrecy and special cruelty.

The emergence of triads

The Triad is perhaps the oldest criminal organization in the world. Some researchers trace its history back to legendary times - to the third century BC. Then the pirates and robbers from the east coast of China created a kind of trade union - "Shadow of the Lotus". Shortly after the emergence of the triads, Shadow of the Lotus merged into the newly formed organization.

When the word "triad" was first used, the mafia had not yet appeared in Italy. It is authentically known about the existence of groups with this name already in the 17th century. However, at that time, the triads were not bandit organizations, but part of the Chinese national liberation movement against the Manchu invaders.

According to legend, the first triad was founded by three monks from the Shaolin monastery destroyed by the invaders. In the view of the founders, the triad is "the union of the Earth, Man and Heaven in the name of justice." These symbols were understood by every Chinese.

Initially, the triad militants were financed by ordinary Chinese, dissatisfied with foreign oppression. However, in a poor country, it was difficult for peasants and shopkeepers to maintain a secret partisan army. Triads began to look in criminal trades: robbery, piracy, slave trade. Gradually, noble goals faded into the background, and banditry became the essence of the activities of the triads.

Coexistence with the Chinese Communist Party

During the triad, they supported Sun Yat-sen. This political mistake led to serious persecution of the triads after Mao's victory. The Chinese communists were worried not so much that the triad was a mafia engaged in all kinds of criminal activities, but rather attempts to destroy the monopoly of the Communist Party, the only political organization in the country.

Although little is known about the fate of the triads in communist China, it is safe to say that the repression of the leaders of the underworld did not weaken the influence of the triads. The militants of the organization still collect tribute from business and maintain order on the streets, have informants in the police and their own people among party functionaries in the field.

The leaders of the modern CPC are not worried about this activity: as long as they do not get into politics, do not compete with the communists for influence, do not try to promote their people to leading positions in the country. The triad does not do this - the desire to grab a larger piece than you can swallow is not characteristic of the Chinese mafia.

Hong Kong triads

After Sun Yat-sen fled to Taiwan, many triad leaders followed him or settled in Hong Kong's rapid post-war economic growth provided many sources of wealth for the local criminal gangs. The Chinese triad levied tribute from small businesses, "supervised" smuggling, drug trafficking, and prostitution. Therefore, it was here that the most influential and famous gangs, such as "14 K", grew up.

During the British Raj, the power of the triads in Hong Kong was undivided. With the transition of the territory under the rule of China, many leaders of the underworld fled abroad. Probably, now the position of the Hong Kong triads has become equal to the "status" of their "colleagues" from the PRC.

The structure of Chinese organized crime groups

Let's try to understand what a triad is, from the inside. First of all, you need to understand that this is a very secret organization, so there is not much reliable information about its structure.

It is known that individual triads are rather isolated organizations. There is no person who could be called the leader of all triads. But within each gang, the hierarchy is very rigid. At the head of the triad is the leader (we will not give all the flowery names of this position), his post is inherited. The ringleader has two deputies for areas of activity. They are subordinate to the security services, intelligence, recruitment.

In a large triad between leaders and ordinary fighters - "monks" - there can be up to four links of leaders. Although all members of the gang implicitly obey their superiors, each link is quite autonomous in carrying out the tasks that the triad has assigned to it. This provides mobility and flexibility, which is very important for a large organization.