Triad organisations in the countryside have become so powerful that they have taken control of many local governments.
Earlier this year, officials and rural researchers were shocked when a Hunan court convicted 40 village chiefs and party secretaries in Hunan's Hengyang city of corruption after finding they were triad members.
The case has been highlighted in government circulars, serving as a warning to officials on the growing reach of triads in village administrations.
It is an open secret that what happened in Hengyang is only the tip of the iceberg as township governments increasingly develop a reliance on local crime syndicates.
One major reason for the rise of rural gangs is the need for the township and village governments to collect taxes and fees from farmers.
After taxation reform in 1994, the salaries of township and village cadres, as well as funding for grassroots education and rural infrastructure, have been sourced mainly from payments collected from farmers. Rural officials have been able to flout the orders of the central Government, which set limits on the payments, and impose extortionate fees and taxes to support ever-expanding budgets.