bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

SCMP Reporter

TWO of the most powerful tongs in the United States, both with reputed crime links, have formed an alliance after an alleged top Chinese organised crime figure engineered a peace pact between them.

  The union was celebrated at a lavish 1,000-seat banquet in San Francisco's Chinatown.

  ''It may just have been a social gathering but then it also may snow in July,'' said a sceptical US federal law enforcement official specialising in monitoring Chinese gang activities.

  The formerly warring Ying On and Hip Sing associations, the two largest Chinese mutual aid societies in the US, buried the hatchet on February 5 at the New Asia Restaurant in San Francisco, during which they signed merger papers.

  Both tongs have alleged links with triad societies in Hongkong.

  The union was masterminded by the leader of the Hip Sing association, 86-year-old Benny Ong, believed by police to be the godfather of New York's Chinatown.

  Ong - heavy-set, bespectacled and wearing a conservative suit - gave the keynote speech at the banquet.

  He has served 17 years in prison for second degree murder, was jailed again for bribing police and, according to US Senate investigators, has ''long been associated with organised crime''.

  While some tongs control the bulk of Chinese organised crime in the US, others serve legitimate and useful functions for American Chinese communities.

 According to US authorities, the New York-based Hip Sing and San Francisco-based Ying On associations have links with Chinese organised crime.

 New York police intelligence officers and Professor Peter Kwong, a political scientist at the State University of New York, said the Hip Sing had formerly been at war with the Ying On, known as On Leong on the east coast.

  ''This seems to continue a trend towards more interest in the [San Francisco] Bay Area by east coast criminal groups,'' Professor Kwong said.

  ''There recently have been all sorts of strange alliances and there are favourable conditions in San Francisco, particularly in City Hall where politicians seem more interested in campaign money than smelling the dirt.''   The On Leong was the target of US Federal prosecutors in Chicago on gambling and corruption charges brought under federal racketeering laws a few years ago.

  Police authorities are not happy about the union.

  A federal investigator said: ''There's no question that, at least on the east coast, these groups have been involved in narcotics, gambling and other activities.''    According to 1991 Senate testimony by Assistant US Attorney-General Mr Robert Mueller, the Hip Sing is allied with a New York street gang called the Flying Dragons, who are involved in drugs, extortion, loan-sharking, robberies and gambling.

 At the truce banquet, Ong shared a table with San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Mr Angela Alioto, one of the prominent city officials to attend the function.

 National leaders of the Chinese community also attended as did several undercover San Francisco police officials investigating organised crime figures.

 The elders of the two associations sat at tables on an elevated stage.

  Important guests - including representatives of the Taiwanese Government and the six largest Chinese companies in the US - sat at tables on the main floor.

  After the ceremonial signing of the consolidation papers by Ong and others, there were lengthy speeches hailing the agreement. Miss San Francisco Chinatown 1993 was crowned during the festivities.

  Mr C. Chark Lui, secretary of the Ying On association, said Ong made the keynote speech because: ''This is the idea that he envisioned, for us to get together. So we invited him to speak.''   He said the tongs had joined forces because ''we both have long histories in the community'' and denied the two groups had links with organised crime.

     ''That's just not true,'' he said. ''The whole thing is totally ridiculous. Any large association is likely to have some members who commit crime. To my knowledge the Hip Sing is not involved in crime.''   Mr Jack Ong, a past president of Ying On and an Oakland, California, restaurateur, said: ''What Ong does in New York has nothing to do with us in the Ying On. He knows a lot of people in New York. He's very powerful.'' 



Powerful US tongs tie the knot to form dangerous alliance