Return of the triads

LIU YONG IS ONE of the leading private businessmen in the northeast city of Shenyang. With assets of 700 million yuan (about HK$656 million), he employs 2,500 people, is a member of the city's legislature, and owns a major commercial centre that opened on National Day.

He is now in prison, awaiting trial for more than 30 crimes, including murder, assault and storing guns and explosives. He was arrested on July 1 in the province of Heilongjiang as he tried to escape to Russia.

Liu is one of a new breed of triad boss-cum-business tycoon who buy immunity from the law through good relations with government and police officials. They bestow money, favours and gifts of apartments, women, cars and foreign scholarships for officials' children.

Pre-1949 China had thousands of such people, who enjoyed good relations with the then-ruling Nationalist Party. Now history is repeating itself, with some members of the Communist Party and the Government becoming willing partners of these gangland bosses in the 'marriage of 'red' and 'black' '.

'There are at least one million members of triad gangs in China,' says Cai Xiaoqing, a professor of history at Nanjing University and a specialist in secret societies in China. 'They are mainly engaged in drugs, theft of art treasures, kidnapping women and children, and smuggling people abroad.'

'Triad crime is booming in China, both in urban and rural areas, and threatens social stability. Such gangs are especially powerful in Shenyang, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Tianjin. The Yiyang district of Hunan province, for example, has 3,120 members of 250 gangs. But the police do not want to acknowledge the existence of triads.'