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SCMP Reporter

CHINA is poised to enact a national anti-triad law to crack down on organised criminals - many with foreign links - as lawless gangs wreak havoc across the country.

  According to Minister of Justice Xiao Yang, crime gangs, many with ties to foreign syndicates have made significant inroads in China in recent years.

  Latest figures revealed that more than 150,000 criminal groups involving some 570,000 criminals were broken up by the authorities last year.

  This was an increase of 24 per cent on the number involved in 1992.

  Mr Xiao made the remarks yesterday at an international conference in Naples on how to crack down on organised crime and triad activity.

  Transnational criminal gangs were behind a surge in fraud, drug trafficking and smuggling, particularly in the coastal area of southeast China, the minister said.

  Although Mr Xiao insisted that China had yet to develop highly-structured mafia-type syndicates, he admitted that crime gangs had become increasingly sophisticated.

  Some overseas triad organisations had even come to China to create gangs and train gangsters.

  It is understood that the leadership in Beijing has been alarmed by the rapid expansion of foreign triad groups in the country.

  Prime Minister Li Peng made a call earlier this year to 'mobilise all social forces to nip every kind of triad society in the bud'.

  He also demanded that all law-enforcement departments study the history of the development of triads in China and other countries.

  Mr Xiao noted that these criminal gangs were evolving into organised triad societies able to infiltrate various business sectors.

  Mr Xiao stressed that the Chinese Government was determined to keep the situation in check. Special legislation had been mapped out at regional level, especially along the coast.

   Central authorities were considering the feasibility of passing a national anti-triad law, Mr Xiao said.

  International co-operation and co-ordinated actions by relevant countries were essential to stamp out international triad activities.

  Mr Xiao pledged to step up efforts with other countries to increase the exchange of intelligence, set up special task forces to study triads and their operations and enhance the training of officials.



Beijing acts to stamp out organised crime