The famous German triad. "Triads" - Chinese mafia

The Hong Kong triads are secret societies that, through a historical transformation, have degenerated from religious and patriotic organizations into criminal syndicates that have spread their influence throughout the world. The origins of Hong Kong's modern triads lie in the numerous religious sects and secret societies (huidans) of China, which were often in opposition to the authorities. In addition, pirates, traditionally influential in the South China Sea and coastal areas, had a great influence on the formation of triads South China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.

For many centuries, secret societies played a unifying role in Chinese history. As the famous Chinese proverb says, “The authorities rely on the law, and the people rely on the Huidans.” Not the least important factors in the survival of secret societies were iron discipline, deep secrecy, and brutal reprisals against enemies and traitors. The long struggle against oppressors and invaders earned them the glory of a punishing sword, and only in the 20th century did secret societies (and above all the “Triad Society”) turn into outright criminal groups.

The secret Buddhist sect “Bailianjiao” (“White Lotus Union”), from which the triads are believed to have branched off in the future, arose at the beginning of the 12th century and traced its origins to an even more ancient organization - “Lianshe” or “Lotus Society”, founded at the beginning of the 5th century. In 1281, 1308 and 1322, the authorities banned Bailianjiao, but its supporters 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 actively participated in the armed struggle against the Mongol Yuan dynasty. Later, during 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), opposed to increased tax oppression, rebelled under the leadership of Fang Deng and seized government ships, temporarily bringing the coastal waters under their control. During the Ming era, the robber gangs of Min Sungui, Wen Zongshan and Li Kuiqi became famous in the Hong Kong area, and the leaders He Yaba and Zeng Yiben even attracted Japanese pirate smugglers as allies.

The largest sects adjacent to Bailianjiao were Bayanjiao, Hongyangjiao and Baguajiao, from among whose supporters the main secret societies of the country were formed - Tiandihui and Qingban. At the origins of almost all the secret societies of Guangdong and all of Southern China was the organization "Tiandihui", "Society of Heaven and Earth") or "Hongmen", from which came the "Sanhehui", "Society of Three Harmonies", "Society of Three Harmonies" or "Society triads"), 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 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 were still able to burn Shaolin, but 18 brothers managed to escape from the ring. After a long persecution, the five surviving monks, who later became known according to ritual as the “Five Ancestors,” recreated the triad and began teaching martial wushu to the youth.

Anti-Qing secret societies were also formed from other religious sects. For example, from the Jiugongdao (Way of the Nine Palaces) sect came the secret societies Huanglonghui (Yellow Dragon), Huangshahui (Yellow Sand), Hongshahui (Red Sand), and Zhenhuhui. ("True martial art"), "Dadaohui" ("Big Swords"), "Xiaodaohui" ("Small Swords"), "Guandihui" ("Guandi Ruler"), "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 in 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 the 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, which 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 covered the provinces of Hubei, Henan, Shanxi, Sichuan and Gansu, Chinese and Manchu feudal lords executed over 20 thousand members of the Bailianjiao sect. After further repression by the authorities, one of the surviving leaders of the Baguajiao (Teaching of the Eight Trigrams) sect, Guo Zheqing, fled to Guangdong Province, where he founded a new Buddhist sect, Houtianbagua, and began teaching Wushu to his followers. The merchant Ko Laihuang, also forced to flee persecution by the Manchus, brought the Tiandihui traditions to Siam and Malaya.

In 1800, the Chinese emperor issued a special decree that prohibited smoking, cultivation and import of opium, and also closed the port of Guangzhou. This ban led to the dispersion of trade - from port warehouses, where it could be at least 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 of Southern China was led by the widow of the pirate leader Qing (Jing).

Her junks attacked Chinese and European ships, defeated the imperial fleet twice, and also attacked coastal villages and cities. After the third expedition of the imperial fleet, which was led by the former assistant to the pirate leader Tsung Menxing, the pirates’ forces were greatly undermined, and the leader of the Qing with the remnants of her fleet began to smuggle 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 regularly using the port of Hong Kong to trade opium, cotton, tea and silk. After the bloody incidents that occurred in 1821, English merchants involved in the sale of opium to China moved their warehouses to Lingting Island (Zhuhai), which remained the main base of smugglers until 1839.

The junks of local tycoons and pirates transported the drug to Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shandong and the port of Tianjin, and from there the opium was distributed throughout the country (corruption reached such a scale that even Chinese customs and naval vessels carried the drug).

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 was almost completely burned down). In June 1841, Hong Kong was declared a free port, after which the construction of opium warehouses by Jardine, Matheson and Co. (DMK) and Lindsay and Co. began there. In August 1842, China concluded the Treaty of Nanjing, ceding Hong Kong Island to the British and opening Shanghai, Guangzhou, Ningbo, Xiamen and Fuzhou to free trade.

In general, the Huidan were anti-Qing in nature, but the Canton authorities did not interfere with them, believing that attacks on foreigners did not contradict the interests of the state (in addition, many Chinese officials were in the pay of the pirates and informed them about raids by the Qing fleet). In 1845, the colonial authorities of Hong Kong issued a decree to brand criminals and suppress the activities of the Sanhehui, but members of the Triad continued to inform the pirates about the movements of ships and the cargo they carried. Also in 1845, in an attempt to stop prostitution, which was increasingly flourishing in Hong Kong, the British authorities expelled a large group of public women from the colony.

Between 1845 and 1849, Hong Kong, which was used as a giant transit warehouse from where the drug was distributed throughout the Chinese coast, accounted for about three-quarters of India's opium harvest. The dominant position in the drug trade off the coast of China belonged to the English companies DMK and Dent and Co.

When Chinese opium buyers began coming directly to Hong Kong to purchase their goods, these companies sharply reduced prices in coastal areas, ending the practice of purchasing in the colony itself. In 1847, Hong Kong authorities began selling licenses to opium den owners, opium manufacturers and traders. In 1847, there were 26 small secret societies operating in Hong Kong that were part of the “triad” system (they numbered more than 2.5 thousand members).

As a result of several battles that took place in September and October 1848, the pirate fleet of Qiu Yabao, consisting of 23 junks and numbering 1.8 thousand soldiers, was defeated (the British also burned two shipbuilding docks built by pirates on the Chinese coast).

In the fall of 1849, the Shap Ngtsai fleet (64 junks and 3.2 thousand soldiers) was also destroyed. In 1849, the Chinese population of Hong Kong exceeded 30 thousand people (among them, construction workers, servants in European houses, boatmen and small traders predominated). The Chinese united into communities and guilds, and the role of shadow administration among them began to be played by secret societies (the centers of the communities were ancestral temples).

In Hong Kong, the traditional system of “adopted daughters” (mozi) became extremely widespread, when poor families sold girls into service, and underground syndicates took children to Singapore, Australia, and San Francisco, where they sold them to brothels.

In total, over 500 thousand Chinese emigrants left Hong Kong and Macau between 1850 and 1875. Following them, from the mid-50s, local gangsters began to move abroad, taking control of Chinatowns (by the end of the 19th century, branches of the Tiandihui called Hongmen already existed in many Chinatowns in the USA, Canada and Australia).

The owners of Hong Kong transport companies, in alliance with the Huidans, robbed coolies who went out to work, often kept them locked up until their departure, and then sold them into virtual slavery on plantations and construction sites in America. Most of the huaqiao funds transferred from abroad to their homeland ended up in the colony.

Hong Kong Chinese merchants began supplying huaqiao with traditional goods and food products that emigrants were so lacking in a foreign land. In general, if the European capital of Hong Kong until the 70s of the 19th century was mainly engaged in the extremely profitable opium trade, then the local Chinese were actively developing such areas as importing fabrics, servicing exports, banking and usury.

But there were no particularly warm relations between the Taipings and the triads, since the Sanhehui leaders 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 were never able to completely stop maritime robbery in the second half of the 19th century. The 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 1857, the Hong Kong authorities, caring little about the fate of ordinary Chinese, taxed the “fun quarters” and brothels, and in 1858 - the colony’s pawnshops, through which the purchase of stolen goods and the trade in enslaved people was carried out. The barrier between the Chinese and the British of Hong Kong was so significant that the resulting vacuum was quickly and easily filled by the Huidang, who took over the functions of the shadow administration.

The gangsters brought under their influence the professional and fellow guilds and associations of the Chinese. By 1857, the triad had established control over the labor market, levying regular taxes on Chinese laborers in Hong Kong, and also participating in the transport of coolies from Hong Kong to the United States, Australia, Singapore and Malaysia.

In 1847, he helped free the pirate Du Yabao from prison, who became his agent in relations with the pirates who paid compensation to Caldwell. And in 1857, after the arrest of underworld boss Huang Mozhou, it was revealed that Caldwell had received bribes from underground casinos and brothels, becoming an intermediary for the owners of the shady gambling business in their relations with the British authorities in Hong Kong. Despite the efforts of the colonial administration, Chinese criminals continued to arrive en masse in Hong Kong by steamship from Guangzhou.

In 1860, with the participation of the ever-growing Huidan, loaders went on strike in Hong Kong, and in 1863, palanquin porters. 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, Hong Kong authorities began selling licenses to open casinos, from which local police and officials fed. Members of the Huidan, who oversaw underground gambling houses, began opening their pawnshops near legal casinos. In 1871, the licensing policy was canceled 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 areas, which was actually inspired by the Guangdong governor, who wanted to collect duties on opium going to China.

The blockade ended only in 1886, when a department of Chinese maritime customs opened in the colony, selling licenses to import opium into the country. In the 60s of the 19th century, the DMK company was confidently in the lead in the supply of opium to China, but the fall in prices due to competition from Chinese-made drugs and the gradual retreat of DMK from smuggling led to the fact that in the early 70s the leadership passed to the company "Laoshasun" ("D. Sassun, Suns and Co"), founded by the influential Sassun family of Sephardic Jews.

In the early 70s of the 19th century, one of the adherents of the anti-Qing Buddhist sect “Houtianbagua” created a new sect “Xin Jiugongdao” (“New Way of Nine Palaces”), which was divided into communities (hui) and departments (tian). In 1872, the Huidan 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 by Hong Kong Chinese workers. But gradually the patriotic anti-Qing Huidans degenerated into criminal syndicates.

During the police offensive of 1887, a stage of some consolidation began in the activities of the Huidang of Hong Kong due to the struggle with the authorities. The first large Huidan, which included 12 small ones, was “He” (“Harmony”), headed by a native of Dongwan County, Guangdong Province, wushu master and graduate of the Hong Kong missionary school Lai Zhong.

Then, in a fierce struggle, both with the authorities and among themselves, four more huidan arose - “Quan” (“University”), “Tong” (“Unity”), “Lian” (“Unification”) and “Dong”, formed the “Udagunsy” (“five big companies”). This union extended its influence to port workers, street vendors and moneylenders, security guards at theaters and restaurants, brothels and casinos, pawn shops and money changers, and smuggled salt trade.

Other secret societies were also influential among recent immigrants from China. Thus, the majority of people from Guangdong and Fujian belonged to the members of the “Sanhehui”, from Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou and Sichuan - to the “Gelaohui”, from Shanghai - to the “Qingban” and “Hongban”, from Anhui, Henan and Shandong - to the “ Dadaohui", from Zhili (Hebei) and Beijing - to "Zailihui". But not everyone was able to remain faithful to the old Huidans for a long time in a new place.

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 Huidan, belonging to the Sanhehui, or emigrated. In 1887, Hong Kong passed a law against opium smuggling, but farmers still continued to illegally export the drug to China, establishing connections with pirates and officials. By 1891, about 17% of Hong Kong's Chinese population were opium users.

In May 1894, homeowners, together with the Huidan leadership, organized another coolie strike in the colony. In 1894, the plague epidemic claimed 2.5 thousand lives, the British authorities demolished several Chinese quarters and burned some houses, as a result of which the remaining 80 thousand people were forced to leave the colony (in 1895, the entire population of Hong Kong was 240 thousand). Human). In April 1899, residents of the New Territories, led by the elders of the Deng clan, the largest landowners in the area, began armed resistance to the British, supported by members of secret societies.

Revolutionaries and members of secret societies formed an alliance, and some Xinzhonghui figures received high positions in the Huidan, for example, Sun Yat-sen's friend Chen Shaobo joined the Triad, becoming the head of the financial department (he was also accepted into the highest hierarchy of the Gelaohui society). .

On the basis of the Hong Kong “Triad”, the Zhonghetang Union (“Lodge of Loyalty and Harmony”) was created to promote 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 had formed in Hong Kong, becoming an influential force in the economy of the colony. At the same time, the Sanhehui secret society, which already occupied strong positions in Hong Kong and Guangdong Province, began to actively penetrate among Chinese entrepreneurs.

First half of the 20th century

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, effectively left without a goal or 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 on the Chinese side of the border (1911), which effectively opened the way to the south for refugees and criminal elements, Hong Kong experienced a sharp spike in street crime. Army street patrols were introduced into the colony, but robbers and pirates continued to operate in Hong Kong itself, in the Pearl River Delta, and on the Kowloon-Guangzhou railway.

There were even underground weapons workshops operating in the colony, supplying both gangsters and revolutionaries who found refuge in Hong Kong with their products. In May 1915, the Huidans organized an anti-Japanese boycott in Hong Kong, which was accompanied by pogroms of stores selling Japanese goods.

In 1916, pilots went on strike en masse, and in July 1918, the colony was engulfed in riots caused by a significant increase in rice prices. In 1919, a new anti-Japanese boycott and pogroms began in the Wanchai (Wanzi) area, the main area of Japanese residence in Hong Kong. In 1920, at the instigation of the Hong Kong Huidans, shipbuilding dock workers went on strike. In the 20s of the 20th century, the largest Huidan, belonging to the Triad group, divided Hong Kong into spheres of influence.

The “Five Big Companies” (“Udagunsy”) were joined by the secret societies “Sheng” (“Overcoming”), “Fuixing” (“Happiness, Justice and Revival”) and “Yan” (“Justice and Tranquility”). Many Huidans even registered as public or commercial organizations, thus trying to give their activities a legal appearance. For example, the Huidan "Fuixing" was listed as the General Association of Industry and Trade "Fuyi", which had branches in all corners of the colony.

The legal “roofs” of the Huidans patronized merchants, controlled gambling and brothels, opium dens and street prostitution, and collected tribute from peddlers, porters, and painters. The need to resist racketeering led to the unification of representatives of a number of professions into self-defense unions, which gradually acquired the character of Huidans - “Lian” among metallurgists, “Guan” (“Breadth”) among painters.

Before the mass strike of Hong Kong sailors, which occurred in January-March 1922, there were more than 130 intermediary firms in the colony, closely associated with shipping companies and engaged in hiring crews for merchant ships. With the help of the Huidans, these offices received money for getting a job and a lifetime percentage of the sailors’ earnings. In China in the mid-20s, with the rise to power of Chiang Kai-shek, who himself was a member of a secret society, the triads began to be assigned the role of the military wing of the Kuomintang party.

Gradually, they began to be entrusted with sensitive operations in which the use of the army and police was considered inappropriate (for example, in Shanghai, underworld thugs carried out a massacre of members of the Communist-led dock workers' union). After the Kuomintang actually legalized the triads, officials, military men and businessmen began to join them. An offshoot of the Triad - Jiangxiangpai (Fortune Union), whose Hong Kong branch was led by He Liting until 1928, expelled criminals from its ranks and, following its unwritten code, used various fraudulent methods (palm reading, fortune telling) for a peaceful struggle with compradors.

By the beginning of the 30s, Jiangxiangpai had practically disappeared from Hong Kong, having been driven out by gangster groups, and the Zhonghetang union, which had previously acted as an ally of the revolutionaries, gradually turned into a large criminal association, Heshenghe (Harmony Overcoming Harmony). The Hong Kong authorities were able to finally ban brothels only in 1932, and the trafficking of girls (“mozi”) did not stop. If in 1922 there were about 10 thousand “house 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 purchased medicines, cars, military equipment. The Hong Kong branch of the Chinese Red Cross and the foreign exchange operations of the Kuomintang government agencies in Hong Kong were managed by the boss of the Shanghai mafia, Du Yuesheng, which brought him and his henchmen considerable profits.

Through Hong Kong agents, the Guangdong militarist Chen Jitan, who rebelled against the Chiang Kai-shek clique in June 1936, was neutralized, who was betrayed by his aviation, bribed by the Kuomintang intelligence services. The Kuomintang controlled the Union of Restaurant and Teahouse Employees, Jiulou Yuekan, through which they collected the necessary information.

After the Japanese occupied Guangzhou in October 1938, a massive flow of refugees poured into Hong Kong (the population of the colony increased to 1.64 million people 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 refugee camps often resulted in bloody battles. Intensified sea pirates robbed ships, robbed refugees heading to Hong Kong, and smuggled weapons.

By the early 40s of the 20th century, the colony had influential communities of people from Dongwan County (Guangdong) - “Dongwan Dongyi Tang” (formed in 1897), traders from Shunde County (Guangdong) - “Luigang Shunde Shanhui” (1912 .), traders from Fujian province - “Fujian Shanghui” (1916), other people from Fujian - “Fujian Liugang Tongxianghui” and “Liugang Minqiao Fuzhou Tongxianghui”, people from Chaozhou County (Guangdong) - “Liugang Chaozhou Tongxianghui” ( 1929), Hakka - “Chongzheng Zonghui Jiuji Nanminhui” (1938), people from Nanhai County (Guangdong) - “Nanhai Tianxianghui” (1939), as well as people from Zhongshan County (Guangdong), people from the provinces Zhejiang and Jiangsu.

Fellowships, often closely associated with secret societies, created schools for their fellow countrymen, published newspapers, raised funds among wealthy 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 medicine from Hong Kong. By 1941, the Japanese had created their own station in Hong Kong, with which many Huidan members actively worked. Chen Liangbo, a major financier, chairman of the Guangzhou Chamber of Commerce and Huifeng (HSBC) comprador, was even arrested for spying for the Japanese.

With the help of secret societies, the disgraced South Chinese militarist Chen Jitan fled to China. Also, a prominent figure in the Hongmen secret society in the United States, an associate of Sun Yat-sen, Situ Meitan, disappeared 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 partisans ousted the Huang Murong gang from Mount Taimoshan (Daushan) in the “New Territories” and created their main base there.

They agreed to cooperate with some members of secret societies, organized customs points where they collected duties from local traders, robbed landowners and compradors.

After the Japanese surrender 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, on average, about 10 thousand refugees arrived in Hong Kong from China per week). By 1950, about 330 thousand people lived in the slums and tents of Hong Kong. The British administration in 1950 demolished more than 17 thousand huts, leaving 107 thousand people homeless, and as a result of a strong fire that broke out in the Kowloon slums, about 20 thousand more people found themselves on the street.

The Chinese refugee camps that emerged in Hong Kong came under the control of the mafia, and the system of illegal child trafficking became widespread. Intensified gangsters and pirates made their living by robbing warehouses and stores, attacks on fishing junks and passenger ships, and racketeering businessmen.

The campaign against the Huidan carried out by the Hong Kong authorities in 1947 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 whom 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.

By the end of the Chinese Civil War, the union included many military and civilians who had nothing to do with the Huidans themselves. Therefore, the name of the union had to be changed to “Association 14” (by analogy with the address of the former headquarters in Canton), and later 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 People's Republic of China in 1949, 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

But in the early 50s, the Hong Kong police managed to weaken Qingbang, whose position in the drug business was also shaken due to the intervention of stronger competitors from Chaozhou (the Chaozhouban group). In the early 50s, 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 Japanese occupation, also espionage.

Having become a millionaire, after the war he settled in Hong Kong, where he married a dancer from a nightclub. After Wong's murder by competitors, his widow shot two of her late husband's assistants who wanted to head the syndicate, and went into criminal business herself. By the early 50s, Madame Wong 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 overtone. After his death, the union was headed by Yong Siho, and the Association 14 (14K) turned into an influential crime syndicate that was feared even by members of other Huidans. People from “14K” occupied empty land in Kowloon and the “New Territories”, where immigrants from China settled, and actively became involved in the drug trade and racketeering of entrepreneurs.

After the failure of attempts to invade China in 1951 and 1952, the Kuomintang at the end of 1952 made a foray into Burma, but under the blows of government troops they 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 new American weapons back into the jungle. 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 in one night. By the mid-50s, the authorities resettled 154 thousand people in state multi-storey buildings, but 650 thousand people still continued to live in the slums, and the number of refugees who settled in the colony was 385 thousand (16% of them were former Kuomintang soldiers and police officers, 19% - officials, urban bourgeoisie and landowners).

The slums constantly received more and more refugees from China (in just the decade that passed from 1948 to 1958, about 1 million people moved to Hong Kong). These areas were beyond the control of the British authorities, the mafia actually dominated there, crime, prostitution and drug addiction flourished. But the main center of brothels, gambling houses and brothels remained the Wanchai district, located on Hong Kong Island, not far from the administrative and business center of the colony.

Initially, until the unrest escalated into riots (especially in the Chungwan region of 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. Hundreds of people were killed as a result of the riots, but according to the official version, about 60 people were killed and more than 500 were injured. Hong Kong authorities detained more than 5 thousand people within a week, and soon took strict measures that for some time pacified the activity of local triads. By 1958, about 15% of the colony's inhabitants were members of the Huidan (before the war - only 8-9%); they committed more than 15% of all serious crimes.

The authorities' decisive fight against opium dens led in the late 50s to an increasingly widespread use of heroin on the streets. In addition, Hong Kong began to turn into a transit point for heroin smuggling to the United States and Western European countries. This trend especially intensified after the number of American soldiers who fought in Indochina (usually about 10 thousand) monthly visiting the colony for recreation decreased sharply.

In addition to traditional criminal trades, the triads also mastered new ways of making money, for example, counterfeiting Chinese currency and second-hand books. Although the Hong Kong administration settled 360 thousand people in government houses by 1960 (another 85 thousand people moved into houses built in 1955-1962 by private firms for their workers), by 1961 more than 510 thousand people lived in slums, in in dormitories - 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.

For example, Sergeant Lai Manyau, who retired in 1969, turned out to be the owner of a fortune of $6 million, earned through criminal connections with the Huidans. In 1963, the 93rd Kuomintang Division, entrenched 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 Tam Ngob in Chiang Mai Province, and the other - the 5th Division - under the command of General Tuan Shiwen made its stronghold in the village of May Salong in the province Chiang Rai.

Between the divisions, which turned into typical triads, hostility sometimes broke out when dividing up zones of influence and spoils, but they joined forces against common enemies. This was the case in 1967, when the Opium War broke out in the Golden Triangle between the Kuomintang, the Khun Sa “army” and independent Shan troops, as well as the Laotian army that got involved in the conflict. In 1970, the Thai government decided to subordinate 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 “Taizization” program.

The presence of American troops in South Vietnam led to the fact that opium, which had previously dominated the market, began to be replaced by heroin. In the Golden Triangle, where previously there were only a few clandestine laboratories for the production of smoking opium and morphine, by the early 70s there were already about three dozen laboratories operating, half of whose total production was heroin for injection. And the lion's share of this heroin was consumed by the American army in South Vietnam (part of the flow also went to American soldiers vacationing in Hong Kong).

By the early 80s, the Hong Kong authorities managed to partially deprive the Huidans of their 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 police officers - Lui Lok, Choi Binglun, Cheng Chunyu, Nam Kon and Hong Kuinshum (“five dragons”), convicted of corruption. However, young people retained ties with Hong Kong, participating in betting and various types of fraud with Hong Kong-Taiwan intermediary companies.

Unlike the older generation of Hong Kong secret societies, who defended traditional forms of activity, young people were primarily involved in drug trafficking, which often caused conflicts between them. Young Huidan leaders 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 Chaozhouban since the 50s.

In the Chinatowns of England, France and Holland, which became centers of heroin trafficking, a struggle began between Huidans of Hong Kong, Singaporean, Malay and Vietnamese origin.

Another reason for the outflow of members of Hong Kong secret societies abroad was that the “Big Ring” of Huidans, formed among emigrants from China, among which the “Hunanban” (“Hunan Brotherhood”) was in the lead, entered into fierce competition with local gangsters and thoroughly pushed them into colonies. The Huidans of the Great Ring constantly maintained contact with the underworld in China.

Bandits from the mainland arrived in Hong Kong for several months, received forged documents and allowances, as well as specific tasks from the local mafia. After committing crimes, they received their share and had a choice of either emigrating or returning home.

The Huidans actively replenished their ranks with students and young workers of the colony, who often united into street gangs, often causing serious riots and pogroms (late 1980 and April 1982). In March 1985, in the Chhunwan (Quanwan) district, the Guangliansheng gang was discovered, recruiting students to join secret societies. But despite this, in the 80s total number gangsters were reduced to 80 thousand people.

Since the late 80s, when Chinese economic reforms began to gain momentum, the Huidans of the colony established corrupt connections among officials and security forces of China, beginning to invest huge capital there (some companies controlled by the Huidans even established control over Chinese ephedra producers). They also intensified their infiltration into the political and business circles of Hong Kong itself.

In the 90s, the largest Hong Kong Huidan 14K, Fuixing, Dajuan (Big Ring Brotherhood) and Xinyian (New Virtue and Tranquility) strengthened ties with groups in China, actively becoming involved in car smuggling, cigarettes, electronics, luxury goods and weapons. They organized the “laundering” of money from Chinese syndicates through their companies, and also became involved in the ever-increasing transportation of Chinese illegal immigrants to the USA, Canada, Latin America and Europe.

Gradually, members of Hong Kong syndicates began to act as intermediaries or dealers in the shipment of large quantities of drugs, weapons, illegal immigrants and contraband, outsourcing the grunt work to young Chinese immigrants. In addition, Huidan "14K" and "Fuixing" monopolized the wholesale market for counterfeit CDs of movies, music, software and other counterfeit products (branded watches, perfumes, clothing and accessories), strengthened their influence in the Hong Kong music and film industry, information technology and stock market fraud.

By 2000, the six largest Hong Kong huidans had more than 100 thousand members, and their branches existed in Macau, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Shanghai, the USA, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Mexico, Brazil , Argentina and Taiwan. The largest triad, “Fuixing” (60 thousand members), retained a strict hierarchical structure, while “14K” (20 thousand) was divided into 15 separate groups.

XXI century

The triads are still very influential and play a significant role in the life of Hong Kong. Traditionally, they trade in drugs and weapons, pimping, smuggling of illegal immigrants, gambling and underground betting, racketeering, kidnapping for ransom, money laundering, usury, financial fraud and piracy.

In addition, triads have great weight in the shadow labor market, loading operations at the port, restaurants, bars, nightclubs and cinemas, the film industry and show business, construction business and real estate transactions, transport, and gold trading. The triads have extensive connections among businessmen, politicians, officials, lawyers and police officers in Hong Kong, in airlines and on ships, as well as in a number of consulates 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).

Triad structure and customs

Accustomed to a secretive lifestyle, members of triads still use their own slang, secret handshakes, gestures and signs, as well as numerical codes to designate ranks and positions in the hierarchy of the group (these are derived from traditional Chinese numerology, based on the Book of Changes).

The hierarchy of triads is simple, but deliberately confusing. "489" means "mountain master", "dragon head" or "incense lord" (i.e. clan leader). This number is made up of hieroglyphs meaning "21" (4+8+9), which in turn is a derivative of two numbers: "3" (creation) multiplied by "7" (death) equals "21" (rebirth). "438" means "steward" (deputy leader, or operational commander, or master of ceremonies).

The sum of the digits that make up this number is 15, and the number “15” evokes reverence in every superstitious Chinese, because meeting it, including various combinations, promises great luck. “432” - “straw sandals” (that is, a liaison between various divisions of the clan), “426” - a “red pole” (that is, a militant commander or executor of power decisions), “415” - a “white paper fan” (that is, financial advisor or administrator), "49" - ordinary member.

This number also has its own meaning. It decomposes into “4” and “9”. Their derivative “36” means the number of oaths pronounced upon joining the triad. It is no coincidence that all codes begin with the number “4”, because according to ancient Chinese belief, the world is surrounded by four seas. The number “25” means members of triads denote a police agent embedded in a group, a traitor or a spy of another gang.

According to other sources, the “yellow dragon” (leader) is in charge of the general leadership and strategy of the triad, the “white paper fan” is responsible for education and counterintelligence, as well as general issues and finances, the “straw sandals” (aka “sandalwood stick”) - for contacts with other secret societies, the “red pole” (also known as “red rod” or “red staff”) - for protection and power operations, including showdowns with competitors and the elimination of traitors, and the nickname “monk” refers to ordinary members.

They unmistakably recognize each other by many conventional signals that are invisible to outsiders: the order of the dishes placed on the table, the special manner of holding chopsticks and tea cups while eating, or riddle questions. For example, to the question “What is three times eight?” a member of the triad will answer: “Twenty-one,” because he knows that the character “Han” (the Chinese name for the triad) consists of three parts, indicated by the numbers “3”, “8” and “21”.

To join the “brotherhood,” you must not only secure a recommendation from an experienced triad member, but also go through a preparatory period, during which the newcomer is subjected to severe and dangerous tests, including him in operations carried out by gangsters. In addition, “recruits” learn the history and rituals of the secret society, secret signals with gestures and fingers, and verbal passwords. By the time of entry, it is necessary to memorize 21 rules of the disciplinary code and 10 points of punishment for violating it, as well as 36 oaths.

During the mystical ritual, the correct answers to questions will have to be given in the form of allegories or riddles. Shang Qiu (Lord of Incense) and Han Qiu (Governor) take part in the ceremony. Passage of the Mountain of Knives - this is the name of the initial stage of the ritual. The manager writes down the names, addresses, and ages of those entering. They pay small fees. The Lord of Incense lights incense sticks in front of the shrine and announces: “The Han Brotherhood will live for millions of years.”

Then he reads a long poem about the exploits of his ancestors, about the cordial union of brothers, about the prosperity of the triad, after which he interprets the 24th oath of the 36 that will be pronounced later. Paragraph 24 states that a new member of society can rise to the hierarchical level no earlier than after three years. Next, newcomers will have to go through three gates, each of which is stood by two high-ranking members of society.

The guards hit them flat on the back with swords and ask each: “Which is stronger: the sword or your neck?” “My neck,” comes the answer, meaning that even under the threat of death, the secrets of society will not be revealed.

Then the “recruits” pronounce all 36 oaths, and with last words each of them sticks the smoldering end of the stick into the floor, thereby indicating that the light of his life will also disappear if the oath is broken. At the next stage of initiation, a lot of time is devoted to testing the knowledge of secret signals and passwords.

Then the third-ranking leader takes the floor - the Red Staff - the guardian of order and discipline, the executor of sentences. Beginners, remaining on their knees, extend their left hands, palms up. The red staff pierces the middle fingers with a needle and thick red thread, from which blood oozes.

It is added to the mixture in the goblet, poured into cups and given to everyone to drink. From this moment on, newcomers are considered accepted into a brotherhood, sealed by a blood oath, from the bonds of which only death can free. Ceremonial objects and various structures are put on fire so that everything remains a secret. A celebration begins, paid for by those who have joined the triad.

Just like in others criminal communities, in triads tattoos are of great importance (they can be depicted both in the form of drawings and in the form of a hieroglyph denoting them).

For example, a dragon means prosperity, nobility and power, a snake - wisdom, insight and will, a turtle - longevity, spruce - patience and chosenness, pine (the emblem of Confucius) - longevity, courage, loyalty and perseverance, plum - longevity, purity, strength, fortitude and hermitage, cherry - courage and hope, olive - peace, fortitude and generosity, orange - immortality and good luck, clover - triad, orchid - perfection, harmony and sophistication, lotus - wealth, nobility and fidelity, peony - masculinity, glory , luck and wealth, marigold - longevity, magnolia - self-esteem, plantain - self-education.

In various regions of China and the world, the divisions of the Tiandihui mother society are known as the triad, hui, hongmen (more likely to refer to the political or social component of the secret society) or tong (mainly in the USA and Canada).

The fight between security forces and triads

The first law against triads in Hong Kong was passed in 1845, after which it was successively amended and supplemented in 1887, 1911, 1920 and finally in 1949. In its original version, Decree No. 1 of 1845 outlawed triads, “like other secret societies,” making participation in them a criminal offense.

This original formulation was soon changed, and Decree No. 12 of 1845 made membership in triads a criminal offense. The 1887 amendment (Decree No. 8) defined as the object of police prosecution any criminal group that posed a threat to “law and order in the colony.”

In addition, conscious participation in secret gatherings held by such organizations has become criminally punishable. Decree No. 47 of 1911 introduced the concept of officially registered communities, prescribing special registers for legally authorized associations. Any organization whose name did not appear in the register was automatically declared illegal.

The same decree defined under the name “organization” any association that includes more than 10 people, regardless of its goals. The laws of subsequent years clarified the definition of a criminal organization as a society whose goal is criminal activity and/or disruption of public order, as well as a subsidiary organization associated with a certain foreign society that has similar goals. The current law (Cap 151), in essence, continues the line begun by the colonial administration, and the responsibility for suppressing the activities of triads rests with the local police.

In 1949, after the Communist Party came to power in China and began a brutal fight against organized crime, members of Chinese triads began to emigrate in large numbers to Hong Kong, where they could continue to do their usual business. In 1951, there were 8 largest triads in Hong Kong, dividing spheres of influence among themselves, and in total, by the beginning of the 50s, the triads of the colony consisted of about 300 thousand people.

Clashes between nationalist and pro-communist forces, which led to mass riots in 1956, in which triad members also took part, caused an immediate reaction from the Hong Kong authorities - more than 5 thousand people were detained by the police, about 600 triad members were expelled from the colony.

Between 1955/1956 and 1959/1960, the number of arrests on charges of involvement in illegal groups jumped from 70 to 3,521. In 1958, a special police unit was formed whose immediate responsibility was to combat triads.

The result of this policy was almost immediate: from 1960/1961 to 1967/1968, the number of arrests on charges of participation in illegal groups fell from 747 to 110, respectively.

In 1973, a large-scale campaign against secret societies was carried out, during which the Hong Kong police detained about 1.7 thousand people. In 1974, police broke up two underground syndicates and discovered seven drug factories, where they confiscated more than 309 kg of opium, 67 kg of morphine and more than 46 kg of heroin. Despite this, there was concern that corruption had infiltrated the police force. Triads were sometimes allowed to act with impunity, provided that public order was not violated. Soon the fears were confirmed, and the 70s were marked by high-profile cases against bribe-taking police officers.

In January 1974, a special, independent anti-corruption commission was created, independent of the police authorities, and in July of the same year the authorities launched a further offensive against the triads. As a result, 3,123 people were arrested - almost three times more than in the entire previous year. In 1976, this figure was already 4,061 people and in the same year the police officially announced that the triads were now defeated, and their pitiful remnants, bearing only the same name in the old fashioned way, no longer pose the same danger.

But it soon became clear that this statement was somewhat premature, and in the 80s, the seemingly disappeared triads appeared again, only having changed in the conditions of new times. There has been a merging of triads with criminal organizations in other countries, in particular, Australian and American ones, as well as their active penetration into rapidly developing China. By the end of the 90s, it became clear that the decrees on illegal groups had outlived their usefulness and the fight against triads of a new generation, which should use the experience of fighting organized crime as such, was on the agenda.

In 2009, on the eve of the 16th Asian Summer Games, held in Guangzhou in 2010, Chinese law enforcement agencies carried out a large-scale cleanup of the criminal world of Hong Kong, Macau and Guangdong.

Directly in Hong Kong, dozens of brothels and gambling houses were closed, over 2 thousand gangsters were arrested, and in November 2009, the leaders of the largest triads “14K”, “Shuifong”, “Woshinwo” and “Wohopto” fell into the hands of the police.

Currently, to combat triads, the method of introducing police agents into their midst and recruiting informants among gangsters who are promised judicial benefits and a witness protection program are used.

In addition, a law was passed in 1994 allowing for the confiscation of funds belonging to triad members. Also ongoing trials over the leaders of the triads, but the fight against these secret societies with a centuries-old history is far from over.

Films about triads and pirates of Hong Kong

Movie. "Shadowboxing 3D: Last Round" (2011)

Movie. "City on Fire" (1987)

Movie. "Double Castling" (2002)

Movie. "Double Impact" (1991)

Movie. "The Hitman" (1989)

Movie. "New Police Story" (2004)

Movie. "Island of Fire" (1991)

Movie. "Until the Tears Dry" (1988)

Movie. "Police Story 2" (1988)

Movie. "Police Story 3" (1992)

Movie. "Police Story" (1985)

Movie. "Project A: Part 2" (1987)

Movie. "Project A" (1983)

Movie. "Five Lucky Stars" (1983)

Movie. "Bright Future 2" (1987)

Movie. "Bright Future" (1986)

Movie. "Super Squad 2" (1985)

Movie. "Rush Hour 2" (2001)

Movie. "I Come with the Rain" (2009)

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The secret Buddhist sect "Bailianjiao" ("Union of the White Lotus"), from which the triads are believed to have branched 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 authorities banned Bailianjiao, but its supporters 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 became involved in armed struggle against the Mongol Yuan dynasty. Later, during 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, rebelled under the leadership of Fang Deng and seized government ships, temporarily bringing the coastal waters under their control. During the Ming era, the robber gangs of Min Sungui, Wen Zongshan and Li Kuiqi became famous in the Hong Kong area, and the leaders He Yaba and Zeng Yiben even attracted Japanese pirate smugglers as allies.

XVII-XVIII centuries

In 1620, a strict ban was imposed on the activities of Bailianjiao and the closely related sects Wuwei and Wenxiangjiao, to which members of the White Lotus responded with an uprising in Shandong province. With the accession of the Manchus (1644), armed detachments of anti-Qing secret societies (Huidan), quickly operating in the area of Hong Kong and Guangzhou, began periodically attacking merchant and even military ships on their junks, robbing the Manchus, Qing officials and Chinese compradors collaborating with them. The largest sects adjacent to Bailianjiao were Bayanjiao, Hongyangjiao and Baguajiao, from among whose supporters the main secret societies of the country were formed - Tiandihui and Qingban. At the origins of almost all the secret societies of Guangdong and all of Southern China was the organization "Tiandihui" ("Society of Heaven and Earth") or "Hongmen", from which came the "Sanhehui" ("Society of Three Harmonies", "Society of Three Harmonies" or “The 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. Members of the Huidan, in order to increase their authority in the eyes of the peasants, created and cultivated the myth that at the origins of the Tiandihui there were five monks who escaped after the destruction of the Shaolin Monastery by the Manchus and vowed 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 were still able 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 known according to ritual as the “Five Ancestors,” recreated the triad and began teaching martial wushu to the youth.

Several smaller groups separated from Tiandihui, including Sanhehui. This society took as its coat of arms an equilateral triangle, personifying the basic Chinese concept of “heaven - earth - man”, which usually includes the hieroglyph “Han”, images of swords or a portrait of the military leader Guan Yu (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 in Hong Kong due to the society’s use of the triangle symbol, and at their instigation it became synonymous with Chinese organized crime. Anti-Qing secret societies were also formed from other religious sects. For example, from the Jiugongdao (Way of the Nine Palaces) sect came the secret societies Huanglonghui (Yellow Dragon), Huangshahui (Yellow Sand), Hongshahui (Red Sand), and Zhenhuhui. (“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 in 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 the 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, which 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 covered the provinces of Hubei, Henan, Shanxi, Sichuan and Gansu, Chinese and Manchu feudal lords executed over 20 thousand members of the Bailianjiao sect. After further repression by the authorities, one of the surviving leaders of the Baguajiao (Teaching of the Eight Trigrams) sect, Guo Zheqing, fled to Guangdong Province, where he founded a new Buddhist sect, Houtianbagua, and began teaching Wushu to his followers. The merchant Ko Laihuang, also forced to flee Manchu persecution, brought the "Tiandihui" traditions to Siam and Malaya.

In 1800 chinese emperor issued a special decree that prohibited smoking, cultivation and import of opium, and, in addition, closed the port of Guangzhou. This ban led to the 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 of Southern China was led by the widow of the pirate leader Qing (Jing). Her junks attacked Chinese and European ships, defeated the imperial fleet twice, and, in addition, attacked coastal villages and cities. After the third expedition of the imperial fleet, which was led by the former assistant to the pirate leader Tsung Menxing, the pirates’ forces were greatly undermined, and the leader of the Qing with the remnants of her fleet began to smuggle 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 regularly using the port of Hong Kong to trade opium, cotton, tea and silk. After the bloody incidents that occurred in 1821, English merchants involved in the sale of opium to China moved their warehouses to Lingting Island (Zhuhai), which remained the smugglers' base base until 1839.

By the end of the first quarter of the 19th century, a powerful drug mafia with connections at the very top had already formed in Guangdong province (the governor and the head of the Guangdong maritime customs covered the 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 already reached 2.4 thousand tons. The British delivered opium to warehouse ships off the coast of Guangdong. The junks of local tycoons and pirates transported the drug to Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shandong and the port of Tianjin, and from there the opium was distributed throughout the country (corruption reached such a scale that even Chinese customs and naval vessels carried the drug).

In March 1839, the Chinese seized British opium ships in Guangzhou and blockaded the British trading post. In response, the British fleet sank the Chinese ships in November 1839. By the early 40s of the 19th century, several pirate flotillas with a total number of 4 thousand fighters were operating in the Hong Kong area, whose leaders Li Yajing, Deng Yasu and Shi Yusheng created several detachments - “Zhongxintan” (“Society of Devotion and Will”), “ Lianyitan" (“Society of Unity and Loyalty”) 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 was almost completely burned down). In June 1841, Hong Kong was declared a free port, after which the construction of opium warehouses by Jardine, Matheson and Co. (DMK) and Lindsay and Co. began there. In August 1842, China concluded the Treaty of Nanjing, ceding Hong Kong Island to the British and opening Shanghai, Guangzhou, Ningbo, Xiamen and Fuzhou to free trade.

In 1843, the Cantonese secret society Shengping (Peace and Welfare Society) organized a strike of traders and workers in Hong Kong to oppose the construction of a commercial port. In April-May 1843, pirates destroyed the premises of the government office and missionary school, as well as the offices of the companies Dent and 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 operated in close contact with members of secret Cantonese societies located in Hong Kong. In general, the Huidan were anti-Qing in nature, but at the same time the Canton authorities did not interfere with them, believing that attacks on foreigners did not contradict the interests of the state (in addition, many Chinese officials were in the pay of the pirates and informed them about the raids by the Qing fleet). In 1845, the colonial authorities of Hong Kong issued a decree to brand criminals and suppress the activities of the Sanhehui, but members of the Triad continued to inform the pirates about the movements of ships and the cargo they carried. Also in 1845, in an attempt to stop prostitution, which was increasingly flourishing in Hong Kong, the British authorities expelled a large group of public women from the colony.

Between 1845 and 1849, Hong Kong, which was used as a giant transit warehouse from where the drug was distributed throughout the Chinese coast, passed through nearly the Indian opium harvest. The dominant position in the drug trade off the coast of China belonged to the English companies DMK and Dent and Co. When Chinese opium buyers began coming directly to Hong Kong to purchase their goods, these companies sharply reduced prices in coastal areas, ending the practice of purchasing in the colony itself. In 1847, Hong Kong authorities began selling licenses to opium den owners, opium manufacturers and traders. In 1847, there were 26 small secret societies operating in Hong Kong that were part of the “triad” system (they numbered more than 2.5 thousand members). As a result of several battles that took place in September and October 1848, the pirate fleet of Qiu Yabao, consisting of 23 junks and numbering 1.8 thousand soldiers, was defeated (the British also burned two shipbuilding docks built by pirates on the Chinese coast).

The European, who took the Chinese name Lu Dongju, led a detachment of several thousand Chinese who, since 1848, had attacked only English ships. By the spring of 1849, Qiu Yabao had assembled a new flotilla of 13 junks, but in March 1850 the British again defeated him at Dapengwan Bay. In the fall of 1849, the Shap Ngtsai fleet (64 junks and 3.2 thousand soldiers) was also destroyed. In 1849, the Chinese population of Hong Kong exceeded 30 thousand people (among them, construction workers, servants in European houses, boatmen and small traders predominated). The Chinese united into communities and guilds, and the role of shadow administration among them began to be played by secret societies (the centers of the communities were ancestral temples). In Hong Kong, the traditional system of “adopted daughters” (mozi) became extremely widespread, when poor families sold girls into service, and underground syndicates took children to Singapore, Australia, and San Francisco, where they sold them to brothels.

Second half of the 19th century

Since the early 50s of the 19th century, Chinese emigrants have flown through Hong Kong to North America, Southeast Asia and Australia. Having reached a peak in 1857, when more than 26 thousand people left the colony, emigration then began to decline, amounting to less than 8 thousand people in 1863. In total, over 500 thousand Chinese emigrants left Hong Kong and Macau between 1850 and 1875. Following them, from the mid-50s, local gangsters began to move abroad, taking Chinatowns under their control (by the end of the 19th century, branches of the Tiandihui called Hongmen already existed in many Chinese towns in the USA, Canada and Australia). The owners of Hong Kong transport offices, in alliance with the Huidans, robbed coolies who went out to work, often kept them locked up until their departure, and then sold them into virtual slavery on plantations and construction sites in America. Most of the huaqiao funds transferred from abroad to their homeland ended up in the colony. Hong Kong Chinese merchants began supplying huaqiao with traditional goods and food products that emigrants were so lacking in a foreign land. In general, if the European capital of Hong Kong until the 70s of the 19th century was mainly engaged in the extremely profitable opium trade, then the local Chinese were actively developing 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 Dongju. But there were no particularly warm relations between the Taipings and the triads, since the Sanhehui leaders 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 were never able to completely stop maritime robbery in the second half of the 19th century. The 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 began 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 Treaty of Beijing, which opened Tianjin to foreign trade, allowed the use of Chinese as labor (coolies) in the British and French colonies, and also ceded the southern part of the Kowloon Peninsula to the British. In 1857, the Hong Kong authorities, caring little about the fate of ordinary Chinese, taxed the “fun quarters” and brothels, and in 1858 - the colony’s pawnshops, through which the purchase of stolen goods and the trade in enslaved people was carried out. The barrier between the Chinese and the British of Hong Kong was so significant that the resulting vacuum was quickly and easily filled by the Huidang, who took over the functions of the shadow administration. The gangsters brought under their influence the professional and fellow guilds and associations of the Chinese. By 1857, the triad had established a check on the labor market, levying regular levies on Chinese laborers 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 colony, Caldwell, who had been fleecing Chinese merchants for many years by threatening them with arrest on suspicion of connections with pirates, was removed from his post. In 1847, he helped free the pirate Du Yabao from prison, who became his agent in relations with the pirates who paid compensation to Caldwell. And in 1857, after the arrest of underworld boss Huang Mozhou, it was revealed that Caldwell had received bribes from underground casinos and brothels, becoming an intermediary for the owners of the shady gambling business in their relations with the British authorities in Hong Kong. Despite the efforts of the colonial administration, Chinese criminals continued to arrive en masse in Hong Kong by steamship from Guangzhou. In 1860, with the participation of the ever-growing Huidan, loaders went on strike in Hong Kong, and in 1863, palanquin porters. 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, Hong Kong authorities began selling licenses to open casinos, from which local police and officials fed. Members of the Huidan, who oversaw underground gambling houses, began opening their pawnshops near legal casinos. In 1871, the licensing policy was canceled 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 areas, which was in fact inspired by the Guangdong governor, who wanted to collect duties on opium going to China. The blockade ended only in 1886, when a department of Chinese maritime customs opened in the colony, selling licenses to import opium into the country. In the 60s of the 19th century, the DMK company was confidently in the lead in the supply of opium to China, but the fall in prices due to competition from Chinese-made drugs and the gradual retreat of DMK from smuggling led to the fact that in the early 70s the leadership passed to the company "Laoshasun" ("D. Sassun, Suns and Co"), founded by the influential Sassun family of Sephardic Jews. In the early 70s of the 19th century, one of the adherents of the anti-Qing Buddhist sect “Houtianbagua” created a new sect “Xin Jiugongdao” (“New Way of Nine Palaces”), which was divided into communities (hui) and departments (tian). In 1872, the Huidan 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 by Hong Kong Chinese workers. But gradually the patriotic anti-Qing Huidans 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, 120 million Chinese, or every third inhabitant of the Middle Kingdom, were already considered drug addicts. During the police offensive of 1887, a stage of some consolidation began in the activities of the Huidang of Hong Kong due to the struggle with the authorities. The first large Huidan, which included 12 small ones, was “He” (“Harmony”), headed by a native of Dongwan County, Guangdong Province, wushu master and graduate of the Hong Kong missionary school Lai Zhong. Then, in a fierce struggle, both with the authorities and among themselves, four more huidan arose - “Quan” (“University”), “Tong” (“Unity”), “Lian” (“Unification”) and “Dong”, formed the “Udagunsy” (“five big companies”). This union extended its influence to port workers, street vendors and moneylenders, security guards at theaters and restaurants, brothels and casinos, pawn shops and money changers, and smuggled salt trade.

Other secret societies were also influential among recent immigrants from China. Thus, most of the people from Guangdong and Fujian belonged to the members of the “Sanhehui”, from Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou and Sichuan - to the “Gelaohui”, from Shanghai - to the “Qingban” and “Hongban”, from Anhui, Henan and Shandong - to "Dadaohui", from Zhili (Hebei) and Beijing - to "Zailihui". But not everyone was able to remain faithful to the old Huidans for a long time in a new place. 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 Huidan, belonging to the Sanhehui, or emigrated. In 1887, Hong Kong passed a law against opium smuggling, but farmers still continued to illegally export the drug to China, establishing connections with pirates and officials. By 1891, about 17% of Hong Kong's Chinese population were opium users. In May 1894, homeowners, together with the Huidan leadership, organized another coolie strike in the colony. In 1894, the plague epidemic claimed 2.5 thousand lives, the British authorities demolished several Chinese quarters and burned some houses, as a result of which the remaining 80 thousand people were forced to leave the colony (in 1895, the entire population of Hong Kong was 240 thousand). Human). In April 1899, residents of the New Territories, led by the elders of the Deng clan, the largest landowners in 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 for revolutionaries with representatives of anti-Qing secret societies. Thus, at the end of 1899 in Hong Kong, a meeting was held between the leaders of the Xinzhonghui (Chinese Revival Union) founded by Sun Yat-sen with representatives of the largest Huidans - Gelaohui (Elder Brothers Society), Qingban, Hongban and Sanhehui " Revolutionaries and members of secret societies formed an alliance, and some Xinzhonghui figures received high positions in the Huidan, for example, Sun Yat-sen's friend Chen Shaobo joined the Triad, becoming the head of the financial department (he was also accepted into the highest hierarchy of the Gelaohui society ). On the basis of the Hong Kong “Triad”, the Zhonghetang Union (“Lodge of Loyalty and Harmony”) was created to promote 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 had formed in Hong Kong, becoming an influential force in the economy of the colony. At the same time, the Sanhehui secret society, which already occupied strong positions in Hong Kong and Guangdong Province, began to actively penetrate among 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 dens were closed in Hong Kong, and since 1912, the colonial authorities banned the import of Iranian opium into China. After the death of the founder of the Xin Jiugongdao sect in 1911, its divisions (Hui and Tian) acquired complete independence and significantly expanded the geography of their activities (Tian became more active in Northern China, and 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, effectively left without a goal or 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 on the Chinese side of the border (1911), which effectively opened the way to the south for refugees and criminal elements, there was a sharp surge in street crime in Hong Kong. Army street patrols were introduced into the colony, but robbers and pirates continued to operate in Hong Kong itself, in the Pearl River Delta, and on the Kowloon-Guangzhou railway. There were even underground weapons workshops operating in the colony, supplying both gangsters and revolutionaries who found refuge in Hong Kong with their products. In May 1915, the Huidans organized an anti-Japanese boycott in Hong Kong, which was accompanied by pogroms of stores selling Japanese goods. In 1916, pilots went on strike en masse, and in July 1918, the colony was engulfed in riots caused by a significant increase in rice prices. In 1919, a new anti-Japanese boycott and pogroms began in the Wanchai (Wanzi) area, the main area of Japanese residence in Hong Kong. In 1920, at the instigation of the Hong Kong Huidans, shipbuilding dock workers went on strike. In the 20s of the 20th century, the largest Huidan, belonging to the Triad group, divided Hong Kong into spheres of influence. The “Five Big Companies” (“Udagunsy”) were joined by the secret societies “Sheng” (“Overcoming”), “Fuixing” (“Happiness, Justice and Revival”) and “Yan” (“Justice and Tranquility”). Many Huidans even registered as public or commercial organizations, thus trying to give their activities a legal appearance. For example, the Huidan "Fuixing" was listed as the General Association of Industry and Trade "Fuyi", which had branches in all corners of the colony. The legal “roofs” of the Huidans patronized merchants, controlled gambling and brothels, opium dens and street prostitution, and collected tribute from peddlers, porters, and painters. The need to resist racketeering led to the unification of representatives of a number of professions into self-defense unions, which gradually acquired the character of Huidans - “Lian” among metallurgists, “Guan” (“Breadth”) among painters.

Also, in the 20s of the 20th century, pirate groups in the region did not reduce their activity. The largest pirate fleet in Southern 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 firms in the colony, closely associated with shipping companies and engaged in hiring crews for merchant ships. With the help of the Huidans, these offices received money for getting a job and a lifetime percentage of the sailors’ earnings. In China in the mid-20s, with the rise to power of Chiang Kai-shek, who himself was a member of a secret society, the triads began to be assigned the role of the military wing of the Kuomintang party. Gradually, they began to be entrusted with sensitive operations in which the use of the army and police was considered inappropriate (for example, in Shanghai, underworld thugs carried out a massacre of members of the Communist-led dock workers' union). After the Kuomintang actually legalized the triads, officials, military men and businessmen began to join them. An offshoot of the Triad - Jiangxiangpai (Fortune Union), whose Hong Kong branch was led by He Liting until 1928, expelled criminals from its ranks and, following its unwritten code, used various fraudulent methods (palm reading, fortune telling) for a peaceful struggle with compradors. By the beginning of the 30s, Jiangxiangpai had practically disappeared from Hong Kong, having been driven out by gangster groups, and the Zhonghetang union, which had previously acted as an ally of the revolutionaries, gradually turned into a large criminal association, Heshenghe (Harmony Overcoming Harmony). The Hong Kong authorities were able to finally ban brothels only in 1932, and the trafficking of girls (“mozi”) did not stop. If in 1922 there were about 10 thousand “house 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 purchased 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 agencies in Hong Kong were managed by the boss of the Shanghai mafia, Du Yuesheng, which brought him and his henchmen considerable profits. Through Hong Kong agents, the Guangdong militarist Chen Jitan, who rebelled against the Chiang Kai-shek clique in June 1936, was neutralized, who was betrayed by his aviation, bribed by the Kuomintang intelligence services. The Kuomintang controlled the Union of Restaurant and Teahouse Employees, Jiulou Yuekan, through which they collected the necessary information. After the Japanese occupied Guangzhou in October 1938, a massive flow of refugees poured into Hong Kong (the population of the colony increased to 1.64 million people 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 refugee camps often resulted in bloody battles. Intensified sea pirates robbed ships, robbed refugees heading to Hong Kong, and smuggled weapons. By the early 40s of the 20th century, the colony had influential communities of people from Dongwan County (Guangdong) - “Dongwan Dongyi Tang” (formed in 1897), traders from Shunde County (Guangdong) - “Luigang Shunde Shanhui” (1912), traders from Fujian province - "Fujian Shanhui" (1916), other immigrants from Fujian - "Fujian Luigang Tongxianghui" and "Luigang Minqiao Fuzhou Tongxianghui", people from Chaozhou County (Guangdong) - "Luigang Chaozhou Tongxianghui" (1929), Hakka - “Chongzheng Zonghui Jiuji Nanminghui” (1938), people from Nanhai County (Guangdong) - “Nanhai Tianxianghui” (1939), as well as people from Zhongshan County (Guangdong), people from Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces.

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, recruited about 600 members of the Shanghai secret society Hongban, 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 plunder (the gangsters collected “security fees” from the remaining residents). With the help of secret societies, the disgraced South Chinese militarist Chen Jitan fled to China. Also, a prominent figure in the Hongmen secret society in the United States, an associate of Sun Yat-sen, Situ Meitan, disappeared 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 partisans ousted the Huang Murong gang from Mount Taimoshan (Daushan) in the “New Territories” and created their main base there. They agreed to cooperate with some members of secret societies, organized customs points where they collected duties from local traders, robbed landowners and compradors.

The Guangdong and Fujian mafias, the most powerful during the years of Japanese occupation, divided the city into spheres of influence, controlled the black market for food, many streets, collecting tribute from merchants and passers-by. Members of the Huidan, who collaborated with the Japanese police, ran brothels (about five hundred of them were concentrated in the Wanchai region alone), opium dens (drugs were delivered by Japanese military aircraft from Northern China) and gambling houses, paying a share to the occupiers. After the Japanese surrender 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, on average, about 10 thousand refugees arrived in Hong Kong from China per week). By 1950, about 330 thousand people lived in the slums and tents of Hong Kong. The British administration in 1950 demolished more than 17 thousand huts, leaving 107 thousand people homeless, and as a result of a strong fire that broke out in the Kowloon slums, about 20 thousand more people found themselves on the street. The Chinese refugee camps that emerged in Hong Kong came under the control of the mafia, and the system of illegal child trafficking became widespread. Intensified gangsters and pirates made their living by robbing warehouses and stores, attacks on fishing junks and passenger ships, and racketeering businessmen. The campaign against the Huidan carried out by the Hong Kong authorities in 1947 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 whom 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, the Kuomintang secret police, in order to resist the communists, united all the secret societies under its control, creating “Zhongyihui” (“Union of Loyalty and Justice”), led by Lieutenant General Ge Zhaohuang (Cat Xiuwong). The Hong Kong branch of the union, known as Hongfangshan (Mountain of Justice Hong), united several large local huidangs. By the end of the Chinese Civil War, the union included many military and civilians who had nothing to do with the Huidans themselves. Therefore, the name of the union had to be changed to “Association 14” (by analogy with 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 People's Republic of China in 1949, 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 Shanghai's largest secret society, Qingban, settled in Hong Kong, which until 1951 was headed by Kuomintang Army Major General Du Yuesheng. Together with financier Qian Xinzhi, he founded the transport company Fuxing Hanye Gongsi in Hong Kong, which was transferred to Taiwan after the death of Du Yuesheng. “Qingban” specialized in racketeering in refugee camps and heroin trafficking; its members spoke the Shanghainese dialect and acted purely conspiratorially, which made it difficult to fight them. But in the early 50s, the Hong Kong police managed to weaken Qingbang, whose position in the drug business was also shaken due to the intervention of stronger competitors from Chaozhou (the Chaozhouban group). In the early 50s, 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 Japanese occupation, also espionage. Having become a millionaire, after the war he settled in Hong Kong, where he married a dancer from a nightclub. After Wong's murder by competitors, his widow shot two of her late husband's assistants who wanted to head the syndicate, and went into criminal business herself. By the early 50s, Madame Wong 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 overtone. After his death, the union was headed by Yong Siho, and the Association 14 (14K) turned into an influential crime syndicate that was feared even by members of other Huidans. People from “14K” occupied empty land in Kowloon and the “New Territories”, where immigrants from China settled, and actively became 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 in Thailand, transported opium to Hong Kong almost unhindered. He maintained regular contacts with the chief of the Thai military police, General Pyao Sriyanon, through whom all the opium production 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 at the end of 1952 made a foray into Burma, but under the blows of government troops they 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 new American weapons back into the jungle. 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 in one night. By the mid-50s, the authorities resettled 154 thousand people in state multi-storey buildings, but 650 thousand people still continued to live in the slums, and the number of refugees who settled in the colony was 385 thousand (16% of them were former Kuomintang soldiers and police officers, 19% - officials, urban bourgeoisie and landowners). The slums constantly received more and more refugees from China (in just the decade that passed from 1948 to 1958, about 1 million people moved to Hong Kong). These areas were beyond the control of the British authorities, the mafia actually dominated there, crime, prostitution and drug addiction flourished. But the main center of brothels, gambling houses and brothels remained the Wanchai district, 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 (“Two Tens Festival”), members of “14K” and Taiwanese agents provoked demonstrations in Kowloon that escalated into pogroms of leftist trade unions, trading firms and stores selling goods from China, arson of cars, and robberies. private houses, industrial enterprises and clinics. Initially, until the unrest escalated into riots (especially in the Chungwan region of 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. Hundreds of people were killed as a result of the riots, but according to the official version, about 60 people were killed and more than 500 were injured. Hong Kong authorities detained more than 5 thousand people within a week, and soon took strict measures that for some time pacified the activity of local triads. By 1958, about 15% of the colony's inhabitants were members of the Huidan (before the war - only 8-9%); they committed more than 15% of all serious crimes. The authorities' decisive fight against opium dens led in the late 50s to an increasingly widespread use of heroin on the streets. In addition, Hong Kong began to turn into a transit point for heroin smuggling to the United States and Western European countries. This trend especially intensified after the number of American soldiers who fought in Indochina (usually about 10 thousand) monthly visiting the colony for recreation decreased sharply.

A significant part of the workshops and workshops owned by refugees from China were not officially registered (at the end of the 50s, over 200 thousand people worked at such enterprises). Also, the growth of organized crime was facilitated by the persistence, until the beginning of the 60s, of a significant layer of street peddlers, unskilled 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 among themselves all the districts and business areas of the colony (of which eight were considered the largest - “Heshenhe” / “Woshinwo”, “Wohopto”, “Fuixing” / "Songyong", "14K", "Lian" / "Luen", "Tong", "Quan" / "Chuen" and "Sheng" / "Shin"). In addition to traditional criminal trades, the triads also mastered new ways of making money, for example, counterfeiting Chinese currency and second-hand books. Although the Hong Kong administration settled 360 thousand people in government houses by 1960 (another 85 thousand people moved into houses built in 1955-1962 by private firms for their workers), by 1961 more than 510 thousand people lived in slums, in in dormitories - 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 poured into Hong Kong followed, and by 1967 the population of the colony reached 3.87 million people (in 1968, more than 400 thousand people still lived in slums). The corruption of the administrative apparatus, primarily the police, reached enormous proportions by the early 70s. For example, Sergeant Lai Manyau, who retired in 1969, turned out to be the owner of a fortune of $6 million, earned through criminal connections with the Huidans. In 1963, the 93rd Kuomintang Division, entrenched 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 Tam Ngob in Chiang Mai Province, and the other - the 5th Division - under the command of General Tuan Shiwen made its stronghold in the village of May Salong in the province Chiang Rai. Between the divisions, which turned into typical triads, hostility sometimes broke out when dividing up zones of influence and spoils, but they joined forces against common enemies. This was the case in 1967, when the Opium War broke out in the Golden Triangle between the Kuomintang, the Khun Sa “army” and independent Shan troops, as well as the Laotian army that got involved in the conflict. In 1970, the Thai government decided to subordinate 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 “Taizization” program. The presence of American troops in South Vietnam led to the fact that opium, which had previously dominated the market, began to be replaced by heroin. In the Golden Triangle, where previously there were only a few clandestine laboratories for the production of smoking opium and morphine, by the early 70s there were already about three dozen laboratories operating, half of whose total production was heroin for injection. And the lion's share of this heroin was consumed by the American army in South Vietnam (part of the flow also went to American soldiers vacationing in Hong Kong).

The first contacts between the Hong Kong Huidans and the nascent Guangdong mafia date back to the end of the 70s. And there were good preconditions for the flourishing of the local mafia. In exchange for supporting economic reforms, the Guangdong elite received guarantees of immunity and some autonomy from the central authorities, which led to increased corruption and clannishness. With the increase in incomes of the population and the emergence of the first large capital, local groups in Guangdong intensified the drug business, prostitution, smuggling, gambling, currency exchange and usury, and began to trade in the racketeering of the new nouveau riche. By the early 80s, the Hong Kong authorities managed to partially deprive the Huidans of their 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 police officers - Lui Lok, Choi Binglun, Cheng Chunyu, Nam Kon and Hong Kuinshum (“five dragons”), convicted of corruption. However, young people retained ties with Hong Kong, participating in betting and various types of fraud with Hong Kong-Taiwan intermediary companies. Unlike the older generation of Hong Kong secret societies, who defended traditional forms of activity, young people were primarily engaged in drug trafficking, which quite often caused conflicts between them. Young Huidan leaders 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 Chaozhouban since the 50s. In the Chinatowns of England, France and Holland, which became centers of heroin trafficking, a struggle began between Huidans of Hong Kong, Singaporean, Malay and Vietnamese origin.

In anticipation of Hong Kong's transition to Chinese jurisdiction, the leaders of the Huidan 14K, Heshenghe and Fuixing began to transfer their operations from the colony to the USA, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, the Netherlands, France and Germany. In 1982, a large-scale meeting of the leaders of local secret societies and representatives of the largest Huidan 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 that the “Big Ring” of Huidans, formed among emigrants from China, among which the “Hunanban” (“Hunan Brotherhood”) was in the lead, entered into fierce competition with local gangsters and thoroughly pushed them into colonies. The Huidans of the Great Ring constantly maintained contact with the underworld in China. Bandits from the mainland arrived in Hong Kong for several months, received forged documents and allowances, as well as specific tasks from the local mafia. After committing crimes, they received their share and had a choice of either emigrating or returning home. The Huidans actively replenished their ranks with students and young workers of the colony, who often united into street gangs, often causing serious riots and pogroms (late 1980 and April 1982). In March 1985, in the Chhunwan (Quanwan) district, the Guangliansheng gang was discovered, recruiting students to join secret societies. But, despite this, in the 80s the total number of gangsters decreased to 80 thousand people. Since the late 80s, when Chinese economic reforms began to gain momentum, the Huidans of the colony established corrupt connections among officials and security forces of China, beginning to invest huge capital there (some companies controlled by the Huidans even established control over Chinese ephedra producers). They also intensified their infiltration into the political and business circles of Hong Kong itself.

The reverse process was also underway. The Beijing authorities took control of some trade unions and part of the Hong Kong triads, and with the help of their intelligence services, state-owned companies and pro-Beijing lobbying organizations, they infiltrated both the legal economy, becoming the largest player in the Hong Kong foreign exchange market, and the sphere of the “shadow economy” of the enclave (especially that concerns illegal trade and currency transactions, transactions in gold, weapons and stolen technology, as well as informal ties with Taiwan). In the 90s, the largest Hong Kong Huidan 14K, Fuixing, Dajuan (Big Ring Brotherhood) and Xinyian (New Virtue and Tranquility) strengthened ties with groups in China, actively becoming involved in car smuggling, cigarettes, electronics, luxury goods and weapons. They organized the “laundering” of money from Chinese syndicates through their companies, and also became involved in the ever-increasing transportation of Chinese illegal immigrants to the USA, Canada, Latin America and Europe. Gradually, members of Hong Kong syndicates began to act as intermediaries or dealers in the shipment of large quantities of drugs, weapons, illegal immigrants and contraband, outsourcing the grunt work to young Chinese immigrants. In addition, Huidan "14K" and "Fuixing" monopolized the wholesale market for counterfeit CDs with films, music, software and other counterfeit products (branded watches, perfumes, clothing and accessories), strengthened their influence in the Hong Kong music and film industry, information technology and stock market fraud. By 2000, the six largest Hong Kong Huidan had more than 100 thousand 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, “Fuixing” (60 thousand members), retained a strict hierarchical structure, while “14K” (20 thousand) was divided into 15 separate groups.

XXI century

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 of illegal immigrants, gambling and underground betting, racketeering, kidnapping for ransom, money laundering, usury, financial fraud and piracy. In addition, triads have great weight in the shadow labor market, loading operations at the port, restaurants, bars, nightclubs and cinemas, the film industry and show business, construction business and real estate transactions, transport, and gold trading. The triads have extensive connections among businessmen, politicians, officials, lawyers and police officers in Hong Kong, in airlines and on ships, as well as in the consulates of several 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

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

Many of us learned about the Chinese triads thanks to the book “The Yellow Dragon Jiao,” popular in Soviet times, and later from Hollywood action films. But with all this, the triads remain the most closed structures, about which much less is known than about Cosa Nostra or the Yakuza. But this does not prevent them from being the largest criminal organization in the world: the number of triad members in China and Taiwan alone exceeds 1,200,000 people - this does not include those who live on other continents. Wherever there are Chinese, there are triads.

For all their secrecy, the triads are the oldest criminal organization in the world - they are already more than 2500 years old: the first mentions of them appeared in Chinese chronicles during the reign of Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi (221–210 BC). But they actually began to be called triads much later.

From the fight for freedom to a criminal community

The first reliable information about the triads dates back to 1644, when the last emperor of the Ming dynasty was overthrown and power passed to the Manchu Qing dynasty. A group of 133 Buddhist monks who swore a blood oath to restore the Ming dynasty waged a guerrilla war against the Manchu conquerors for many years, but and was not successful. In 1674, all but five of the fighters were captured and brutally executed, and the monastery that served as their base was destroyed.

The surviving monks, united by their hatred of the invaders, vowed revenge. A deeply secret group declared its goal to exterminate the Manchus. A triangle was chosen as an emblem, in which the three sides symbolized heaven, earth and man - the main elements of the Chinese universe. But this was not the only reason for choosing the triangle. Chinese culture has a highly developed numerological tradition and the number 3 is believed to have special properties especially when it comes to criminal activities. (For example, in extortion, the rate is often calculated based on three.) Although the five surviving monks, known today as the Five Ancestors, gave their organization the name Hong Mun, or the Society of Earth and Heaven (Tiandihui), in the West it is better known in connection with the mentioned symbol. Thus, the term "triad" is used almost exclusively by Westerners. The indigenous Chinese usually call this organization "Heishehui" - the black society.

Although Hong Moon failed to overthrow the Manchu dynasty, the organization existed for many years. Having united with the previously created “White Lotus”, she constantly disturbed the imperial forces and repeatedly pushed the population to revolt. According to the principles of Buddhism, members of the organization were supposed to respect the rights and share the aspirations of the peasants; this tactic was used with great success for almost 300 years by the communists under the leadership of Mao Zedong. At the same time, the thesis that “armies protect the emperor, and secret societies protect people” became widespread.

The triads had power and influence, although they never managed to achieve their original goal - to overthrow the Manchu Qing dynasty, which never enjoyed popular love due to the cruel, repressive nature of its power. The stable positive image of this organization remained until 1842 and the establishment of British rule in Hong Kong. Although the triads remained focused on political and cultural goals, Britain became concerned about their presence, leading to them being declared "incompatible with the maintenance of order" and accused of facilitating crime and harboring criminals. Following the example of the imperialist authorities in China, the British authorities made it a crime not only to actually belong to a triad, but even to intend to join one. Punishment: up to three years in prison. If at this stage the triads did not have obvious criminal goals, this attitude undoubtedly pushed them in that direction.

In 1848, Hong Moon merged with a new secret society that arose in the Canton region - the Warriors of God. Together they organized the Taiping uprisings. Canton was besieged, and the uprising spread to Shanghai and other cities. At this point, the rituals of the triad were still aimed at emphasizing the positive image of the organization. The new state of Taiping Tianguo, the Heavenly State of Great Prosperity, was proclaimed. By then, China had become a semi-colony of Great Britain, the United States, and France, and the triads were the only force offering organized resistance to foreign exploitation and oppression.

But the “Boxer Rebellion” of 1900 marked the transformation of triads into organizations pursuing exclusively criminal goals. The uprising, named because it was led by the secret society Fist for Justice and Harmony (Yihetuan), was aimed at driving foreigners out of the country through murder and intimidation, primarily targeting settlements and missions located in Beijing and Shanghai. As besieged diplomats and trade representatives turned to their governments for help, eight countries sent expeditionary forces to China.

A combined force of two thousand, which included soldiers from Great Britain, Germany, Russia, France, the United States, Japan, Italy and Austria, under the overall command of British Admiral Sir Edward Seymour, landed in June 1900. Strong resistance from the rebels and the Imperial Chinese forces forced Seymour retreat and call for reinforcements. In August, the number of his forces immediately increased by 20,000 people. After the capture of Tianjin, foreign armies began to fight their way towards Beijing and reached the capital on August 14.

Over the next few months, the invasion force continued to increase. They eventually captured Beijing and rushed into the provinces to pursue the rebels. In February 1901, the Chinese authorities were forced to ban the Yihetuan society, and on September 7 of the same year they signed the “Final (or “Boxer”) Protocol,” which was the official end of the uprising. The country was completely demoralized, the prestige of power was dealt a crushing blow, but the imperial government had to resort to even greater humiliation by allowing foreigners to consolidate their interests and continue to exploit the people and resources of the country. The consequences of the uprising continued to reverberate throughout the 20th century.

From that moment on, it became absolutely clear that the triads would not be able to have any noticeable influence on the formation and implementation of China's national interests. The Boxers, who represented the same secret society, not only failed to protect the nation, but were defeated, and foreign enemies The Chinese were stationed throughout the country, armed to the teeth and determined to brutally suppress any internal resistance.

And then the activities of secret societies turned inward. Since they were unable to throw off foreign oppression, it means they will have to engage in the exploitation of their fellow citizens, building up their strength and avoiding any influence or threat from non-Chinese forces. True, for some time they maintained an interest in politics. Their most outstanding achievement was supporting Dr. Sun Yat-sen in overthrowing the Manchu Qing dynasty and establishing a republican system of government. Many researchers believe that Sun Yat-sen actively used triads to ensure success; this is a completely reasonable assumption, especially considering that in his youth he, according to numerous testimonies, occupied a fairly prominent place in the triad “Green Gang” - “Society of Three Harmonies”.

And Chiang Kai-shek, who replaced Sun as head of the Kuomintang party, was also a member of the triad. When the collapse of the Chinese Republic began as a result of civil strife and increasing pressure from Mao Zedong's communists, Chiang Kai-shek attracted the triads to his support, but nothing could save him. After Mao's victory in 1949, Chiang Kai-shek and his followers fled to Formosa (Taiwan), and the triad leaders who decided to remain on the mainland were found and executed. Some managed to escape to Portuguese-held Macau, or Hong Kong, where the British government, weakened by the recent war with Japan and more tolerant than a century earlier, although continued to make tough statements regarding the triads, was no longer able to carry out its draconian laws are enforced with the same ruthless energy as before.

In the second half of the 20th century. Hong Kong was the headquarters of the triads' activities, the nerve center of their many global enterprises. Among the best-known organizations is “14 K,” named after its postal address (14 Po-wah-rod in Canton) and the first letter of the name of its founder, Kuomintang Lieutenant General Kot Siuwong, who founded the triad in the 1940s gg. In the 1980s the number of "14K" was estimated to be more than 25,000 in Hong Kong alone; she took key positions in organizing the supply of heroin to the Netherlands, the UK, Canada and the USA. It has branches in all these countries. Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigators claim that 14K and other triads have permanent representatives in every Chinese community of any significance throughout North America, and are associated with almost all areas of criminal activity that can generate profit, from extortion and loan fraud to credit card scams and video piracy.

Triad structure and customs

Accustomed to a secretive lifestyle, members of the triads still use their slang, secret handshakes, gestures and signs, as well as numerical codes to designate ranks and positions in the hierarchy of the group (these come from traditional Chinese numerology, based on the Book of Changes).

The hierarchy of triads is simple, but deliberately confusing. "489" means "master of the mountain", "head of the dragon" or "lord of incense" (i.e. leader of the clan). This number is made up of hieroglyphs meaning "21" (4+8+9), which in turn is a derivative of two numbers: "3" (creation) multiplied by "7" (death) equals "21" (rebirth). "438" means "steward" (deputy leader, or operational commander, or master of ceremonies). The sum of the digits that make up this number is 15, and the number “15” evokes reverence in every superstitious Chinese, because meeting it, including various combinations, promises great luck. “432” - “straw sandals” (that is, a liaison between various divisions of the clan), “426” - a “red pole” (that is, a militant commander or executor of power decisions), “415” - a “white paper fan” (that is, financial advisor or administrator), "49" - ordinary member. This number also has its own meaning. It decomposes into “4” and “9”. Their derivative “36” means the number of oaths pronounced upon joining the triad. It is no coincidence that all codes begin with the number “4”, because according to ancient Chinese belief, the world is surrounded by four seas. The number “25” means members of triads denote a police agent embedded in a group, a traitor or a spy of another gang..

According to other sources, the “yellow dragon” (leader) is in charge of the general leadership and strategy of the triad, the “white paper fan” is responsible for education and counterintelligence, as well as general issues and finances, the “straw sandals” (aka “sandalwood stick”) - for contacts with other secret societies, the “red pole” (also known as the “red rod” or “red staff”) - for protection and power operations, including showdowns with competitors and the elimination of traitors, and the nickname “monk” refers to ordinary members.

In the structure of each triad there are departments (or directions) of protection, information, communications, recruitment and education, each of which is headed by a deputy leader or a very authoritative gangster. For example, the information department deals with intelligence and counterintelligence, including among competitors and the police; The recruitment department works in schools and universities, and also looks for informants among rickshaw drivers, taxi drivers, waiters, street vendors and prostitutes. Members of triads are bound together by a complex system of rituals, oaths, passwords, and even ceremonial mixing of blood. They unmistakably recognize each other by many conventional signals that are invisible to outsiders: the order of the dishes placed on the table, the special manner of holding chopsticks and tea cups while eating, or riddle questions. For example, to the question “What is three times eight?” a member of the triad will answer: “Twenty-one,” because he knows that the character “Han” (the Chinese name for the triad) consists of three parts, indicated by the numbers “3”, “8” and “21”.

Some triads in Hong Kong still adhere to the tradition of ceremonial initiation of newcomers into their brotherhood. This is how this ceremony is described in Vsevolod Kalinin’s book “The Golden Orchid”:

To join the “brotherhood,” you must not only secure a recommendation from a member of the triad with experience, but also go through a preparatory period, during which the newcomer is subjected to severe and dangerous tests, including him in operations carried out by gangsters. In addition, “recruits” learn the history and rituals of the secret society, secret signals with gestures and fingers, and verbal passwords. By the time you join, you must memorize 21 rules of the disciplinary code and 10 points of punishment for violating it, as well as 36 oaths. During the mystical ritual, the correct answers to questions will have to be given in the form of allegories or riddles. Shang Qiu (Lord of Incense) and Han Qiu (Governor) take part in the ceremony. Passage of the Mountain of Knives - this is the name of the initial stage of the ritual. The manager writes down the names, addresses, and ages of those entering. They pay small fees. The Lord of Incense lights fragrant sticks in front of the shrine and announces: “The Han Brotherhood will live for millions of years.” Then he reads a long poem about the exploits of the ancestors, about the cordial union of the brothers, about the prosperity of the triad, after which he explains the 24th oath out of those 36 that will be spoken later. Paragraph 24 states that a new member of society can rise to the hierarchical level no earlier than after three years. Next, newcomers will have to go through three gates, each of which is stood by two high-ranking members of society. The guards hit them flat on the back with swords and ask each: “Which is stronger: the sword or your neck?” “My neck,” comes the answer, meaning that even under the threat of death, the secrets of society will not be revealed. Then the “recruits” pronounce all 36 oaths, and with the last words, each of them sticks the smoldering end of the stick into the floor, thereby showing that the light of his life will also disappear if the oath is broken. At the next stage of initiation, a lot of time is devoted to testing the knowledge of secret signals and passwords. Then the third-ranking leader takes the floor - the Red Staff - the guardian of order and discipline, the executor of sentences. Beginners, remaining on their knees, extend their left hands, palms up. The red staff pierces the middle fingers with a needle and thick red thread, from which blood oozes. It is added to the mixture in the goblet, poured into cups and given to everyone to drink. From this moment on, newcomers are considered accepted into a brotherhood, sealed by a blood oath, from the bonds of which only death can free. Ceremonial objects and various structures are put on fire so that everything remains a secret. A celebration begins, paid for by those who have joined the triad.

The more the triads move away from cultural and political goals towards criminal activities, the more sophisticated their secret rituals become, adding new complex ceremonies. The essence of the initiation procedure is still the same as it has been handed down from time immemorial, but due to the many complex procedures, the entire process can take up to eight hours. Among the initiation rites is the “Passing of the Mountain of Swords,” during which the candidate slowly walks under sharp, heavy swords hanging precariously above his head.

Newly accepted members of the triad are taught secret handshakes and various signals, which have long been one of the indispensable features of the existence of society. How a person holds chopsticks while eating, how many fingers he uses to lift a glass when drinking - all this contains important information for members of the triad. Code phrases are used to convey information that should not become known to the uninitiated. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who managed to infiltrate the triads and collect information about them more information than any other police in Western countries, it was possible to establish that, for example, the words “bite the clouds” meant “smoke opium”, and “black dog” was called firearms. (The past tense is used here deliberately, since it is unlikely that, after being published in 1987 in the RCMP Bulletin and reprinted in several other publications, a corpus of triad jargon would still retain the same meaning).

Initiation into the most powerful triads may involve the ceremony of beheading a live chicken. The blood of the still fluttering bird is poured into a glass, mixed with the blood of the newcomers, diluted with a hefty dose of wine, after which everyone present takes a sip of this mixture. The empty glass is then broken, showing what fate awaits anyone who tries to deceive the triad.

Also, as in other criminal communities, tattoos are of great importance in triads (they can be depicted both in the form of drawings and in the form of a hieroglyph denoting them). For example, a dragon means prosperity, nobility and power, a snake - wisdom, insight and will, a turtle - longevity, spruce - patience and chosenness, pine (the emblem of Confucius) - longevity, courage, loyalty and perseverance, plum - longevity, purity, strength, perseverance and hermitage, cherry - courage and hope, olive - peace, perseverance and generosity, orange - immortality and good luck, clover - triad, orchid - perfection, harmony and sophistication, lotus - wealth, nobility and fidelity, peony - masculinity, glory , luck and wealth, marigold - longevity, magnolia - self-esteem, plantain - self-education.

Triads and the international mafia

A comparison inevitably arises between the triads and the Italian Cosa Nostra, but there is a very significant difference between them. Although the core of Cosa Nostra is Italian, it has in the past had strategic ties with other ethnic groups, especially Jewish and Irish criminal circles. The Triads, by contrast, remain entirely Chinese in composition and culture. Unlike the criminal communities of Italian origin, who did not care who they robbed, the triads choose only the Chinese and Chinese organizations as their main sources of income. Although at one time the triads, Cosa Nostra and the Japanese yakuza entered into certain agreements among themselves, the triads to the greatest extent retained their independence and closeness from the outside world.

Another notable difference between triads and mafias concerns structure and discipline. As anyone who has watched The Godfather or even an episode of The Sopranos knows, Italian organized gangs are very tightly structured and run with a firm hand, like any corporation (or rather, they were; we will look at the details in the next chapter). Before taking on any profitable business, mafia members must obtain the approval of management and agree in advance to transfer part of the income to him. Negligence or deliberate failure to comply with these rules may result in the most serious penalties.

In triads there is no such strict discipline and the concept of coordination from top to bottom and the transfer of a share of production from bottom to top is completely absent. This is how one of the participants in the already mentioned Hong Kong triad “14 K” during interrogation described the situation in his organization to an Australian parliamentary investigator: “I was not required to pay a mandatory share to the leadership of “14 K.” This is not accepted in triads. Members of the triad treat each other favorably, provide mutual support and assistance to colleagues in criminal groups, but in triads, as a rule, there is no strict, disciplined organizational structure that exists in other groups, for example, in the Italian mafia. A member of the triad is not required to obtain permission from the “Dragon Head” of his triad to participate in one or another criminal act... On the other hand, during... traditional Chinese holidays, such as Chinese New Year, members of the triad, according to custom, present gifts to their “big brothers” or “uncles,” who often occupy a leadership position in the triads.”

We can say that the triads act “more gracefully” than the mafia, whose brutality has become the talk of the town. Triad militants can be no less brutal, but they often preface their actions with threats expressed in subtle or, on the contrary, very direct form. One Hong Kong businessman, who did not want to take into account the threats from the triad, was sent a severed dog's head - perhaps the militants did this under the influence of the famous horse head scene from The Godfather. They killed him only a few days later, after he pointedly ignored and this threat.

The isolation makes it especially difficult for Western intelligence agencies to gain access to the triads. Chinese communities in North America are the most closed of all ethnic groups, they are justifiably suspicious of attempts by outsiders to gain access to their culture. As a result, in order to penetrate the leaders of the triad, it is necessary to overcome two defensive barriers: the general cultural barrier that all Chinese use to isolate themselves from foreigners, and the veil of secrecy that protects the triads as such.

Another complication for law enforcement is the ability to use bribery or the threat of compromise to keep local police under control, especially in Hong Kong. For many years before the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997, the Royal Hong Kong Police did not have an effective criminal unit, and it appears that the influence of the triads and the extent of their activities in the colony were greatly downplayed. Only a detailed investigation carried out in 1983 revealed the true scale of the secret criminal groups. At the same time, it became known about colossal corruption in the KKE, in particular, that the police elite for many years covered up the drug trade carried out by triads. Many police officials have become wealthy through their connections with the triads, and according to police sources, quite a few of them emigrated to the UK and Canada before Hong Kong became part of Communist China in 1997, where, thanks to the wealth they accumulated, they settled down and became respectable rich businessmen.

The annexation into mainland China in July 1997 also prompted an exodus of triad members abroad for fear of imminent reprisals, but many observers aware of the level of corruption under the communist regime believe that the triads have regained their former influence in the time since. However, one very significant difference remains. During the period of British rule, those few triad leaders who fell into the hands of the law and were convicted of crimes were sentenced to prison. If the Beijing government pursues the same policies in Hong Kong as on the mainland, triad leaders can hardly count on such leniency; in this case, the most likely punishment for them should be execution.

It is possible that the Hong Kong triads are now, to one degree or another, under the control of Beijing, but their influence, again to a greater or lesser extent, extends throughout the world. In the UK, the National Crime Police conducted an investigation into triad activity in the country, under the simple code name “Chopsticks”. A 1996 NCP report reported that there were four triads operating in the UK, none of which were controlled from Hong Kong; therefore, these groups were not part of the international criminal community. The victims of the triads were primarily Chinese immigrants running small businesses; they generally did not report crimes to British authorities. The investigation also found that triads do not play a significant role in the drug trade - in contrast to the situation in Australia, Canada and the United States.

In 1988, an investigation by the Australian government revealed that 85-95% of all heroin entering this country was imported by Chinese triads. However, ten years later, a similar investigation conducted by the Americans showed that the share of triads had noticeably decreased as a result of competition from criminal organizations in Southeast Asian countries, primarily Vietnam, Cambodia, Burma (Myanmar) and the Philippines.

In the 1970s and 1980s. the highest quality heroin entering North America was produced in Turkey, processed in Marseilles, from where it reached the United States (the famous “French Network”); all this happened under the control of the mafia. The emigration of triad leaders from Hong Kong in the 1990s. allowed the Chinese to partially seize control of drug networks. The triads found ways to bypass Marseille, through which the bulk of the potion previously passed. Now the routes run either through Amsterdam or directly to Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, and from there to the main market - the USA. Most researchers consider the “14 K” triad as the primary source of drugs.

However, it is possible that the methods used by the triads could lead to the destruction of these organizations. In the North American drug market, their dominance was being challenged by powerful new Vietnamese gangs that abandoned tradition and mysticism in favor of raw intimidation. The Vietnamese have long been considered more ruthless and aggressive than other Asian groups, a perception that has been around them since their initial infiltration into North America in the 1980s. This state of affairs was explained by one of the former officers of the anti-narcotics department of the Royal Mounted Police: “The leaders of the old gangs are a product of the Vietnam War. These guys have been well trained. They may have been trained in the army or street gangs, but after the unification of Vietnam under the rule of the North, they first settled in refugee camps, and then they had to literally fight for long enough to get into Canada or the United States, without having anything. penny in your pocket. They have already seen death and violence on an unimaginable scale and are happy to have survived, so they basically have nothing to lose.”

In many cities, triads have now largely retreated from many areas of criminal activity, not wanting to enter into confrontation with the more violent Vietnamese gangs. They focused on squeezing money out of their peers, leaving the rest of the “market” to new entrants.

There is no consensus on the future of China's triad secret societies. Some speculate that China's growing economic power and unrelenting corruption will lead to increased triad activity in their homeland, despite policies that state that high-level criminals in that country can expect only one punishment - death. Others believe that the triads owe some of their prosperity to the Chinese's age-old subservience to other powers, and with China's growing economic power and international influence, the triads may return to their historical cultural mission. But no matter which way it goes further development triads, they will undoubtedly retain their mystery and structure, which arose over two thousand years ago.

Chinese organized crime groups have become one of the integral elements of the mysterious and mysterious East. " Triads“have long and confidently occupied second place in the world ranking of criminal communities, second only to the “Italian octopus” in the number of crimes committed. The headquarters of the Triads are scattered throughout the world. From Hong Kong to New York. Their areas of interest cover not only the south- East Asia, but also Russia, Europe, and the United States.

The Triad organization appeared in China 2,500 years ago. The first attempts to create an organized criminal group in the country led to the bandits uniting into a kind of trade union, which was dubbed the “Shadow of the Lotus.”

"Triad"appeared later, when in the 17th century, three Shaolin monks, returning from their wanderings, discovered ashes at the site of their monastery. Then, in the name of justice, they decided to create the "Union of Earth, Man and Sky", which was later joined by the "Shadow of the Lotus".

Centuries have passed, but some things in the way of life of the Triads remain unshakable. A person joining a gang must drink from a cup where the blood of all his comrades and the blood of a chicken are mixed. Members of the Triads cover their bodies with tattoos, according to the hierarchy. Betrayal is punishable by death.

Today, more than 150 thousand triad militants are based in Hong Kong alone, representing more than 50 clans. In China, their number is close to one and a half million. The entire black market of the country is under their vigilant control. Strict discipline reigns within the clans themselves. The hierarchical ladder is steep, and the path along it is not at all strewn with roses. Total control is established over each militant, and any violation of the established rules is most often punishable by death.

However, experts have not been able to figure out what scheme governs this or that cell. The modern Triad combines network and corporate management models. As a result, members in the field can act autonomously depending on the complexity of the operation they are asked to perform. The flexibility of the system allows, if necessary, to connect and disconnect the necessary links from the process of performing the operation.

"Triad"covered all areas of domestic and international crime. Extortion, trade in all types of legal and illegal goods, illegal migration, prostitution, gambling, protection racket. Being pragmatic people, Chinese mafiosi are pedantic in their approach to accounting documentation. Every month, a "tax inspector" comes to businessmen inspector" from the "Triad", who checks all documents and calculates the due 15% tax, which goes to the mafia treasury. Deceiving the "Triad" is harmful to health. Tested by hundreds of generations of entrepreneurs.

Today, the Chinese have taken a leading position in the supply of heroin to the United States and Europe. According to drug police, they have taken over a quarter of all Asian Traffic.

All the rulers of China tried to fight the Triads. Since power in the clan passes from father to son, problems with inheritance never arose. In modern China, at the top of the criminal pyramid there are two ancient dynasties - “14K” and “Green Dragon”, which appeared in the middle of the last millennium.

Sometimes a woman can take the helm of a clan. The most striking example was Lily Wong, who terrorized the entire Malayan coast for a decade. But the communists, led by Mao Zedong, were never able to solve the mafia problem, although they shot criminals without trial. Sons took the place of fallen fathers. But you can’t shoot all the criminals. Moreover, when the homeland was in danger, the Triads turned out to be surprisingly patriotic organizations. For example, they carried out active subversive activities against the Japanese invaders.

Get into " Triad"It’s impossible from the street, although there are more than enough people willing (the country has a critical level of unemployment). Therefore, first you need to get recommendations from two current members of the Triad, after which the candidate undergoes an interview with a recruiter, following which he is assigned a task. Most often, this is murder a cop who refuses to take a bribe. Such cops are also identified by psychologists. After such an action, the newcomer is tied to the clan by blood.

As already stated, Chinese mafia is the most patriotic criminal group in the world. They send their people to the streets of cities to keep order along with the police. The interest of the "triads" in public order is quite understandable - the mafia supports the political course of the Chinese ruling elite. When Beijing was proclaimed the capital of world tourism, the criminals pledged to protect tourists, betting on increasing the profits of souvenir shops, taxes from which would replenish the clan's treasury.

The Chinese are not looking to make quick, risky money. They prefer to plan profits years in advance. And, unlike Russian bandits who launder their income in offshore areas, the Chinese send money by couriers to their homeland. Hiding income in accounts in Switzerland is considered bad manners. The bosses of the Triad understand that the richer their country, the wealthier they will be.

Having made its way into the country's government apparatus, the mafia still did not reach high-ranking officials. And, although small armchair rats periodically fly out from their warm places, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, caught in bribery, still remains inaccessible to criminals.

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

According to researchers, the mafia of the Celestial Empire borrowed its name from the sacred symbol of Chinese society “heaven, earth, man,” forming a symbolic triangle. This name was finally 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, having gone to get provisions. When the trio returned, they saw only burning ruins and the dead bodies of their comrades. It was these three monks who founded the first “triad” - “The Union of Earth, Man and Heaven in the name of justice.”

The fighting cells of the new secret society swept the country, and all the shopkeepers paid him a tax, which was used to buy weapons for the “triad” partisan detachments that fought against the Manchu invaders. After the monks died, their followers gained control of the organization, held together by iron discipline, unquestioning obedience and supporters ready to carry out 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 the financial resources obtained by society were not enough to fight the Manchus. It was then that the “triad” became the mafia.

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

According to some estimates, there are about 160,000 triad members in Hong Kong today, belonging to 50 different organizations. In China itself, there are thousands of separate groups (their total number is 1 million 200 thousand people), which 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 80s, among ethnic Chinese organized crime, there has been a high growth in the number of cohesive, highly organized underground units that do not allow outsiders to infiltrate.

Close to the Chinese “triads” in terms of their organizational 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, the “head” appears, establishing contacts with the authorities national structures, then the main forces - the endless “body” of the snake - are slowly pulled up. Within the group there is a strict hierarchy, iron discipline and total control over each member of the community. Modern triads have a mainly transnational nature of activity; they are closely connected with ethnic diasporas of emigrants in European, Asian and American countries. For example, Chinese “tongs” and mixed Chinese-Vietnamese groups are active in the United States.

Traditionally, the triad organization model is a strictly 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). Subordinate to him are four ranks of managers responsible for various specific aspects of the organization's activities, and ordinary members.

In the second position are the leaders of individual organizations or a number of them included in the triad, called “fu shang 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 operational groups of triads.

There is a special position for communication with other criminal communities and organizations - “sho hai”, as well as an expert in administrative and financial matters“Pak tse sin”, located in the fifth and fourth positions, respectively.

At the very bottom, in the sixth position, there 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 heads a society of triads in a separate city or geographical area, is called “489”;
“Hung Kwan” enforcers – 426; “sho hai”,
responsible for connections with other criminal groups – 432; A
administrative and financial expert – 415.
Simple members that do not have ranks are called by the two-digit number “49”.

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

Each of the members of such a fraternity, depending on age, belongs to either a large or small detachment and obeys the orders and orders of his commander. When determining the model of organization of transnational criminal activities 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 come to a consensus regarding the degree of organization of the “triads”. This happens because, in the presence of a strictly formalized structure at the management level, the executive levels carrying out direct criminal activities operate within the framework of a flexible network system, which can change depending on a particular criminal operation being carried out.

So perhaps it would be more accurate to say that they are similar to college alumni associations. Membership in a “triad” means an expression of a certain degree of trust, and its members form a single working team, called upon to provide assistance to other members, even strangers. Therefore, although “triads” have a certain formal structure, much of their criminal activity is typically carried out by those members who are recruited on a case-by-case basis within a flexible network system that can change as needed. Triads engage in many types of transnational criminal activity, including extortion, drug trafficking, illegal migration, prostitution, gambling, arms trafficking, racketeering, and protecting local businessmen.

As evidenced by Chinese law enforcement officials, the “triads” conduct their business and accounting very strictly. So, at the end of each month, tax inspectors from the “triads” come to the Chinese traders, who check the documents on profits in order to collect the 15 percent due to the mafia. At the slightest attempt to deceive the “triad,” severe punishment immediately follows. That same night, the businessman who decided to carry out the crime will be killed and his store will be burned.

Today, 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 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 abroad of forests cut down in Primorye, keeps a “roof” over Russian prostitutes in Hong Kong and Macau, transports them to the territory RF tens of thousands of illegal immigrants.

The history of the relationship between the state and organized crime in China has developed in a very peculiar and unusual way. As you know, power in “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 led by the daughters of mafia bosses, including the famous pirate captain, Madame Lily Wong, who, after World War II, with the help of flotillas of combat boats under the command of mercenaries from former SS officers, ravaged the entire Malayan coast for almost a decade .

At the same time, history knows other examples when Chinese mafiosi acted on the side of the people. For example, during the liberation struggle against the Japanese invaders. Historians note such an amazing historical fact: “triads” have existed as long as China itself has existed.

The tyrant emperors failed to destroy the “triads” for two millennia. And the harsh authoritarian government of the PRC over the past 50 years has not been able to even slightly shake the power of the mafia. However, such attempts were still made by the Chinese comrades. At the very beginning of Mao Zedong’s reign, the Chinese communists decided to solve the problem radically - they shot the leaders of the main mafia groups.

However, the repressions did not help. Their sons immediately became the leaders of the gangs. Before they had time to stand 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 unique experience in confronting law enforcement agencies. According to many veterans of the Chinese police, even if all their leaders are sent to prison, not a single cog in the mechanism of the “triad” will fail.

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

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

On top of everything else, the “triads,” paradoxically, are trying to strengthen the Chinese economy. Unlike the Russian “Solntsevsk” or “Podolsk” organized crime groups, which launder money in offshore companies in Cyprus, the 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 southern seas are also transported by couriers to China: it is not customary to deposit them into accounts in Switzerland. Chinese criminals just 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 minor officials - they have no 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 is not able to influence a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. And although police officers and minor officials are periodically fired from their jobs for “connections with crime,” the official government does not admit that the “triads” have agents in its ranks, and the mafia wisely does not confirm this. One thing is clear - the organized mafia in China, no matter how hard they tried to destroy it, survived both the empire and the republic. There is no doubt - if necessary, it will outlive the communists.