Hole of Justice
By Peter G. JimeneaUnderworld Empires (Part 3)
The KMT Government of ChinaDr. Sun yat sen, a senior Triad member and Charlie Soong, the International financier of the powerful Red Gang Triad and Gen. Chiang kai-shek of the Chinese army formed a new Republic in 1911. They were recognized by the doctor for their role in driving out the Barbarian Manchus from China.
Dr. Sun yat-sen estimated there were 35 million members of secret societies in China. Soon the Triads became a powerful group in the political and civic affairs of China. Rewards for their assistance were exclusive territories plying all vices without interference from the government.
As the Triads spread their control over China’s underworld as well as in Chinese communities around the world, Gen. Chiang gave them formal recognition and power in national politics. He dreamed to unified China and lead as the military chief of the new imperial government.
Gen. Chiang used the Triads as strong arm of his political party, the Koumintang or the KMT to attain his ambition. The Triads began doing the dirty jobs for his official army who could not publicly be involved in. He promised the Triads unlimited criminal control in his government if they cooperated.
He ordered the abolition of labor unions, closure of newspapers considered leftist, the arrest of its leaders, spokesmen and the communist he considered critical to his administration. He also ordered the destruction of all Communist-led labor unions in Shanghai, then China’s largest city.
Big-eared Tu, a ruthless Chinese gangster and leader of Green Gang Triad who transfigured Al Capone’s meteoric rise to criminal power, entered into a big deal with Chiang to attack Shanghai. On April 12, 1927, they destroyed union halls, leftist sanctuaries and the massacre of Communist labor union leaders in just one day.
The Green Gang Triad head was awarded the rank of general in Chiang’s army. An accomplice leader of the Red Gang Triad was also appointed advisor to the nationalist government. The others became officers, soldiers, intelligence agents, businessmen and financiers in the new China.
In World War II, the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong in 1941 gave the Triads an unprecedented opportunity to solidify control over the black market and vice trades in the colony. The British early withdrawal forced the Japanese to play into the Triads hands in exchange for information and peace in the colony.
In 1945, the British again took control of the colony but proved ineffective in its battle with the criminal societies. Their challenge to the Hong Kong triads ended with the latest events in Mainland China. Gen. Chiang knew that a showdown with the Communist armies sweeping from the north is inevitable.
A lot of China’s secret societies were mobilized by Chiang to stop Mao tze-tung’s revolutionary army but they all failed to halt the gathering momentum of the Communist. Sensing imminent defeat, Gen. Chiang and most of his generals fled to Formosa (now Taiwan) in 1949.
After the fall of the KMT, Mainland China closed its door to the outside world. But 20 years later, the outside world was surprised when China opened its door in 1969 as a nation with atomic power. Back to Chiang, his generals who feared the ruthless Red Guards of Mao moved to Hong Kong. But KMT Gen. Li Wan Huan and troops fled to Burma by crossing the China border.
For fear that communism will sooner or later expand, the United States sent the CIA to Burma with financial and firepower support to help Gen. Li and his 2000 army. But Mao’s Red Guards running after Gen. Li and troops in the boundary of Burma, has forced the latter to move deeper into the boundaries of Laos and Thailand.
Next issue: The Golden Triangle
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