Hole of Justice: The New Gov't. of China

Hole of Justice: The New Gov't. of China: Hole of Justice By Peter G. Jimenea The KMT Government of China Dr. Sun yat sen, a senior Triad member and Gen. Chiang kai-shek...

Hole of Justice: The New Gov't. of China

Hole of Justice: The New Gov't. of China: Hole of Justice By Peter G. Jimenea The KMT Government of China Dr. Sun yat sen, a senior Triad member and Gen. Chiang kai-shek...

The New Gov't. of China

Hole of Justice

By Peter G. Jimenea

The KMT Government of China

Dr. Sun yat sen, a senior Triad member and Gen. Chiang kai-shek of the Chinese army formed a new Republic in 1911. The general is recognized by the doctor for his role in driving out the Barbarian Manchus from China.

Dr. Sun yat-sen estimated that there were 35 million members of secret societies in China and the Triads became a powerful group in the political and civic affairs of the government. They were rewarded with exclusive territories for all vices without interference from the government.

They controlled China’s underworld as well as influence in Chinese communities around the world. Gen. Chiang gave them formal recognition and power in the national politics to unify China and lead as the military chief of the new imperial government.

He used the Triads as an arm of his political party Koumintang or the KMT to attain his ambition.  The Triads did the dirty jobs for his official army who could not publicly be involved in. Gen. Chiang promised the Triads unlimited criminal control in his government if they cooperated.

He soon ordered the abolition of labor unions, closure of newspapers considered leftist, the arrest of union leaders, spokesmen and the communist he considered critical to his administration. He likewise ordered the destruction of all Communist-led unions in Shanghai, China’s largest city.

Big-eared Tu, a ruthless Chinese gangster and leader of Green Gang Triad who transfigured Capone’s meteoric rise to power, entered into a deal with Chiang to attack Shanghai. On April 12, 1927, they destroyed union halls, leftist sanctuaries and massacred Communist labor union leaders in just a day.

The Green Gang Triad head was awarded the rank of general in Chiang’s army. Another accomplice, a boss of the Red Gang Triad was also appointed advisor to the KMT government. The other Triads became officers, soldiers and intelligence agents in the new China.

In World War II of 1941, the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong gave the Triads unprecedented opportunity to solidify control over the black market and vice trades in the colony. The British 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 Hong Kong but they proved ineffective to control the Triads. The British challenge to the triads ended with the latest events in Mainland China. Chiang knew that a showdown with the Communist armies of Mao tze tung sweeping from the north is inevitable.

The Triads were mobilized by Chiang to stop Mao tze-tung but failed to halt the momentum of the Communist. Sensing the 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 China opened its door to the new world with a surprise. It has already an atomic power in 1969. The KMT generals who feared the ruthless Red Guards of Mao fled to Hong Kong. Only KMT Gen. Li Wan Huan and his troops crossed the China border to Burma.

For fear that communism will expand, the US 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, forced the latter to move deeper into the boundaries of Laos and Thailand.

(To be continued)

Hole of Justice: The Chinese Triad

Hole of Justice: The Chinese Triad: Hole of Justice By Peter G. Jimenea The Chinese Triads The Chinese secret societies have more than three hundred years of histo...

Hole of Justice: The Chinese Triad

Hole of Justice: The Chinese Triad: Hole of Justice By Peter G. Jimenea The Chinese Triads The Chinese secret societies have more than three hundred years of histo...

The Chinese Triad

Hole of Justice

By Peter G. Jimenea

The Chinese Triads

The Chinese secret societies have more than three hundred years of history behind it. They are represented by equilateral triangle, each side signifies one of the three basic Chinese concept of Heaven, Earth and Man.

Members are bound by blood oaths, with pledge to overthrow the Barbarian Manchus who conquered their country and restore the Ming dynasty which previously ruled China. The Chinese Triad was founded in the 17^th century 1,500 years before Christ.

They hated the despot rule of the Barbarian Manchus from Mongolia who put an iron grip on the Northern two-thirds of China. But the continued rebellion in the South has disturbed the Barbarians despot rule in the North.

An anti-Manchu sentiment in the South was initiated at the Foochow monastery where 128 militant Buddhist monks organized the local population into pockets of resistance. In 1674, the Barbarians consolidated their hold on Northern China with plan to invade the South.

They sent a contingent to attack the monastery but according to legend, despite the relentless Barbarians assault with their superior armed troops, the monks who developed kung fu as self-defense had held them out for three weeks.

A traitor monk, however, helped the Barbarian troops. They disguised as water-boys for the rebels and entered the monastery’s secret underground tunnel and surprised the defenders. Only eighteen monks had escaped the slaughter. Sad to sat, they were chased by the invaders and another thirteen were killed.

The five monks with noble purpose who survived the onslaught are credited in the founding of the first Triad society. They vowed to overthrow the despot rule of the Barbarians and restore the Chinese imperial government.

Over the years, the Triads developed complex initiation rituals combining the method of astral worship of the Taoist, Buddhist and Confucian philosophies, all mixed with mythology. Soon the secret societies spread like fever in Southern China.

They were instrumental in launching the seventeen-year “Taiping Rebellion” which resulted to over twenty million deaths and devastation of 600 cities. Triads also launched the unsuccessful “Red Turban Uprisings” which ended in their eventual defeat.

More than one-million were beheaded by the Barbarians. During this campaign of death, the Triads fled China to Hong Kong. The exodus was so great. In 1847, British officials in Hong Kong estimated that nearly three-quarters of the colony population were Triad members.

By mid 1800s, faced by possible extinction, a large part of these Chinese secret societies turned to illegal activities like piracy, smuggling, extortion and others. The Mainland Triads sent some of their members abroad to protect the various kind of vice and crime among homeless settlers.

Triads had almost all criminal elements but by late 1800 they became legitimate as nationalistic organization. The bulk of money from the many popular Triads came from illegal sources. But without it, the Mainland Triads would never have withstood the Barbarians onslaught!

Triads realized that enormous profits are derived from underworld business. Many members turned away from their political belief and concentrated mainly in criminal enterprise. In 1911 the Triads were able to overthrow the Barbarians and Dr. Sun yat sen, a senior Triad member, formed the first government.

Next issue – The Triads under a New Government.

Hole of Justice: A Brief History of Illegal Drugs

Hole of Justice: A Brief History of Illegal Drugs: Hole of Justice By Peter G. Jimenea A Brief History of Illegal Drugs When I started writing about illegal drugs in 1994, nobody...

A Brief History of Illegal Drugs

Hole of Justice

By Peter G. Jimenea

A Brief History of Illegal Drugs

When I started writing about illegal drugs in 1994, nobody inquires because they knew nothing about it. It was still the era of marijuana, cough syrup and depressant tablet users. But now they do, after illegal drugs have become a global problem.

This story refers to the Chinese Triads and most of the documented information written herein were based on the book “Warlord of Crime” by Gerard Fosner, the only US investigative journalist allowed by the Chinese 14K Gang to visit its headquarter in Hong Kong.

With the exception of the hardworking and honest majority of Chinese people with great respect, there is no intent to slight them. They deserved praises as Chinese race and culture are at the forefront since the inception of written history.

This delves only on the unfortunate segment of the Chinese race- the Chinese Triads who have a systematic and vicious control of large, illicit empires in the criminal world from the East to the West. The backbone of this organization is - illegal drugs!

The Triads are virtually unknown to the underworld until the mid 50s. Auguste Joseph Ricord, a Corsican head of the French connection, was by then the king of heroin trade from Turkey, Marseilles and into New York till the mid-70s.

Heroin addiction, however, declined at the entry of the Latin-American Cocaine Cowboys in the underworld business. As reported by Gerard Posner the Cocaine Cowboys has earned enormous profit from this trade like that of Ricord’s group.

But not until the advent of the 80s when the Hong Kong Triads took control of the heroin trade in the US with their “China white” product coming from the Golden Triangle, the mountainous mist-shrouded areas in Southeast Asia fit for the cultivation of hush-poppy plants.

The Golden Triangle is consisted of four Northern provinces of Siam (now Thailand), the Eastern fringe of Laos, and a broad stretch of Northeast Burma (now Myanmar). The Chinese are also credited for the fast development of Hong Kong into a third-largest financial center after New York and London.

Hong Kong became a melting pot of world’s businesses and had the world’s most profitable bank – the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank. The most dominant Triad gang in Hong Kong was the 14K. It has over 30,000 members in the colony before it was returned by the British to Mainland China in July 1997.

An unnamed Hong Kong Police Superintendent claimed that the Chinese Triads invented organized crime. As he remarked, “These Chinese have Illegal drugs as backbone of their organization and they are “ruthless” if only to protect it.  

They made billions of dollars a year from all regular businesses of organized crime – gambling, prostitution, extortion, loan sharking, protection rackets, guns-for-hire, political and civic corruption. But one thing that made them unique – heroin!

The Golden Triangle is a mountainous area covering part of Laos, Thailand and Burma. Addicts in the US claimed that “China White” from the Golden Triangle is the best heroin in the world. The Triangle produces 70 percent of opium and heroin for world-addicts, an advantage other criminal organizations don’t have.

But where did these Chinese Triads originate? How did they become warlord of crime in the underworld? How did they make the Mafia look like bunch of kids in school uniform in terms of atrocities in the underworld business? Next issue, the Origin of the Chinese Triads.