Crackdown exposes sordid ties between criminals and officials
AP 23 October 2009
BEIJING: After she refused a corrupt police officer’s demand that she turn her teahouse into an illegal casino, three thugs beat Ms. Chen Yanling with electric batons, putting her in hospital for nearly a month.
She is now getting some vicarious revenge, joining the throngs outside a courthouse where modern-day China’s biggest, most lurid mob trials are under way.
The trials are exposing sordid, deep- seated connections between organised crime and corrupt officials and police in the central mega-city of Chongqing. Among the suspects: the 46-year-old sister-in-law of the city’s judicial bureau chief, who is accused of running 20 illegal gambling halls, all protected by the police.
Labelled the godmother of the Chongqing underworld, Xie Caiping’s profanity-laced testimony drew a rebuke from the judge last week, but delighted the public, which revelled in tales in the local media that she kept 16 lovers.
‘Elder sister Xie’, as Xie is known in the underworld, once absconded with a suitcase of money after being tipped off by her brother-in-law, former deputy police chief Wen Qiang, just before police raided one of her premises, according to state media.
It took the prosecutor about 70 minutes to read the 35-page charge sheet against Xie and her 21 alleged accomplices at their trial at Chongqing’s packed No5 Intermediate People’s Court last week, news reports said. They are the first among hundreds expected to go on trial.
One of the charges said Xie hired gang members to beat an undercover police officer unconscious, put him in a bag and dump him in the countryside. A defiant Xie, who reportedly worked at the tax department of a district government before setting up her ‘business’ in 2000, has denied all the charges.
Such salacious details and more - Wen is said to have amassed 100 million yuan (S$20.5 million) in ill-gotten gains and raped starlets - have been given wide coverage by the state media, as befits the scale of the crackdown which began in June.
About 1,500 suspects, including gangsters, prominent businessmen and 14 high-ranking officials, have been caught in the campaign.
Intended to display the Chinese leadership’s renewed resolve to stamp out corruption, the Chongqing campaign has instead highlighted how entrenched criminal gangs have become throughout China.
‘Local governments have essentially lost control over organised crime,’ said Professor Xia Ming at The City University of New York, who studies China’s criminal underworld. He said an internal report by the national police ministry estimated that China had up to three million people involved in organised crime and 4,200 ‘mafia-style syndicates’ in 2004. He believes the number may be as high as four million.
The leadership now sees the link between endemic corruption and organised crime - known as ‘black societies’ in Mandarin - as a threat to its very existence.
‘Organised crime is now delegitimising the mainland Chinese government because it penetrates deep into the society and economy, and brings about and perpetuates bureaucratic corruption,’ said political science professor Sonny Lo at Canada’s University of Waterloo.
As a report in the official Xinhua news agency put it: “Black’ power is not only expanding to economic sectors, it is also trying to infiltrate into politics, damaging the image of the party and the country.’
Chongqing, a hilly city along the Yangtze River, took off economically over the past decade when the government made it a province-level municipality and poured in investment to boost development in less prosperous inland China.
New gangs thrived, finding a steady stream of recruits among ex-prisoners and the jobless.
On Wednesday, six gang members were sentenced to death for crimes including murder and blackmail. Twenty-five others were given sentences ranging from one to 18 years in prison.
Defendants still on trial include Li Qiang, an entrepreneur and delegate to Chongqing’s legislature who allegedly hired gangsters to infiltrate taxi companies and organise a strike by more than 8,000 taxi drivers last November.
Wen, the fallen judicial chief, has been put under shuang gui, the Communist Party’s euphemism for detention while under probe.
The trial has drawn hundreds of people each day, among them victims like teahouse owner Chen, who was attacked by gangsters three years ago.
‘Although my case hasn’t been solved yet, I already feel better,’ said Ms. Chen.
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China gripped by mob trials
Crackdown exposes sordid ties between criminals and officials
AP
23 October 2009
BEIJING: After she refused a corrupt police officer’s demand that she turn her teahouse into an illegal casino, three thugs beat Ms. Chen Yanling with electric batons, putting her in hospital for nearly a month.
She is now getting some vicarious revenge, joining the throngs outside a courthouse where modern-day China’s biggest, most lurid mob trials are under way.
The trials are exposing sordid, deep- seated connections between organised crime and corrupt officials and police in the central mega-city of Chongqing. Among the suspects: the 46-year-old sister-in-law of the city’s judicial bureau chief, who is accused of running 20 illegal gambling halls, all protected by the police.
Labelled the godmother of the Chongqing underworld, Xie Caiping’s profanity-laced testimony drew a rebuke from the judge last week, but delighted the public, which revelled in tales in the local media that she kept 16 lovers.
‘Elder sister Xie’, as Xie is known in the underworld, once absconded with a suitcase of money after being tipped off by her brother-in-law, former deputy police chief Wen Qiang, just before police raided one of her premises, according to state media.
It took the prosecutor about 70 minutes to read the 35-page charge sheet against Xie and her 21 alleged accomplices at their trial at Chongqing’s packed No5 Intermediate People’s Court last week, news reports said. They are the first among hundreds expected to go on trial.
One of the charges said Xie hired gang members to beat an undercover police officer unconscious, put him in a bag and dump him in the countryside. A defiant Xie, who reportedly worked at the tax department of a district government before setting up her ‘business’ in 2000, has denied all the charges.
Such salacious details and more - Wen is said to have amassed 100 million yuan (S$20.5 million) in ill-gotten gains and raped starlets - have been given wide coverage by the state media, as befits the scale of the crackdown which began in June.
About 1,500 suspects, including gangsters, prominent businessmen and 14 high-ranking officials, have been caught in the campaign.
Intended to display the Chinese leadership’s renewed resolve to stamp out corruption, the Chongqing campaign has instead highlighted how entrenched criminal gangs have become throughout China.
‘Local governments have essentially lost control over organised crime,’ said Professor Xia Ming at The City University of New York, who studies China’s criminal underworld. He said an internal report by the national police ministry estimated that China had up to three million people involved in organised crime and 4,200 ‘mafia-style syndicates’ in 2004. He believes the number may be as high as four million.
The leadership now sees the link between endemic corruption and organised crime - known as ‘black societies’ in Mandarin - as a threat to its very existence.
‘Organised crime is now delegitimising the mainland Chinese government because it penetrates deep into the society and economy, and brings about and perpetuates bureaucratic corruption,’ said political science professor Sonny Lo at Canada’s University of Waterloo.
As a report in the official Xinhua news agency put it: “Black’ power is not only expanding to economic sectors, it is also trying to infiltrate into politics, damaging the image of the party and the country.’
Chongqing, a hilly city along the Yangtze River, took off economically over the past decade when the government made it a province-level municipality and poured in investment to boost development in less prosperous inland China.
New gangs thrived, finding a steady stream of recruits among ex-prisoners and the jobless.
On Wednesday, six gang members were sentenced to death for crimes including murder and blackmail. Twenty-five others were given sentences ranging from one to 18 years in prison.
Defendants still on trial include Li Qiang, an entrepreneur and delegate to Chongqing’s legislature who allegedly hired gangsters to infiltrate taxi companies and organise a strike by more than 8,000 taxi drivers last November.
Wen, the fallen judicial chief, has been put under shuang gui, the Communist Party’s euphemism for detention while under probe.
The trial has drawn hundreds of people each day, among them victims like teahouse owner Chen, who was attacked by gangsters three years ago.
‘Although my case hasn’t been solved yet, I already feel better,’ said Ms. Chen.
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