The Dragon Syndicates: The Global Phenomenon of the Triads

by Booth, Martin

• ISBN13: 9780786708697
• ISBN10: 0786708697
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-07-17
• Publisher: Perseus Books Group

Summary

With unflinching candor, Martin Booth -- Booker Prize nominee and author of the critically acclaimed Opium: A History -- here unfolds the full story of the Chinese Triads, which, according to UN sources, now pose the greatest potential criminal threat the world has ever known. From San Francisco to Amsterdam to Bangkok to Johannesburg, everywhere, everyday, the Triads are turning crimes like extortion, gambling, international prostitution, illegal immigrant smuggling, money laundering, fraud, corruption, arms, and narcotics into vast profits. This comprehensive history of the Triads traces their evolution over more than two thousand years from obscure parochial Chinese brotherhoods to an international criminal organization. It examines the archaic quasi-religious rituals that have for centuries bound the members of this now global fraternity. It recounts the exploits of patriots and outlaws. It explores the Triads' instigation of the Tong Wars in America, their collaboration with the Allies against the Japanese in Malaya, their collusion with the CIA in Vietnam. It chronicles their escalation of the heroin trade to Europe and the United States. It shocks, and it compels.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	ix
Author's Note	xi
Part One The Ancestry Of Dragons
Of Red Eyebrows and Iron Shins	3	(9)
The T'ien-ti Hui	12	(5)
The Birth of the Triads	17	(5)
Hung Hsiu-ch'uan, Yasoo and the Red Turban Rebels	22	(6)
Vegetarians, Rice Christians and Foreign Devils	28	(17)
Part Two Politicians, Warlords and Gangsters
Dr Sun and the New Empire	45	(19)
Nationalists, Communists and Crooks	64	(19)
The Government Gang	83	(24)
Part Three in the City of Willows
The Legend of the Monks of Shao Lin	107	(15)
`The City of Willows'	122	(7)
Passing the Mountain of Knives	129	(14)
Part Four Snake-Heads and Syndicates
On the Shores of the Fragrant Harbour	143	(26)
In the Shadow of the Nine Dragons	169	(34)
Tigers, Tin Mines and Triads	203	(18)
The Turning of the Triad Buck	221	(41)
From Fei Jai to Financier	262	(9)
Part Five Conquering Barbaria
The Sieve, the Unicorn and 'Mao Tse-tung'	271	(13)
A Not-too-dissimilar Island	284	(12)
Climbers on the Golden Mountain	296	(21)
Pocket Rats, Lions' Bones and Waking Bears	317	(6)
Old Emperors, New Empires	323	(17)
Bibliography	340	(5)
Index	345