Editor’s note for Thursday, September 30, 2021

My thoughts today:

The 2021 Global Organized Crime Index is out. It’s a project from the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, “an independent civil-society organization, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland,” that quantifies and analyzes organized crime in all 193 UN member states. The China section includes the following findings:

• The arms trafficking market in China is extremely limited, insofar as it exists.
• China’s human trafficking market is flourishing. Women and girls, primarily, are trafficked into forced marriage, and children are trafficked into illicit adoptions. Crime syndicates, local gangs, and independent traffickers traffic Chinese women and girls internally for sexual exploitation.
• China has one of the world’s largest wildlife trafficking markets.
• China’s methamphetamine market is among the world’s largest, and users account for at least half of the total number of people who use drugs in the country. In recent years, methamphetamine surpassed heroin as the country’s most consumed drug.
• The heroin trade constitutes a major source of revenue for domestic and foreign organized criminals.
• Although thousands of mafia-style groups operate across China, no large or prominent, well-known groups operate in mainland China. However, several Triad groups with defined leadership operate in Hong Kong, including notorious groups such as the 14K, Sun Yee On and Wo Shing Wo Triads.

Coincidentally, in August this year, China’s first draft anti-organized crime law was submitted (in Chinese) to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature.

Upcoming events:

• October 7: A chat with The China Project’s editors on Reading the Red New Deal: Part 1 – How does Evergrande fit in?
• Tickets for Day 2 of the NEXTChina conference are still BUY ONE, GET ONE FREE for a limited time only. Be sure to reserve your spot now!

Our word of the day is organized crime (有组织犯罪 yǒu zǔzhī fànzuì).

—Jeremy Goldkorn, Editor-in-Chief