On the Role of Organized Crime and Related Substate Actors in Chinese Political Warfare Against Taiwan
J. Michael Cole （寇謐將）
Senior Fellow, Global Taiwan Institute, Washington, D.C.
Senior Fellow, Macdonald-Laurier Institute, Ottawa, Canada
Senior Fellow, Taiwan Studies Programme, University of Nottingham, UK
Associate Researcher, French Center for Research on Contemporary China
Abstract
“As the world begins to recognize the threat that Chinese political warfare poses to institutions worldwide, interest in Taiwan’s experience with efforts by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to penetrate, erode, or bypass its democratic firewall has grown commensurately. However, although much attention has been paid to traditional instruments of political warfare, from dis/misinformation to corrosive capital, one element in the CCP’s “sharp power” toolkit has tended to be understudied or ignored altogether: the reliance on the Chinese party-state apparatus on crime syndicates, or “triads,” and their substate affiliates for the advancement of the CCP’s political objectives vis-à-vis Taiwan. The lack of research on the subject is the result, on the one hand, of the challenge posed in studying activities which lie at the intersection of criminal activity and political work, and on the other due to the paucity of open source information about the individuals and organizations involved in these operations. The linkage between criminal activity and political work is oftentimes difficult to prove absent declassified intelligence from law enforcement agencies, and furthermore confers deniability to its perpetrators stemming from the gray zone that lies at the heart of politicized organized crime. Research is also handicapped by the fact that pouring into the activities of crime syndicates can result in threats to one’s personal safety. This paper draws from years of research into this subject to demonstrate that the CCP is indeed using organized crime and related substate entities to conduct and facilitate political work in Taiwan, and proposes a number of theories to explain why such organizations have yet to be the object of a nationwide crackdown by law enforcement and intelligence agencies in Taiwan.”
Keywords: Triads, Proxies, Political Warfare, United Front, CCP, Taiwanese Organized Crime, Chinese Organized Crime, Organized Crime
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