Red Lines and the Underworld: The Secret Collusion Between Chinese Police and Southeast Asian Criminal Groups

How is the safety in Thailand? What are the common patterns of collusion between Southeast Asian criminal groups and the Chinese police? Briefly explain.

The first answer is self-evident. Look at places like Nana, Soi Cowboy, Patpong... Pattaya... people of all races and colors have left countless genes in Thailand. What do you think of the safety? Besides, crime exists in every country. If you are not careful when you are abroad, even in China, are there not enough pitfalls from both the underworld and the authorities?

Let's talk about the second question.

First, do not doubt whether the Chinese government and police, which have always presented themselves with a glorious and righteous image, would collude with criminal groups. You must know that the "Communist bandits" are also bandits. Since they rose to power, they have a history of colluding with various underworld gangs. Today, they have simply changed to a few nice-sounding terms, such as "united front" or "undercover operations."

Second, it is probably not just criminal groups, otherwise, the cooperation would not be so pleasant and so immediate.

Many criminal group bosses are themselves fugitives who committed crimes in China and fled to Southeast Asia. These people are very capable in the underworld, and many have also brought a large sum of money from China as "seed capital." Therefore, it is not unusual for them to develop some group companies in Southeast Asia. They move freely between local politics, business, and the underworld, and many have even obtained citizenship and participated in local politics. The most humorous thing is that these people, whose backgrounds are as dark as purple, especially love to do one thing after becoming big businessmen and bosses: charity.

If you say it's out of a desire to ease their conscience, I cannot refute you, because motives are hard to judge. However, the benefits of continuous charity are obvious: it's like gilding their image, and it attracts attention from the political circles... It not only provides an extra layer of protection but is also more conducive to intervening in local politics and economy.

As these people become established, more people will come to win them over, not only from the host country but also from the Chinese authorities who are always monitoring the surrounding ecosystem.

One of the giants in this regard is the Ministry of Public Security.

The Ministry of Public Security has too much power and provides too many conveniences. In terms of practicality and applicability, it is actually far superior to the Ministry of State Security.

The collusion between the Ministry of Public Security and these bosses, as always, reflects the secrecy of the underground party's work back then. Many work relationships of the underground party at that time were not documented in black and white contracts. Instead, they had very distinct characteristics of Soviet-style secret work, which is what Lenin emphasized.

Simply put, it boils down to three words: "make friends."

Police officers interact with these bosses not in their official capacity but in their personal capacity. Ostensibly, it's all about personal relationships and private friendships (if the police officer in charge is transferred, retires, or gets into trouble, another officer will take over). However, everyone knows when discussing matters that the police officers represent the organization. Otherwise, where would they get such great power to provide the "conveniences" that the bosses want?

The most desired convenience for the bosses is naturally complete whitewashing and the erasure of their criminal records. Some can achieve this, but many cannot. How could the Ministry of Public Security easily let go of such a handle?

However, providing other conveniences and protection is not a problem. Therefore, you can see that many of these criminal group leaders have also established numerous companies in China. Some even distribute red envelopes during festivals, and no police officers bother them.

As these people's businesses grow, they naturally become whiter and whiter, and their dark past is gradually forgotten. However, some are reluctant to give up their lucrative ways of making money and continue to engage in illicit activities, leading to many Chinese becoming victims.

But to be honest, the Chinese police do not really expect this situation because victims and their families will make a fuss. If the "services" provided by these cooperating bosses are too good and irreplaceable, or if the cooperative relationship between the two parties is deep and long-standing, the Chinese police will naturally deal with the victims on behalf of the bosses. Ignoring them is considered lenient. If they continue to make trouble without knowing their limits, the iron fist of stability maintenance will be deployed.

There are also a few bosses who get caught. They are considered to have lost their usefulness, or the bad things they did caused too much trouble. When weighing the pros and cons, the Chinese authorities have no choice but to use their heads (the personal relationships mentioned earlier can be used to shift blame to individual police officers, denying responsibility and parting ways).

After all this talk, what can these criminal groups provide to the Chinese government?

Quite a lot, but there is only one core item:

Doing dirty work, helping to deal with dissidents.

In China, protecting the country and maintaining the monopoly of ruling privileges is --

The reddest of all red lines, The biggest politics of all politics.