Organized Crime ‘Control’ in Asia: Experiences from India, China and the Golden Triangle

Abstract

Given the vast scope of the Asian mega-region, in this chapter we are confine our discussion of the response to organized crime to India, China (including Hong Kong and Macau) and to ASEAN, with a specific focus there on the sub-region known as the ‘Golden Triangle.' In doing so we are conscious that we neglect some important countries and sub-regions where organized crime co-mingles with separatism and terrorism (such as the southern Philippines, West Papua, Aceh, Cambodia, North Korea, southern Thailand). Also the Japanese yakuza or boryukudan (‘violent ones’), although active throughout parts of Asia and the Pacific, are not addressed in this chapter.

Instead, we focus on the responses to organized crime in India, China and the ‘Golden Triangle.' Our goal is to explain how countermeasures against organized crime fit into wider debates about law enforcement, public order and security. We are also concerned with the perceptions/nature of criminal activity in the sub-regions that we examine. We find that, by-and-large, strategies for control of organized crime receive significant attention at both national and regional levels, albeit with mixed results. This discussion is followed by an analysis of the regional and multilateral responses to organized crime focusing, most particularly, on the more developed initiatives emerging from ASEAN. We conclude with an assessment of the prospects for effective measures against organized crime in the highly complex Asian mega-region and describe some of the persistent challenges that effective transnational law enforcement will face.

Keywords: organised crime, Asia, golden triangle, triads