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Triads rig elections: paper
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IN a move that seemed to signal the launch of the most extensive national crackdown on crime in two decades, an official newspaper yesterday published a stunning report saying triads have been rigging local elections in China.
The lengthy report on the China Police Daily said triads, or criminal gangs, interfered in and manipulated grass-roots elections in some areas, damaging the images of the Party and the government.
According to the report, authorities have overturned an election in Hongtu Village, En'shi City, Hebei Province, after an investigation found Tan Mingda, a triad kingpin, was elected chief of the village in January through vote buying and intimidation.
Some triads even erode and control local government functions, said the report, citing a gang in Henan Province who sidelined local government departments and ran a shoe market in their stead.
According to the report, criminal gangs also penetrate local governments and State-owned enterprises as their turfs expand to almost every corner of society. After a township election in Limin Township, Yuxian County, Henan Province, in May 1993, a triad controlled most key posts in the town, the report said.
It said the chief of the judiciary branch, five out of seven leaders of local Party organs, and seven out of 10 township enterprise managers were members of a triad.
The report also blamed criminal gangs for damaging social order, saying their routine activities include robbery, blackmail, rape, kidnapping and murder.
The round-up story said triads also damage the economy by monopolizing industries and amassing huge illegal fortunes.
The downfall of a battalion of officials and policemen in Shenyang, an important industrial city in Northeast China, sounded an alarm on how far triad influence could reach.
Liu Yong, once an "untouchable" lawmaker in Shenyang who established his business empire through relentless gangland assaults under the protection of local police, was arrested last year on charges of organized crime in a string of high-profile cases which implicated several high-ranking officials in the city.
During the national public security conference early this month which announced a two-year campaign to tackle declining social order and other woes, organized crime was among the three types of crime atop the blacklist.(Lin Min)
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