Patriotic Criminals: China’s Covert Netherworld in Southeast Asia and the Pacific

Existing literature on Chinese-origin transnational criminals in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands tends to portray the problem as a pathology afflicting China equally, or as being beyond China’s control. In contrast, this paper presents cases where there is evidence of a crime-state nexus in forms ranging from deliberate to opportunistic. It applies McCoy’s concept of the ‘covert netherworld’ to a Sinic domain where business, criminal and United Front-affiliated actors interact. In this ambiguous milieu, ethnically-Chinese criminals brush shoulders with PRC state actors, occasionally swapping favours, whilst extolling patriotism in order to legitimise their exploits to home audiences. This paper argues for a mutual benefit relationship of periodic cooperation, in contradistinction to one in which Beijing firmly directs all ethnically-Chinese criminal activities.