China Is Best Seen As a Vast Organised Crime Syndicate

Update 16 April 2012: Among 100 Chinese government officials, there are 101 corrupted Chinese government officials

China is not a unified power. It is a conglomerate -- or a syndicate -- of multiple regions, sectors, and power blocs, operating under the umbrella of the central committee's oversight and sanction. Just like an organised crime syndicate, it is results that matter -- not necessarily the methods that were used to obtain the results.

Patrick ChovanecThe map above presents just one concept of how China could be divided. But in reality, China can be divided many different ways, in terms of the flow of power, wealth, and information. Rivalries between power blocs are fierce and the pressure to perform is unrelenting.

How is China like an organised crime syndicate? Let's look at just one example -- China's procurement of weapons systems from Russia:

For more than a decade, China has been a major importer of weapons. No more, despite a rapidly growing defense budget. Two years ago, China dropped to second place in weapons imports, and last year slipped to fourth place. The main reason is that China is producing more of the high-tech military gear it used to import. The main reason for that is massive theft of foreign military technology. While the best stuff was stolen from the West (usually via the Internet), the most useful designs were stolen from Russia. That's because Chinese manufacturing capabilities, for many exotic military technologies, are not yet up to Western standards. But the Chinese can make useful copies of Russian tech.

Throughout the 1990s, Russian arms exports to China were brisk, peaking at $2 billion a year. But six years ago, it all stopped. Well, for all practical purposes, with the flood shrinking to a trickle. The reason was Chinese theft of Russian military technology. For example, three years ago, Russia refused to sell China any Su-33 jet fighters for fear that the Chinese would steal the design and manufacture illegal copies. The Su-33 is a modified (for use on aircraft carriers) version of the Su-27. For several years China discussed the possibility of buying 50 Su-33s. But when the Chinese said they'd like to just buy two initially, for "evaluation purposes," Russia recoiled and said they would not sell the Chinese any of the 33 ton Su-33s. Russia uses two dozen of them on its carrier Kuznetzov, although these are being replaced by navalized MiG-29Ks.

The reason behind this refusal was Russia's admission that China was producing unlicensed copies of the Su-27 fighter. Russia had known about this theft for some time. It all began in 1995, when China paid $2.5 billion for the right to build 200 Su-27s. Russia would supply engines and electronics. But after 95 of the Chinese built aircraft were built, Russia cancelled the agreement. They claimed that China was using the knowledge acquired with the Su-27 program, to build their own copy of the Su-27, the J-11. Russia kept the piracy issue quiet, and warned the Chinese that simply copying Russian technology would produce an inferior aircraft. Apparently the Chinese do not agree, and are continuing their work on the J-11, using only, what they claim is, Chinese technology.

Another example of this tech theft is the Chinese HQ-9 anti-aircraft missile system, which is offered for export. This system is believed to contain technology from similar Russian (S-300) and U.S. (Patriot) systems. _StrategyPage

Multiply this small example by thousands of other ongoing instances across the spectrum of economic and political activity, and you will begin to understand how the China Syndicate operates. This is just how an organised crime syndicate works. The central criminal committee or boss doesn't care how the subsidiary crime groups make their money, as long as the tribute keeps coming, and the overall power of the central criminal committee remains intact.

Theft, espionage, piracy, extortion, fraud, murder, vice -- all of these tactics are acceptable to the central criminal committee, and are simply ways of doing business. The syndicate will not publicly admit to these activities, just as China's leadership will not publicly admit to the blatantly criminal actions of its sanctioned subsidiaries.

If a particular criminal chapter or "company" becomes too embarassing to the central criminal committee, pressure can be put on the bosses of that chapter. If pressure isn't enough, there are stronger ways of dealing with those who will not submit to the central criminal committee.

The Chinese culture puts its unique stamp on the various forms of criminal enterprise -- both official and unofficial -- which come together under the umbrella of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee. But the general forms could be recognised anywhere -- from Sicily to Russia to Nigeria to Medellin.

What can you do once you have gained this insight? That is something that the governments of the advanced world have to ask themselves. Because the governments of the first world have enough trouble dealing with their own self-made disasters of debt, demographic decline, and energy starvation by carbon hysteria. Being scammed by the world's largest criminal enterprise, on top of everything else, is as useful as a rapid intracranial injection of hot lead.