Chapter 4 Mr. Cai Shaoqing and the Research on Chinese Underworld

Speaking of Mr. Cai Shaoqing, the academic circles are familiar with his research achievements on the history of modern secret society and modern social history, but he also played a pioneering role in the field of contemporary Chinese underworld research; his creative suggestions on underworld , It has played a certain role in guiding public opinion in the "strike hard" and "sweeping black and evil" campaigns launched by the Chinese government in recent years. 1. Start the research on contemporary Chinese underworld Mr. Cai is famous for his research on the history of modern secret societies.Secret societies in history have different social functions for social security and social control in different periods and under different regimes. There are positive and negative functions. The secret societies with negative functions are mostly underworld organizations or black gangs. .When social control is weakened, the underworld will be rampant and endanger social order.After the founding of new China, the underworld was once eliminated by the people's government.After the reform and opening up, the underworld dregs that disappeared without a trace emerged, seriously disrupting social order.Mr. Cai, with his strong concern for the real society and his unique sensitivity in studying secret societies in history for many years, based on history and looking at the present, has an insight into the serious harm of crimes organized by underworld organizations to today's society. The research on the underworld problem is to arouse people's vigilance against the spread of the underworld forces and remind the society how to fight against the underworld forces.

In October 1990, at the third symposium on Chinese social history held at Sichuan University, Mr. Cai gave a report on "The Rise of Underworld Residues Threaten Social Security", which aroused widespread attention from scholars and the media.A reporter from Xinhua News Agency made a detailed report on Xinhua News Agency's "Internal Reference" under the title "The Rising Scum of Underworld Forces Threats Social Stability--Professor Cai Shaoqing Talks about the Characteristics of Underworld Organizations in China". This is the first academic report on contemporary Chinese underworld. The relatively comprehensive elaboration of the problem has been valued by the central government and some local governments.For example, he conducted an in-depth investigation on a certain organization of the underworld in a certain province in northern my country, obtained a large amount of detailed information, and made accurate characterizations, some of which even the local police did not understand in time.After the announcement of the results, the provincial leaders immediately instructed the public security organs to consult Mr. Cai about the situation of the underworld organizations in the province.

Mr. Cai's academic paper based on this report - "A Preliminary Study on the Problems of the Underworld in Contemporary China" was published in the 3rd issue of "Journal of Nanjing University" in 1992. This is the first time in China to systematically discuss the underworld academic papers.Mr. Cai discussed the issue of China's underworld from three aspects: the characteristics of contemporary Chinese underworld organizations, the reasons for the emergence of underworld forces and countermeasures. What are the characteristics of the Chinese underworld?Mr. Cai pointed out that the underworld in China generally has the following characteristics: (1) They appear one after another across the country with various names.The rise of underworld forces is no longer an isolated phenomenon, but a relatively common phenomenon across the country. No matter in cities or in rural areas, some underworld organizations with different names have emerged, especially in some large and medium-sized cities and open coastal areas. The activities of underworld organizations are quite frequent . (2) From the perspective of organizational form, most of these gangs belong to the budding violent type, and most of their activities have community characteristics.Due to activities in this community, its organization has stronger cohesion and develops faster. (3) The forms of crime are diversified, ranging from economic wealth grabbing to political reaction, and the tools of crime are becoming more and more modernized and technological. (4) Infiltrated and influenced by triad forces in Hong Kong and Taiwan. (5) The organizational composition is complex, mainly young people, with a low level of education.Members of modern gangs include farmers, enterprise employees, unemployed people, and reform-through-labor exiles, and most of them are male teenagers. (6) Modern gangs have basically inherited the mantle of traditional gangs, and have established a complete set of organizational structures, gang regulations, and secret codes.

Why are underworld forces rampant again in today's society?Mr. Cai pointed out that there are roughly the following reasons: (1) The "syndrome" of social transformation includes: a large increase in floating population; imperfect employment system, a large number of unemployed and unemployed people, which have become "potential sources of crime and re-offending" "; In the process of great social change, traditional values, moral norms, thinking patterns, and behaviors have been impacted, while new concepts, norms, and methods have not been fully established. Some people's actions lost their binding force, and some people's mentality lost balance and even out of control. (2) The softening of social norms and the ineffective purification of the media, including: the anti-triad struggle does not receive strong cooperation from all parties; the existence of "protective umbrellas" makes some criminals commit crimes unscrupulously; The embryonic state objectively gives the green light for criminals to commit crimes; the social media is not purified effectively, and the cultural market is flooded with yellow water, which objectively plays a role in instigating criminals' criminal techniques. (3) The deviation of education is a reason that cannot be ignored for juvenile gang crimes. (4) Gang consciousness is deeply ingrained, which makes gang crimes uniquely "charismatic". Regarding countermeasures, Mr. Cai proposed that in the process of comprehensive governance, we should implement the combination of temporary and permanent cure, crackdown with prevention and treatment, quick decision and protracted war, The "Four Combinations" principle of combining the governance of public security organs with the prevention and control of the masses. At the same time, we should do a good job in publicity and education, formulate laws and regulations to fight back against the underworld, improve the employment mechanism, open up employment opportunities, do a good job in the employment of surplus labor and idlers, and strengthen urban mobility. Population management, strengthening the prevention and governance of juvenile crime, strengthening the construction of urban and rural grassroots political power, improving the prevention mechanism, and eliminating the infiltration of foreign underworld forces and other specific tasks.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Chinese underworld was still in its infancy and restorative development stage. Mr. Cai made such a profound rational analysis and forward-looking thinking, which can be said to be at the forefront of research on this academic topic.Since then, most of the research works and research ideas of scholars on the Chinese underworld have not surpassed Mr. Cai's thinking framework; the internationally renowned search journal - the United States "Historical Abstracts" (Historical Abstracts) specifically included the above in the journal. The practical significance of this subject research is not limited to the country, but goes beyond the borders, causing certain repercussions in the police outside the region.Once, a vicious murder occurred in Seattle, the United States. The suspect was a Chinese. Although the evidence was sufficient, the court could not convict him because the suspect's defense lawyer claimed that he was mentally ill.The American police were helpless, so they got in touch with Mr. Cai in Nanjing and asked Mr. Cai to help them solve the case.Mr. Cai only based on the photos of the murder scene provided by the U.S., using his own knowledge of Chinese gangs, to make a judgment from clues such as the murderer’s location and method: this case is a traditional blood sacrifice in a Chinese gang. In a vicious crime case, the claim that the murderer was mentally ill was self-defeating, and he successfully assisted the police in bringing the murderer to justice, which became a good story for a while.

2. Appropriate assessment of the Chinese underworld situation From the late 1980s and early 1990s, when Mr. Cai started his research on the Chinese underworld, it took a full 10 years to the beginning of the 21st century.In the past 10 years, the Chinese underworld has developed from the budding to the forming direction.If we say that 10 years ago, China's underworld was just a "organization with the nature of underworld", that is, the embryonic form of underworld, then after ten years of development, China's underworld has basically possessed the characteristics of famous underworld in Chinese history and the world. There is only a difference in size. 10 years ago, many of Mr. Cai's predictions about the development of China's underworld have unfortunately come true.Although the government has set off several waves of "strike hard", the underworld forces in some places have become more rampant, and black tentacles continue to infiltrate into party and government agencies, enterprise groups and other departments, and the impact is even worse than before.Out of a scholar's sense of social responsibility, Mr. Cai expressed deep concern about this. He continued to pay attention to the development trend of the underworld and further thought about preventive countermeasures.

How to assess the situation of the contemporary Chinese underworld will be directly related to the next step of governance countermeasures.For this reason, Mr. Cai once again made an astonishing statement: There are more than 1 million members of the Chinese underworld! In 2000, the 24th issue of "China News Weekly" sponsored by China News Agency published an exclusive interview article on Mr. Cai by the reporter of the agency - "We must first fight against corruption". When Mr. Cai was interviewed, from ancient times to the present, from At home and abroad, discuss the situation of the underworld in contemporary China.Based on the statistics of triad members in the past ten years, he believes that there are at least 1 million members of Chinese gangsters. This estimate is the first time both in Chinese academic circles and in the police.

Is there any underworld in contemporary China?has been a topic of academic or official debate. At the end of the last century and the beginning of this century, the police in our country reported frequent successes in "sweeping gangsters". When the provinces, cities and police mentioned gangsters, almost without exception, they used "organizations with gangster nature", "criminal gangs with gangster nature" or "criminal gangs" or "criminal gangs". The term "underworld" is rarely used directly. So, from the perspective of academic concepts, how to characterize the underworld?Mr. Cai believes that the underworld is an underground society, a criminal group that is independent of normal society, has anti-social values, cultural psychology, and a strict organizational form. It has political protection and capital support and conducts professional criminal activities.The Chinese underworld generally has five characteristics: forming gangs through sworn brothers; strict internal division of labor and discipline; internal secret codes; activities are kept secret; and political umbrellas.According to these standards, Mr. Cai believes that underworld organizations actually exist in China.

To what extent is the Chinese underworld "black"?Although this issue cannot be quantified as clearly as mathematical statistics, Mr. Cai has his own unique view: "black" is not light.Because the underworld crimes in China are relatively rampant at present, it has reached the point where it is not enough to maintain stability without fighting.Whether in cities or in rural areas, underworld organizations with different names have emerged.Although it has been severely cracked down several times, it still continues to appear and has an upward trend. The criminal activities are mainly concentrated in the increasingly rampant drug trafficking, the theft of more and more cultural relics, and the intensification of human trafficking.In mainland China, there has not been a large-scale underworld organization like the mafia in Europe and the United States and Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. departmental organization.At present, there are hundreds of gangsters in the big ones in mainland China, and only a few in the small ones.Most of them are active in the community where they live, or in a city or a region.Recently, a new phenomenon has emerged, that is, several gangs operate across regions and multi-gangs jointly.This kind of alliance is not limited to the mainland, but collusion between inside and outside, mainly caused by the infiltration and influence of the underworld in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan regions to the mainland, and its main purpose is to seek money.Some gangsters are engaged in illegal political activities while engaging in economic activities.For example, underworld organizations such as the "Chinese Mafia", "Plum Blossom Gang" and "Qunlong Gang" in Shanghai, Hunan, Guangxi and other places aim to subvert the Communist regime and create political events that affect the world.

3. Rational prediction and prevention of the underworld. Based on the contemporary era, tracing the history and predicting the future are the historical knowledge that almost all historians should pursue in academic research. In the past few years, the government's efforts to crack down on gangsters have not been insignificant, but gangsters have repeatedly cracked down. What is the root cause?How should we deal with this serious social problem in the future?This requires a forward-looking prediction of the development trend of the underworld.How to grasp the future development trend of China's underworld will directly affect the countermeasures taken when preventing and controlling the underworld.

In this regard, Mr. Cai made rational and profound thinking, and believed that the existence and development of the contemporary underworld has its profound social reasons. Many social problems, such as the rapid increase of the unemployed population and the floating population, are all objective reasons that induce the emergence of the underworld.In the future, if the crackdown on China's underworld is not effective, the economic situation will not improve, and underworld crimes will continue to rise.But this is only an objective reason. The resistance to fighting gangsters and preventing gangsters mainly comes from subjective aspects, that is, some corrupt officials and police officers form the "protective umbrella" of the underworld. In view of this, Mr. Cai proposed that a good strategy for fighting gangsters is mainly a combination of fighting gangsters and anti-corruption.From a technical point of view, it is important to unremittingly "strike hard" and strengthen the punishment of the "Criminal Law", but in reality, the fight against crime must be combined with anti-corruption.Because the current underworld pays great attention to bribing national party and government cadres, cultivating the underworld's protective layer, and developing underworld forces.If we really want to "get rid of evil", we must first get rid of the "protective umbrella" of the underworld. Mr. Cai pointed out solemnly that we should learn from Russia's lessons. The situation in Russia is very similar to ours: after the collapse of the Soviet Union, underworld organizations emerged.Due to the ineffectiveness of the official crackdown on "official-bandit collusion", the anti-crime effect has been poor, so that today's Russian underworld crimes are extremely rampant and difficult to eradicate. Mr. Cai's suggestion played a leading role in public opinion in the subsequent struggle of "sweeping crime and eradicating evil". In recent years, the results of our government's anti-crime campaign have basically verified Mr. Cai's predictive thesis. 4. Calling out for the prevention and control of the underworld Mr. Cai is very old, but out of his dedication to his career and concern for social security issues, he walks out of his study from time to time to give lectures and campaigns for the prevention and control of the underworld, so as to arouse people's vigilance against the underworld and consciously strengthen their resistance consciousness.In recent years, he has given more than 10 lectures at Nanjing University, East China University of Political Science and Law, Jiangsu University, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Changzhou Training Center of the Central Political and Legal Committee, and Jiangxi Provincial Public Security Department. Welcome, with a greater social effect.For example, as soon as his interview draft published in "China News Weekly" was published, several newspapers and media at home and abroad reprinted, excerpted and reported it one after another, which immediately attracted the attention of political and legal departments.For example, Luo Gan, a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and secretary of the Central Political and Legal Committee, once personally wrote: "The political committee of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China is requested to try to contact experts who study gangdom issues and ask them for advice, so that we can better carry out activities against gangsters and punish corruption in our judicial team. question." When comrades from the political and legal departments came to interview him, Mr. Cai emphasized that the new "Criminal Law" did not punish police officers for harboring gangsters, and asked them to report it to the central government. On December 9, 2000, the Supreme People's Court made a judicial interpretation: State organ staff who organize, lead, or participate in underworld organizations will be severely punished. The Supreme People's Court also announced that the judicial interpretation will come into effect on December 10, 2000 . On December 14, the central government decided to launch a nationwide special campaign to "sweep the black and evil". In addition to destroying a group of black and evil forces, the most prominent thing is to dig out the "protective umbrella" of a group of black forces. It was mentioned that his talk played an important role. At that time, the way of fighting against gangsters and eliminating evil was basically followed in the spirit of his talk, but Mr. Cai said modestly: You can’t say follow the way he talked, but only his articles. The conversation with him played a leading role in public opinion. He raised the serious issue of "collusion between officials and gangsters, and police and gangsters", which attracted the attention of the central leaders and comrades, so that this operation paid special attention to the "protective umbrella" of cracking down on the black forces. Theoretical research must be combined with practice in order to play a role. Related to the underworld issue, Mr. Cai's research on the history of folk secret sects also has practical significance for the current crackdown on cults. In 1997, "Jiangsu Social Sciences" published the paper "On the Basic Characteristics of Contemporary Cults" by Mr. Cai and Dr. Kong Xiangtao. , played a certain role in the anti-cult struggle.Mr. Cai also deliberately sorted out more than 20 kinds of foreign cult materials and foreign governance countermeasures, and sent them to the central leaders through relevant channels, so that the government can use them as a reference when formulating policies to combat cults. Over the years, most of the nearly 100 postdoctoral, doctoral and master students under the guidance of Mr. Cai have chosen secret associations or secret sects as their research direction, and have published or published a number of high-quality academic papers and books, becoming one of the leading academic institutions in China. The backbone of the research field; most of those assigned to work in the political and legal departments have become the best in their work.The "Chinese Secret Society Series" and "Overview of Chinese Secret Societies" edited by him have been well received by the society. Because of Mr. Cai's outstanding achievements in gang research, on August 15, 2001, the National Gang Crime Research Center of the United States awarded him the "Frederick Milton Tresh Advanced Research Award". This award was founded in 1992. , nominations are made on an international basis in recognition of outstanding achievements in leadership, research and service to an issue of gang crime facing all societies - an international topic.Mr. Cai is the first Chinese scholar to receive this honor, and it is also the affirmation of his achievements in studying the underworld for many years by the international academic circle.