Teochiu Chinese Syndicates

from: Lords of the Rim, Sterling Seagrave, Putnam

"The Teochiu people are culturally unique. They operate what many consider to be the richest, more powerful underworld networks on earth, one of the world's first multinational corporations. Tightly organized and intensely loyal, all the Teochieu in the world today are linked by common dialect and common origin to seven village districts around Swatow. This has been one of the great spawning grounds of piracy, smuggling, and black-marketeering."

Lords of the Rim, page 115, Sterling Seagrave

ABSTRACT:

LOCATION

The Teochiu come from the Swatow region, on the coast of China, north of Hong Kong, and slightly south of the island of Taiwan. Historically, trade and commerce within the empire of China was discouraged, and at times made criminal. These coastal traders learned to dodge authority, and at times fled their villages under persecution from Peking. There are Teochiu societies in many Asian countries, as well as in North America.

DIALECT

The Teochiu use the same written script as all Chinese, but the spoken dialect is so different from Cantonese as to be unintelligible to non-Teochiu people.

ASSOCIATION

There are seven associations for each of the seven original ancestral village areas. Most powerful associations are: Mei Hsien, Chin Hai, Yao Ping, and Chao Yang. These associations have a civic (public) side, and a hidden, sometime criminal side.

In most countries, there is an over-all Teochiu Association, which contains leaders from each sub-group (Hsien). This is both a business and social organization. It may look after members welfare, and may also have a private army of enforcers, estimated by Sterling to be as many as 1 million para-military members world-wide.

In some countries, Teochiu Associations are also strong civic organizations, offering loans to members to start businesses, helping with widows, hospitals, etc.

CHIU-CHAO BROTHERHOOD

The collective Teochiu groups are known as the Chiu-Chao Brotherhood (Chiu-Chao is the Cantonese pronunciation of Teochiu, and is used by Hong Kong police and some journalists.)

POPULATION SIZE

Many millions of overseas Chinese are Teochiu. They are the richest ethnic overseas Chinese group. Teochiu for the majority of Chinese population in Thailand, second largest in Hong Kong, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Canada and U.S.

CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES

Involved in many border-line businesses, such as rice smuggling and black markets. Estimated that four or five of Teochiu syndicates dominate heroin traffic out of the Golden Triangle (Burma), worth over $200 billion in 1990. Not all heroin from Golden Triangle is moved by Teochiu, but the majority is.

TRIADS

Each Chinese sub-group has many smaller organizations called Triads. Teochiu triads are thought to be the most dangerous, involving kidnapping, murder, extortion, drugs, counterfeiting, prostitution, etc.

MEMBERSHIP

Membership first requires roots from the appropriate ancestral village, and ability to speak that dialect. This alone does not qualify for membership: the final requirement is "shinyung" or trust, which is proven over time. Loans, business and crime depend entirely on trust, there being no written contracts.

THAILAND

Largest concentration of Teochiu on earth is in Bangkok, Thailand.

"Teochiu secret armies control most of the international heroin trade flowing out of the Golden Triangle. This probably makes the Teochiu the world's richest tribe in terms of black money."

(Lords of the Rim)

One of most important Teochiu leaders was Chin Sophonpanich, founder of Bank of Bangkok, and Commercial Bank of Hong Kong, and head of an international conglomerate, partially based on heroin profits. Chin died in 1988, but his eldest son Robin Chan took over Commercial Bank of Hong Kong, and his younger son Chatri Sophonpanich took over Bank of Bangkok.

Seagrave documents Sophonpanich's connections with the KMT (remnants of Chiang Kai Chek's former republican Chinese army) in the Burmese highlands, and various drug crimes. Essentially, Seagrave argues that the Teochiu run the economy of Thailand on behalf of various Thai factions.

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