Within the context of China’s remarkable economic influence in Africa through the Belt and Road Initiative, Chinese criminal syndicates, including the well-known triads, are expanding across
the entire continent.
For the last two decades, China’s Belt and Road Initiative has poured billions of dollars into African railways, ports, and roads. The Middle Kingdom has become the main investor of the continent with a total of US$42 billion in 2024. As a result, the number of Chinese expatriates is estimated at one million, with the main communities in South Africa, Nigeria, Guinea, DRC, Egypt and Angola.
This spectacular expansion has inevitably also contributed to the export of a number of elements of China’s social fabric to Africa. This includes criminal networks. One such network is the ‘Hongmen’, which describes itself as an ethnic fraternal organisation dedicated to promoting Chinese culture abroad. Although it was established in 2013 and takes its name from a centuries-old secret society in China, today the group has become a façade for organised crime.
Close-up of a Chinese banknote and rare earth metals on a map of Africa. China is a major investor in the continent. Shutterstock/Corlaffra
One of the Hongmen’s most notorious figures is Wan Kuok Koi, also known as “Broken Tooth”. He is one of Asia’s most powerful crime bosses and served nearly 14 years in a Macau prison for attempted murder, criminal association, and illegal gambling.
Wan founded the 14K triad, one of China’s largest transnational crime syndicates, which is a very powerful organisation. The Hongmen has around 300,000 members worldwide, including in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and Chinese overseas communities. While the majority of members are working class, the group also includes some Taiwanese military personnel, which is hardly surprising given that the founder of the Kuomintang party and the Republic of China, Chiang Kai-shek, allied with the triads.
View of Johannesburg. Seven Chinese criminal organisations reportedly operate in South Africa. File swm
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, during the last few decades, as the authorities in Southeast Asia began cracking down on crime, the Chinese triads turned increasingly to Africa in search of new markets. Accordingly, the World Hongmen History and Culture Association operates in Uganda, a country that has emerged as a major source of human trafficking victims.
South Africa is another important ‘hub’. Seven Chinese criminal organisations reportedly operate there, including the 14K-Hau and 14K-Ngai triads, which are present in Cape Town and Johannesburg, alongside the Sun Yee On and Wo Shing Wo triads. They specialise in extortion and abalone (oyster) trafficking. According to the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies, these groups were generating turnover in the tens of millions of dollars from the illegal export of abalone to Hong Kong at the beginning of the millennium.
Diamond trafficking and illegal mining
Diamond trafficking is another key activity. The IDEX trading network says Chinese Triad gangs use Pretoria to run a global diamond trafficking network in 15 countries on four continents. These crime syndicates also encourage illegal mining by zama-zamas (illegal artisanal miners) in the Northern Cape and Namaqualand. The loss of revenue from smuggling is significant: the African Diamond Council says between 28% and 32% of total revenue from African diamond production is lost through the smuggling of rough stones.
The African Diamond Council says revenue from African diamond production is lost to smuggling. File swm
A workshop in Ghana in May 2025 revealed that Chinese gold mining firms in Nigeria, Mali, Côte d’Ivoire and Liberia often operate without proper registration or licences. In Ghana, where artisanal mining is restricted to nationals, Chinese actors are heavily involved through local intermediaries. Chinese miners are driving the “galamsey” (illegal mining) scourge that causes deforestation, devastates communities and poisons rivers.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, Chinese companies with links to the Triads are exploiting gold mines inside national parks by taking advantage of local officials’ corruption. This is evident in the Kabobo Fauna Reserve in the Lake Tanganyika province.
Furthermore, Chinese miners are encouraging illegal mining by local armed groups, such as the ‘Biloze Bishambuke’, an ethnic militia belonging to the Fulero tribe.
Some of these Chinese firms, such as Bendera Mining Company, benefit from the complicity of corrupt officials who helped them acquire exploitation licences from the Ministry of Mines in the South Kivu and Tanganyika provinces, although some of these licences overlap with the territory of the Reserve. This is a complaint of the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature and the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).
Illegal mining activities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. File swm
Since the late 1990s, UN reports have linked wildlife trafficking to Chinese organised crime groups. Smuggling ivory, rhino horn, pangolin scales and shark fin is alleged to be the work of the Wo Shing Wo and 14K triads. The South African police found that the illegal abalone trade was a major component of Chinese triad businesses in South Africa. Smaller organisations such as the Yang Fenglan network have been large-scale ivory traffickers. Despite China’s 2018 ivory sales ban, ivory trafficking to China from Africa intensified in 2023 after China lifted its travel restrictions due to the pandemic.
The ambiguous role of China’s Communist Party
In this context, Beijing’s role is ambiguous. While it claims to clamp down on criminal networks and sometimes provides support to African governments to help them deal with the problem, it has also given political recognition to the Hongmen.
In mainland China, the Hongmen are known as the Zhi Gong Party, which participates in the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. The party’s chairman is Jiang Zuojun.
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Criminal networks provide a variety of services to the Chinese government, the CCP and Chinese corporations. Shutterstock/Mirko Kuzmanovic.
Jiang Zuojun is currently the only non-Communist Party vice-minister in the Chinese government, where he is responsible for health. Some analysts emphasise the growing connection between the Chinese government and organised crime groups.
Overall, criminal networks provide many services to the Chinese government, the CCP, and Chinese corporations. According to the Washington-based Brookings Institution, triads and other criminal groups help to build networks of corruption and influence among foreign politicians and businesses. They monitor the Chinese diaspora and act as extra-legal enforcers on behalf of the Chinese authorities against individuals and organisations that speak out against the Chinese government and the CCP. In return, Chinese officials extend their protection to these individuals.
A fairly weak African response
Such challenges have prompted an African response, but it has not been strong enough overall. In 2012, Angola extradited 37 Chinese nationals. They were accused of extortion, kidnapping, armed robbery and running prostitution rings. In this instance, the Luanda government received assistance from China’s Ministry of Public Security, which sent special police officers to assist with the investigation of criminal gangs. These had proliferated tremendously since 12 Chinese gangs had already established themselves in Angola by that time. Similarly, in August last year, Nigeria extradited the Chinese gang leader, Dai Qisheng, to Beijing following a coordinated operation with Interpol and the Chinese authorities. Dai Qisheng, who fled China in 2024, was wanted there for orchestrating violent organised crime in Guizhou Province.
Nigeria Police Force. In 2025, Nigeria deported Chinese nationals convicted of cybercrime and internet fraud. Shutterstock/Oludarekenny
In 2025, the Nigerian authorities deported a further 50 Chinese nationals who had been convicted of cybercrime and internet fraud. A further 100 Chinese nationals, suspected of involvement in cybercrime relating to romance and cryptocurrency investment scams, were arrested. Last year in South Africa, seven Chinese nationals were sentenced to 20 years in prison for human trafficking and forced labour. Ghana also clamped down on Chinese criminals by tightening visa rules to tackle illegal gold mining, which has caused extensive environmental damage.
Nevertheless, some analysts remain sceptical about the ability of African states to truly crack down on crimes involving Chinese nationals, given their increasing dependence on Beijing for economic growth and development. The above successes were indeed achieved in collaboration with the Chinese authorities, but owing to the links of some triads with the CCP, and the protection that some Hangmen receive from Beijing, there is no guarantee that all criminals will be prosecuted.
(Illustration: Shutterstock AI Generator)
François Misser
