Elusive Pirates, Pervasive Smugglers

Elusive Pirates, Pervasive Smugglers

Author: Robert J. Antony

Publisher: Hong Kong University Press

Published: 2010-10-01

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 9888028111

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Piracy and smuggling are as great a problem today as they were several hundreds of years ago. The studies in Elusive Pirates, Pervasive Smugglers, for the first time, carefully describe and critically analyze piracy and smuggling in the Greater China Seas region from the sixteenth century to the present. Because piracy and smuggling involve complex historical processes that are still evolving, to fully understand contemporary problems it is important to place them in larger historical and comparative perspectives. The essays in this book add significantly to the scholarship on East and Southeast Asian history, and in particular to the maritime history of the region we call the Greater China Seas. This is the first book to analyze the whole region from Japan to Southeast Asia as a single, integrated historical and geographical area. This book takes a radical departure from the standard terracentered histories to place the seas at the center rather than at the margins of our inquiries. By focusing on the water we are better able to stitch together the diverse histories of Japan, China, and Southeast Asia. The contributors to this anthology show that, although often dismissed as historically unimportant, pirates and smugglers have in fact played significant roles in the development of the modern world. Elusive Pirates, Pervasive Smugglers should appeal to undergraduate and graduate students in history and Asian studies, as well as to general readers interested in pirates and maritime history.


China’s War on Smuggling

China’s War on Smuggling

Author: Philip Thai

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2018-06-12

Total Pages: 232

ISBN-13: 023154636X

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Smuggling along the Chinese coast has been a thorn in the side of many regimes. From opium and weapons concealed aboard foreign steamships in the Qing dynasty to nylon stockings and wristwatches trafficked in the People’s Republic, contests between state and smuggler have exerted a surprising but crucial influence on the political economy of modern China. Seeking to consolidate domestic authority and confront foreign challenges, states introduced tighter regulations, higher taxes, and harsher enforcement. These interventions sparked widespread defiance, triggering further coercive measures. Smuggling simultaneously threatened the state’s power while inviting repression that strengthened its authority. Philip Thai chronicles the vicissitudes of smuggling in modern China—its practice, suppression, and significance—to demonstrate the intimate link between illicit coastal trade and the amplification of state power. China’s War on Smuggling shows that the fight against smuggling was not a simple law enforcement problem but rather an impetus to centralize authority and expand economic controls. The smuggling epidemic gave Chinese states pretext to define legal and illegal behavior, and the resulting constraints on consumption and movement remade everyday life for individuals, merchants, and communities. Drawing from varied sources such as legal cases, customs records, and popular press reports and including diverse perspectives from political leaders, frontline enforcers, organized traffickers, and petty runners, Thai uncovers how different regimes policed maritime trade and the unintended consequences their campaigns unleashed. China’s War on Smuggling traces how defiance and repression redefined state power, offering new insights into modern Chinese social, legal, and economic history.


Americans and Macao

Americans and Macao

Author: Paul A. Van Dyke

Publisher: Hong Kong University Press

Published: 2012-01-01

Total Pages: 262

ISBN-13: 9888083929

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The theme of this volume is the American relationship with Macao and its region through trade, politics and culture, and the focus is mainly on the late 18th and 19th centuries. The essays address topics such as the role of the China trade in US pacific expansion and exploration, US consuls, smuggling networks, missionary and educational work, and American women's perceptions of China. In all of the encounters, Macao emerges as a central player, adding a new dimension to our understanding of Sino-American relations.


Operation Clinker

Operation Clinker

Author: Rod Mason

Publisher: Austin Macauley

Published: 2020-11-30

Total Pages: 194

ISBN-13: 9781528980920

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'Operation Clinker' was the operational name given to this true account told from the perspective of the principal undercover agent, an inspector in Royal Hong Kong Police Narcotics Bureau, in what transpired to be a record attempt to export heroin from Hong Kong to Australia in 1988. The author was recruited to form part of the crew for a voyage from Hong Kong to Australia. Covert surveillance observed the loading of a heavy bag aboard and the yacht set sail. Out of sight of any land-based observers, the undercover agents 'mutinied' and overpowered the targets to take control and search the yacht, seizing 43.5kg of pure heroin. The arrested targets turned Queen's evidence in exchange for a potential reduction in sentence upon conviction. Flown to Sydney with a consignment of 'fake' heroin, they delivered to the distribution syndicate. Australian Federal Police surveillance were able to monitor the handover and identify personalities involved. International joint police raids took place in Hong Kong and Sydney, leading to the arrest of the entire syndicate from triad supply to shipping crew and distribution.


Foreign Mud

Foreign Mud

Author: Maurice Collis

Publisher: New Directions Publishing

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 348

ISBN-13: 9780811215060

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Based upon selected anecdotal stories written by British observers, this text reconstructs the events of the illegal opium trade in Canton in the 1830s and the war between Britain and China that followed. The volume is illustrated with b & w maps, prints, and photographs. Irish-born Collis (1889-1975) served for many years in the Indian Civil Service in Burma and later became a writer and critic in London. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR


Smuggled Chinese

Smuggled Chinese

Author: Ko-lin Chin

Publisher: Temple University Press

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 9781566397339

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Includes statistics.


The Politics of Cross-border Crime in Greater China

The Politics of Cross-border Crime in Greater China

Author: Sonny Shiu-Hing Lo

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-07-24

Total Pages: 287

ISBN-13: 1000161420

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Organized crime has been on the rise in the Greater China region since the People's Republic opened up its economy and society in the mid-1980s. Today, triads from Hong Kong, Macao, and even Taiwan are involved in businesses in Guangdong Province, and often recruit local Chinese for illegal activities such as extortion, kidnapping, assassinations, and smuggling of illegal aliens.This book provides a detailed and comprehensive study of how the state at the central and local levels has responded to the changing patterns and activities of cross-border crime in Greater China. It discusses the theoretical concept of organized crime; the transnational nature of organized crime in recent years; the significance of studying organized crime in Greater China; and the implications for the national security of other countries such as the United States, Canada, and Australia.The author reviews the history of organized crime and secret societies, and addresses the legal complexities of dealing with criminal groups in the region. He covers such topics as money laundering, the financing of terrorist activities, and regional efforts in fighting terrorism.


Illicit

Illicit

Author: Moises Naim

Publisher: Anchor

Published: 2006-10-10

Total Pages: 351

ISBN-13: 0307278565

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A groundbreaking investigation of how illicit commerce is changing the world by transforming economies, reshaping politics, and capturing governments.In this fascinating and comprehensive examination of the underside of globalization, Moises Naím illuminates the struggle between traffickers and the hamstrung bureaucracies trying to control them. From illegal migrants to drugs to weapons to laundered money to counterfeit goods, the black market produces enormous profits that are reinvested to create new businesses, enable terrorists, and even to take over governments. Naím reveals the inner workings of these amazingly efficient international organizations and shows why it is so hard — and so necessary to contain them. Riveting and deeply informed, Illicit will change how you see the world around you.