The Chinese community in Britain has long been seen as peaceful and law-abiding. Yet beneath the surface, there is a darker, more complex reality which only comes to light when organised criminal activity is in the news.
One of the most harrowing reminders of this came in 2000, when 58 Chinese migrants suffocated inside a lorry while attempting to illegally enter the UK. That tragedy exposed not just the plight of vulnerable migrants, but also the reach of organised smuggling networks operating across Europe.
Today, there are fresh concerns. Over the past 20 months, Chinese gang members have been implicated in at least 14 ‘red paint attacks’ across London. Witnesses have reported hearing Mandarin spoken with northern Chinese accents at the scenes of these crimes. Similar incidents have also been reported in Manchester, Liverpool, Bradford, Reading, Huddersfield, and Clacton-on-Sea.
These attacks bear the unmistakable hallmarks of Chinese triad activity. Red paint attacks are a well-known intimidation tactic used across Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, southern Mainland China (notably Shenzhen and Guangzhou) and Southeast Asia (including Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand).
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