Peng Wang

King's College London | KCL · Dickson Poon School of Law

More than twenty experts from all over the world take a look at one of the most mysterious and vibrant regions when it comes to intelligence and organised crime: East Asia. Scientists, journalists and practitioners describe the reasons for current developments and analyse future problems – not only for East Asia, but for Western intelligence and po...

Why do criminals use rituals? Past work argues that criminal rituals provide a sense of continuity or certainty in an inherently uncertain environment. We argue instead that rituals play an important organisational role. Criminal rituals facilitate internal governance and promote group activity through three mechanisms: creating common knowledge, m...

Since China initiated its economic reforms in 1978, illegal gambling has become the primary source of revenue for organized crime groups. However, there remains a startling paucity of literature on the subject. This paper provides the first scholarly account in English of Chinese illegal gambling organizations and examines how three major types of...

The North Korean government has long been suspected of involvement in state-sponsored drug production and trafficking. Research in this field is hampered by the secrecy of the DPRK regime and the dearth of reliable sources. Nonetheless, using Chinese- and English-language sources, Peng Wang and Stephan Blancke look at developments over the past dec...

This paper incorporates the concept of guanxi—a Chinese version of personal connections, networks or social capital—into the discussion of police corruption and the rise of extra-legal protectors. Using published materials and fieldwork data collected from two Chinese cities (Chongqing and Qufu), it demonstrates how guanxi distorts China’s legal sy...

A popular sentiment among Chinese that - corruption could lead to the end of the state and anti-corruption could lead to the end of the Chinese Communist Party - provides a unique perspective from which to interpret China’s current prospects for institutional reform. This paper offers an assessment of the scandal involving Chongqing party secretary...

With the growing global importance of China, Chinese organised crime has become a growing non-military threat to national and international security. Peng Wang focuses on the three dimensions of Chinese organised crime: the resurgence of the criminal underworld and rampant police corruption in mainland China; cross-border crime in Greater China; an...

A popular sentiment among Chinese that - corruption could lead to the end of the state and anti-corruption could lead to the end of the Chinese Communist Party - provides a unique perspective from which to interpret China’s current prospects for institutional reform. This paper offers an assessment of the scandal involving Chongqing party secretary...

‘Red Mafia’ is the collective term for corrupt public officials in mainland China, mainly from the criminal justice system, who attempt to monopolise the protection business in the criminal underworld by abusing power. In contemporary mainland China, the Red Mafia has developed into an alternative system of governance that can control organised cri...

Gambetta's theoretical framework focuses on two important aspects directly relating to the birth and development of mafias, namely a demand for private protection and a supply of the same. In the Post-Mao era, China started its transition from a centrally controlled economy to a market-directed economy by adopting reform and opening-up policies. Th...