Organized Crime and Corruption Across Borders Exploring the Belt and Road Initiative

This book explores China’s Belt and Road Initiative and the criminogenic potential for economic, financial, and socio-cultural cooperation across countries, where some are known for weak law enforcement and high levels of corruption. It examines whether these flows of capital are increasing the amount of organized crime in the newly linked regions and how law enforcement agencies are responding. Bringing together experts across the Global South and Europe, this book considers transnational organized crime and corruption across One Belt One Road (OBOR). It examines crime and corruption in China and its international United Front tactic; analyzes various forms of transnational organized crime such as trafficking of illegal drugs, looted antiquities, and wildlife and counterfeit products; and presents studies on corruption and organized crime in selected OBOR countries including Russia, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Poland, and Bangladesh. This book makes a significant contribution to the development of southern criminology and will also be of interest to those engaged with transnational organized crime, political economy, international relations, and Asian and Chinese studies.

Introduction One Belt, One Road and the Process of OBORization T Wing Lo, Dina Siegel and Sharon I. Kwok Part A: China 1990 to 2018 The Post-Tiananmen Decade: Prices Paid for China’s Economic Growth T Wing Lo Control of Grand Corruption and Triad Crime in China T. Wing Lo, Li Li and Sharon I. Kwok A Hardboiled Belt and Road: Backlash to the UN-Bribes-for-OBOR Scandals Daniel Garrett Part B: Transnational Crime along the Belt and Road Transnational Crime in Asia: Illicit Markets and Innovation Roderic Broadhurst Crime, Corruption, and Collateral Damage: Large Infrastructure Projects as a Threat to Cultural Heritage Simon Mackenzie and Donna Yates Chinese Wildlife Trafficking Networks along the Silk Road Daan van Uhm Protected Wildlife on the One Belt, One Road: A Case Study of Illegal Tiger Skins Trade Rebecca Wong Part C: Organized Crime and Corruption in OBOR Countries Organized Crime in Contemporary Russia Yakov Gilinskiy and Dina Siegel Organized Crime in Kazakhstan Dina Siegel and Zhaniya Turlubekova Corruption and Anti-Corruption in Lithuania Algimantas Cepas and Aleksandras Dobryninas Organized Crime in the Czech Republic Miroslav Scheinost Organized Crime in Poland and its Control from a Central European Perspective Emil W. Plywaczewski Organized Crime and Corruption in Bangladesh A. B. M. Najmus Sakib Conclusion The Possible Outcome of OBORization T Wing Lo and Daniel Garrett

T. Wing Lo is Head and Professor of the Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences at City University of Hong Kong. He received his PhD in criminology from the University of Cambridge (1991). He formerly worked with Chinese triad gangs and was invited to address the UN delegates attending the Palermo Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime (2010) and officials of the US Department of Defense (2015). Dina Siegel is Professor of Criminology and Chair of the Willem Pompe Institute for Criminal Law and Criminology, Utrecht University. She has conducted research on transnational organized crime, human smuggling and trafficking, crimes of mobility, Russian mafia and other East European criminal organizations, crime in the diamond industry, and various activities of Asian organized crime in the European Union. Sharon I. Kwok is Lecturer in the School of Social Sciences and Psychology, Western Sydney University, specializing in the study of triad society and Chinese organized crime. She received a BA, MSc, and PhD in criminology from the University of Hull (2001), London School of Economics (2004), and City University of Hong Kong (2017), respectively.