China's Mob King Prepares for War

[00:00:00]April 11, 1927.

[00:00:03]Shanghai, [music] China's largest and most prosperous city, divided, run by gangsters, and under siege. For a year, nationalist troops under General Isimo Chiang Kaishek have fought their way along the country's eastern seabboard, dispatching warlords that have seized control from China's weak Republican government.

[00:00:27]Chang is backed by the Soviet Union, but he's no leftist. In fact, his so-called northern expedition has also targeted communists, threatening to emulate their Russian counterparts and turn China red.

[00:00:41]The communists, Chang says, are a disease of the heart, and he intends to cut that disease out by any means possible.

[00:00:52]By March 1927, Chang has reached the gates of Shanghai. But Shanghai is a different prospect altogether. A metropolis teeming with industry, trade unions, and communists.

[00:01:06]Outside the city's French concession and international [music] settlement, its two foreign enclaves. Chinese Shanghai belongs to the Reds. Chang's men are tired and warweary, underpaid. Some of them were recruited from vanquished warlords. Chang doesn't know how loyal they'll be when it hits the fan. And besides, Shanghai's city council has made it clear [music] that no Chinese troops will step foot on Shanghai's soil. Thousands of students and workers are out on the streets protesting, demanding that Chang step down, gather his [music] men, turn around, and get the hell out of dodge. Even a victory under these conditions, [music] Chang knows, would be pirick, if not pointless.

[00:01:52]He needs an inside man. Somebody with clout, money, and men. Somebody who can mobilize an army inside Shanghai, kill commies, and pay authorities to look the other way. As Chang stalks the city's edge, an old friend pays him a visit.

[00:02:10]It's Hang Jin R, [music] mobster, pimp, and gray beard of the green gang.

[00:02:16]A few years previous, Huang was the top dog in Shanghai's underworld. Ruthless and cunning with a past as potted as his pockm marked middle-aged face, but Huang is here to pass Chang a message from the man who has overtaken him in the green gang. Dua, big ears. do the lanky leader of Shanghai's opium scene, multi-millionaire casino magnate, business empress Ario, political big hitter. Du has decided that China's future lays with the nationalists and Wang tells Chang he's ready to help.

[00:02:55]cash to Chang's only men, the backing of Shanghai's merchant class, foreign weapons, and a gangster militia ready to break the reds. In return, Du tells Shang, "You will remember me when you take Shanghai."

[00:03:13]Chang agrees. Huang heads back into the French concession and tells Du. D then mobilizes his green gang mobsters into an army, packing arms and munitions purchased from his French and American friends. By April 11, they're poised to launch a fullscale mafia insurrection.

[00:03:32]To ease the task, D invites the leader of Shanghai's biggest trade union to his home for dinner. It'll be better for your union and your health, D advises the man, if you switch allegiances to Chang [music] and his nationalists.

[00:03:48]The man demurs. D leaves and heads upstairs to smoke opium. As he does, a pack of mobsters sees the unionist and beat him repeatedly, sending him to the floor, crushing his body beneath their boots. Dur appears at the top of his grand staircase, surrounded by a trail of sickly opium smoke. "Not here," he tells his men. "Not in my house."

[00:04:13]The mobsters stop the beating, grab the man and wrap him in a burlap sack. Then they drive him outside the French concession into a clearing and ignoring his desperate please bury him alive.

[00:04:27]It's a gruesome, merciless message from Du to Shanghai's leftists.

[00:04:32]Prepare for war. The Green Gang is coming to take over the entire city.

[00:04:40]This is the Underworld podcast.

[00:04:42]>> [music] [music] [music] >> Hello and welcome to the weekly podcast about organized crime hosted by two journalists have been in the field and spoke to scary people IRL. I'm Sean Williams, a British reporter living in Buenocidis. I'm so I'm sorry to those who just want more Dale. Um I am back.

[00:05:18]Uh and my co-host of course is New York City's uh World Cup loving host. Uh what attending uh enjoying uh Yeah, that guy Danny Gold. Uh why don't you tell me what it was like at the World Cup final? You lovely man.

[00:05:36]>> It was uh it was festive. Uh I learned they play halves. They don't play quarters, which is really interesting to uh not >> I did a bunch of I did a Yeah, it's true. I did a bunch of bits about not knowing anything about about soccer to piss off people like you. And it worked out really well. Um kind of kind of a boring game, but uh I got some VIP access so there were some really good snacks and uh the Argentinians like their their cheering section was was loud there. The the best moment I think of the entire match was um there was guys in a guy in a Mexico jersey for some reason, a Mexican fan, and he was getting into a fight with about 20 Argentinians towards the end of the game. It got calmed down by the by the New Jersey state troopers and then a guy from like 20 rur away from him >> also in a Mexico jersey was just like, "Hey, we Mexico." And they had like a nice little moment and that was that was pretty much the highlights of it. But uh yeah uh my my Messi to score two goals in the final match bet did not pan out unfortunately. You know what can you do?

[00:06:35]>> You got to you got to shoot to score goals and I don't think they what did they have? One shot. It was terrible.

[00:06:41]Yeah, >> they were too busy beating up the uh the Spaniards.

[00:06:44]>> Yes, that's true. But they've done that the entire tournament [laughter] and uh I'll say no more. I'll probably go off on one uh at some point when I've got more energy.

[00:06:53]>> Yeah. Um, I have not been at the World Cup. I've been somewhere slightly less uh, well, can I say less exciting? It's It's exciting in a way. Um, there's a reason I'm wearing my son's like audiobook headphones to record this show, and that is because I just got back off three, I would say, of the most devastatingly uh, disastrous weeks of my entire life in Cuba. Um within the last like sort of 7 days actually I'm going to just extend that out. So the last 11 days I've been beaten, robbed. Um I've well that included landing in a pile of dog dog mess. Uh then I got deni which I currently still have. Uh which is no fun. [laughter] And uh while I was away my partner managed to move houses. So, I'm sitting in an unfinished house, very tired, riddled with deni. Uh, and thankfully, I've got some of my stuff back. But, uh, yeah, it's it's it's been it's been tough. Um, someday I'm going to face down my trauma on this show and you can hear the whole grizzly tale. But, don't go to Cuba, folks. It is not is not good for your vacations.

[00:08:07]>> I think uh >> yeah, we were WhatsAppapping the entire time, me, you and Dale. And uh at the risk of letting the banter continue on and on forever, I'll just say that >> you were descending into madness, I think day after day after day, you could actually publish those WhatsApp chats.

[00:08:21]It was very like a Colonel Curts kind of moment. You know, I could just see you slowly losing your mind. If you would stayed there for longer, you might have formed your own militia and just sort of like become a roving warlord of sorts.

[00:08:32]Maybe like a Haiti situation. But uh you know, it reminds me I've had a couple experiences like that where you're kind of losing your mind. It's not always the most dangerous place. I think for me was Central African Republic and Burundi for like 3 weeks during the election there in 2015.

[00:08:44]>> I think the actual thing that makes you lose your mind besides like the violence and the chaos and the lack of infrastructure is the humidity. Like I've been in similar situations in in in the Middle East and drier countries, but you throw the humidity in and you just start descending into like you just start losing your mind. Would you say I mean would you say that was part of why you were just completely going bonkers and I was actually starting to worry about you a bit.

[00:09:09]>> I would say I went about as close as to native as you could get surrounded by mosquitoes in a like 95% humidity room with no fans, no power, no water. Um watching the neighbors slowly go twisted as well and just sort of running around in my wife front screaming uh like mine.

[00:09:29]Yeah. So, it was uh it was pretty weird.

[00:09:32]Um, and yeah, given that I got sort of bitten about I don't know like 10,000 times by mosquitoes in that epoxy room.

[00:09:41]Um, I'm lucky that I don't have more than deni. But deni is not much not much fun. Um, as me and my family are finding out cuz I am useless right now. But let's see if I can make it through the next what 45 minutes to an hour.

[00:09:55]>> You got this without passing out. Um, it's 50/50. Anyway, yes, quick reminder, just follow us on all socials. We got loads of shorts and other stuff daily.

[00:10:05]Uh, Patreon, I'm really going to get back on that now. I'm in Buenosidis, so I'm going to be doing more bonus interviews. We got show notes, add free add free episodes, and uh, yeah, further down the line, you might even get the chance to name my next child to the Patreon. So, uh, give that a look.

[00:10:20]>> patreon.com/oralodcast uh, or sign up on Spotify or on iTunes.

[00:10:24]>> That's correct. uh underworld.com underworldport.com for merch. Uh and get in touch because we love you and we get loads of really cool tips these days. Anyway, yes, that is enough of that. Uh Danny's had a good time. I've had a bad time. Let's move on to the show. Uh I told you that this three-part was crazy and as you've probably summized from the cold open, it's going to get a lot lot crazier, guys. In part one, we dove into the childhood and young career of Dua Schwang when he was an orphan and then he was a gambler, then he was a fruit store worker, then pimp, and then member of the shadowy green gang, and finally ruler of Shanghai's lucrative opium market. Now, despite being a lowass peasant, D has glombmed on to green gang leader Juan Jin R and his madam wife to become a cle player in the underworld.

[00:11:16]And we left part one with Doo bailing out the flailing Republican Chinese government to pay a mountain bandit a couple of million dollars for hostages that the bandit had taken during one of the era's most daring train heists. If you haven't already listened, probably go back and do so. Today's show will make a lot more sense, including why I actually went to Cuba. It wasn't for fun. But by doing this doo big ears do is firmly enscconed in the firmament not just of Chinese organized crime but also big business and politics. He's a hero.

[00:11:47]Not all heroes wear capes but uh yeah some have massive ears and smoke dope >> just like Dumbo except I think he was more of a a drinker, right? What was he drink? He was drinking booze or drinking liquid LSD. Something like that.

[00:11:57]Remember when Dumbo gets all >> Yeah. Yeah. Moonshine. He's a vicious drunk as well. Horrible guy.

[00:12:02]>> Yeah. Around the same time, Doo has managed to rest control of Shanghai's booming opium trade from a rival green gang faction called the Big Eight Mob by uniting the city's desperate gangsters and turning opium merchants against the Big Eight Mob's increasingly cruel bosses. And this is a black market worth tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars. But before we take off from there, we really need to understand a bit more about the history of Shanghai, how it was divided, and how that lent itself perfectly to a sprawling criminal network like the Green Gang. And we're going to get into the history of opium in China, wars, concessions, and how prohibition and legalization helped spur the rise of Dua into one of the world's most powerful gangsters. Yeah, I actually want to do an Opium Wars episode one of these days. Maybe after I think reading Bertil Lintner's book, which gets into it a lot. But yeah, definitely definitely something there for sure. Yeah, just uh don't ask him for help cuz he is not going to help you. Anyway, let's do this. Shanghai. In case you don't know, this means literally city on the sea. And that is where it is at the mouth of the mighty Yang Sea where the 3,400 mile river meets the Pacific Ocean. Shanghai does have an ancient history and by the 16th century it's home to around 200,000 people wealthy enough to be targeted by Japanese pirates and bandits from the Chinese interior which is when inhabitants build a city wall with six gates tiny bit of which still exists today. But Shanghai becomes a global city only in the middle of the 19th century and only then because of opium and the British. Yes, my people are behind yet another tale of crime and destruction. used to blow up entire Chinese cities and now we stick firecrackers up our asses at football matches. How the mighty fall.

[00:13:54]>> Oh, come on. You don't have to do the selfhate here, man. What would [laughter] what would the Gallagher What would the Gallagher brothers say, you know? Come on.

[00:14:01]>> Yeah. Okay. We're great. Um >> Yeah.

[00:14:04]>> Yeah. We should have won that game. That was that was awful, man. You should have been seeing us yesterday >> cuz I could have sung if I was the game.

[00:14:10]I know the lyrics to Wonderall. I don't know any Argentinian songs. I know the lyrics to Wonder All. I could have sang along with you guys. would have been would have been fantastic, you know.

[00:14:17]>> It would. And did you see that third fourth playoff game? That was insane.

[00:14:20]>> Yeah, cuz it was like the NBA All-Star game. No one played defense. Everyone just scored. It was great.

[00:14:24]>> Beautiful. Good football. Anyway, yes, [clears throat] I'm determined to do a big show about the Opian Wars at some point. Remember them? Opian Wars. Yeah, we're talking about that. But for today's show, here is just a quick lowdown. Right. So, in the middle of the 19th century, Britain, France, the US, and other imperial powers are keen to grow their empires by forcing smaller nations to trade with them. They call it free trade at the time, but it's a lot more like gumbboat diplomacy. Since 1757, China'sQing dynasty, the dynasty that will fall in 1911 as Dua is coming up in the underworld. It decrees that only the city of Canton, which is modern-day Guanghao, will trade with the outside world, subjecting it to restrictions imposed by the government in Beijing.

[00:15:10]Britain calls this so-called canton system. It uses it to work a canny threecountry deal. It ships Indian cotton and British silver to China and Chinese tea plus some other stuff back to Britain. By 1800, British people have taken a liking to Chinese goods like porcelain, textiles, jade, and the trade balance is very much in China's favor.

[00:15:34]So, Britain is having to pay for increased amounts of Chinese goodies in silver, which it doesn't much enjoy doing. So in the late 1700s, Britain tries to address this imbalance by swapping the Indian cotton it's selling to China with India opium sourced by the British East India Company in its new colonies in Bengal. Within 20 years, the trade balance has reversed and the Chinese are now paying for opium which their people really really like in silver. But Danny, did you know there's actually a drawback in smoking opium?

[00:16:06]Sean, that's not actually true. And I don't like when you use the podcast to spread lies. Okay. Well, we'll we'll get some fact checkers on that. Turns out the the stuff is pretty moorish, right?

[00:16:17]If you don't smoke it, you can suffer chills, nausea, and cramps on your come down. So, you probably just smoke a bunch more. And when you do that, you don't do much of anything else. And when you run out of cash to free your opium habit, you'll beg, steal, and borrow to chase the dragon again. You know that feeling, right? I do whenever I fire up another Google doc for the show. Yeah.

[00:16:37]You know, people always want us to do some sort of live show or live stream.

[00:16:40]What's the thing that the nerds do?

[00:16:41]Twitch, right? What if instead of writing an episode, we just smoked opium uh on Twitch like on for like, you know, do it stream for like three three days and just see what happens.

[00:16:52]>> 3 days. Yeah. All right. Yeah, I'm up for it. Um it will be [gasps] I don't know. I reckon it's going to be similar to Deni actually, but with slightly better highs. Anyway, the Chinese government realizes that this is becoming a problem. So, it bans the production and importation of opium. By 1813, it has upped penalties for smoking the drug to 100 beatings. The British aren't fans of China's pesky concern for its citizens health. So, it gets the East India Company to ship opium to China, park it off the Guanja coast, and smuggle it on shore using a network of more than 100 Chinese smuggler boats.

[00:17:29]It's almost exactly like the ripon ripoff technique used by code king t cartels today and it works. The Chinese keep getting high albe it on the down low and the Brits are making bank off their leading poppybased export. So how come the Chinese aren't pumping you guys full of fentinol like what did we do?

[00:17:47]You know what's what's the problem here?

[00:17:49]>> You guys did all the all the all the like reverse opium war should be against you guys not us.

[00:17:54]>> Yeah and they keep talking about it as well. So, I'm not really sure, but I think we already have a pretty decent heroin epidemic. So, maybe that >> that is what I'm told is keeping that dragon from the door. [laughter] >> Yeah. But you get to have everything cuz it's America. That's true. We do we do like choices here.

[00:18:10]>> Yeah.

[00:18:11]>> Yeah.

[00:18:12]>> Uh to counter all this, the Chinese emperor cracks down increasingly hard on opium sale and use. In 1836, he decides to shutter opium dens and execute Chinese dealers. Three years later, aqing dynasty official writes a letter to Queen Victoria of Britain. "What you're doing is immoral," he tells her.

[00:18:33]Presumably, she claps back. "What?" And then he goes through a list of about a thousand things the British are doing before they get to opium. "Ah, yes, that." Victoria replies, "Probably. I think we'll keep doing that." The official steps up his anti-opium campaign. He arrests over 1,600 dealers and demands the Brits turn over their opium suppliers in return for tea. A good cuper really hits the spot, but not quite like an opioid. The Brits refuse.

[00:19:00]And then theQing sees opium on those British ships mored off Guangja, destroy it, and persuade Portugal to expel British forces from their colony of Macau, forcing them over to the island of Hong Kong. This the British do not appreciate. I thought we were all about free trade, they tell the Chinese, fingers crossed behind their backs, of course. In 1839, after a short bout of failed diplomacy, the Brits dispatched 16 war and merchant ships, mostly from opium giant Jardine Mat and co, which still exists to Guanghou. So, would you say with all those warships that the the oceans had become battlefields?

[00:19:39]>> I I would I would have you just dropped another like rap reference or have I didn't reference to to Master and Commander, the Russell Crow movie that I think it's Russell Crow everyone loves.

[00:19:50]But I actually I got to be honest with you, dude. I thought it was good. I wasn't like this is the best thing. I didn't love it, you know?

[00:19:57]>> I still got to watch that one. Uh I feel like I had the chance to watch it on a Chinese flight recently, but it was all in Chinese, which is a shame. Uh cue almost 3 years of British bombardment and street fighting at the end of which theQing dynasty signs a punishing surrender treaty to quiet the cannons.

[00:20:17]China agrees to do the following. Pay Britain huge reparations because of course give it first look on opium deals ahead of any other country. Then something called extr territorial ter territoriality meaning that any British citizens on in China are subject to theirs and not Chinese law. Then you've got British control over Hong Kong and four new ports besides Guanghao where the Brits can import their dope including of course Shanghai. In 1856 a second Opium War breaks out this time between China, Britain and France. The Franco British forces capture Guanjao outright and then they fight their way north. By 1860, they reach Beijing, the seat ofQing power, where the British high commissioner tells troops to loot one of the city's ancient palaces. TheQing Emperor flees to Manuria in northern China. The result of this second war is European nations carving up even more Chinese territory for their so-called concessions. These are called the quote unnequal treaties by historians and for very good reason. And my favorite fact from this period is that Ching Dao of Laga fame was a German territory which is why Shing Tao beer tastes exactly like a German Pznner.

[00:21:34]>> No way. That's Is that what about like beer Lao? Cuz that was always incredible to me and it made no sense that it was made in in Lao. Like it had to have a sort of origin story like that. No, >> it must do cuz I I bet the the Germans were there as well. I don't know. Let's let's figure this one out. But yeah, Ching Dao, when you look at the city, it's got all these like wooden fronted buildings like it's in Munich or something and they make it due to the the hop rule, which is what it's like hops, barley, and water and nothing more. Um, anyway, yeah, little fact for the for the pub there. The Opium Wars are a huge part of China's modern identity and kicked off what today's Chinese Communist Party is called the century of humiliation. Sean, is it true that you refer to your 20s as the decade of humiliation >> and 30s and 40s? Correct. Yes. Uh, including my lovely orange headphones.

[00:22:26]Uh, anyway, this century of humiliation, Chinese century makes a lot of sense.

[00:22:33]Britain bombed China into submission so he could keep getting the Chinese people high on dope. It's a pretty crazy moment in history. As one historian puts it, quote, "If you talk to many Chinese about the Opian War, a phrase you will quickly hear is,"Yes, I know, Danny, but the listeners don't speak Chinese, so I'm going to translate it for them now." Literally, if you are backward, you will take a beating. The Opium Wars are the era when Shanghai gets split up into its three constituent parts. Britain and US create the international settlement. The French have their French concession and the Chinese govern or more accurately fail to govern the millions of Chinese living outside these rarified foreign enclaves.

[00:23:18]Almost all modern amenities come to Asia through the international settlement and French concession. Gas lights in 1865, the telephone in 1881, the electrical grid in 1882, running water 84 and tram cars in 1901. Banking, shipping, construction, and of course, pharmaceuticals flourish, and merchants from Europe and North America flocked to what has now become a bonafide boom town, writes the New York Times, quote, "In its heyday, Shanghai was the place to be. It had the best art, the greatest architecture, and the strongest business in Asia. With dance halls, brothel, glitzy restaurants, international clubs, and even a foreignrun racetrack, Shanghai was a city that catered to every whim of the rich. But poverty ran alongside opulence, and many of the lowerass Chinese provided the cheap labor that kept the city running.

[00:24:12]>> To be fair, isn't that pretty much like every city?

[00:24:16]>> Yeah, it is. Yeah, that's correct. Um, I think it's more the glitzy stuff that that um, yeah, made Shanghai stand out.

[00:24:24]But anyway, we got into this a bit in the previous show, but basically each of Shanghai's three divisions acts independently of the others, meaning that enterprising gangs like the Green Gang can operate fluidly, paying officials in either division off against each other. And like state lines in the US, cops rarely cross. As late as the summer of 1925, there is still no phone line connecting the police of the French concession with the international settlement, writes Brian Martin, storyteller extraordinaire, if you remember last week's show. Quote, such a situation of divided and conflicting police jurisdiction allowed the gangsters to flourish and to extend their own organizational systems. They could set themselves up in one jurisdiction and conduct armed robberies, kidnapping and narcotics trafficking in the other two jurisdictions. And they could safeguard their base by bribing the local beat policemen and even relatively senior police officials.

[00:25:25]This allows certain green gang factions like that of Du and Huang and the big eight mob to scale from peacemeal banditry to serious organized crime in just a few short years. For a while, they function like highway men committing crimes in one part of the city, then retreating to layers and hideouts in the no man's lands between them. So, it's basically like three massively wealthy or maybe not massively wealthy cuz the people are poor, but with wealth being gen massive wealth being generated, border cities right next to each other. And like I mean, you guys know how often we talk about border cities and the magic of them and for organized crime and smuggling. And then you throw in this sort of like international port and it's just it's a recipe for a good time, you know, and an insane underworld too. Yeah, it is. And it's the only place on earth, I think, at the time that didn't need any kind of visa to live there. You could just rock up and then set up whatever you wanted there. So these gangs, they get bigger.

[00:26:24]They consolidate. And then they just discover, why bribe the cops when we can just become the cops? Authorities in all three of Shanghai's jurisdictions realize they can't contain the gangs by themselves. According to Brian Martin, quote, "On the principle of using a thief to catch a thief, police forces recruited the most powerful and successful gangsters into their detective squads. These gangster detectives in effect were compradors of violence. In return for their assistance in maintaining order among the Chinese population, the authorities allowed them to continue with their own illicit rackets as long as they did not become too much of an embarrassment for the administration. Now, this is probably most prevalent in the French concession where Parisian colonial bureaucrats are constantly terrified they'll lose control of their most valuable possession in the Far East. GIC peroxisms of paranoia sputter loudly enough that they'll make deals with anyone to keep the peace from threats real or imagined, which leads them into the arms of the mob. By the mid1920s, this kind of cop gangster nexus has gone so far as to consolidate the green gang into three or four major groups with members working as cops running everything from pickpocket rings to opium trafficking, gambling dens, and human trafficking networks. So tight is the big eight mob's grip on Shanghai's Chinese area that one journalist at the time quipped that quote almost every detective on the force had a criminal record. But the corruption doesn't even stop there because foreigners have this special legal status where they can't be touched by Chinese courts. Gang bosses pay foreign consils to get their nation's citizenship. One drug kingpin in the Chinese area winds up being half Chilean while Dua Schwang manages to bag himself a Portuguese passport. But despite the brothel and casinos and docks and market stalls, the biggest criminal money spinner during this era is always opium. The narcotic that has fueled Shanghai's modern birth and its rise into a global city. Yeah, I mean that's crazy. Like I obviously knew about opium abuse and the opium war, but didn't know it really gave birth to Shangai or modern Shangghai in a way that you know cocaine kind of does to Miami. Yeah. It's kind of like a chicken or egg thing. Like was Shanghai a great place to to process the drugs because of the stuff that I just mentioned with the lawlessness or is the lawlessness because Shanghai was just this gigantic drug port? Uh either way, in 1912, the drug had been placed under international prohibition. But as with alcohol in the United States, this only serves to push the market even further underground.

[00:29:07]quote, "In both countries, prohibition encouraged the growth of a vast illicit traffic that provided the economic basis for the development of organized crime in the major cities, writes Brian Martin, and helped to define the ways in which criminal organization interacted with the world of politics."

[00:29:27]By 1923, the year Dua pays his whopping ransom to the train bandits in Linqeng, opium addiction has grown so chronic on his home turf of the French concession that French authorities decide to come down on it. They create an anti-narcotics police squad and lead a call to relegalize the drug to take it out of the hands of Dub and his green gang cronies. So intertwined with official is the green gang by this point however that many believe the gangsters are actually behind the push for legalization. The plan is dropped but opium dealer is chronic enough that it is sold in packets bearing the official seal of the Shanghai Bureau for the prevention of opium and drug smuggling.

[00:30:14]That ain't good. Neither is the fact that Shanghai's opium kingpins are now out trading on the open seas, especially the Big Eight mob, which is working alongside Japanese and Taiwanese mobsters to get opium in and out of China. By the mid1920s, pretty much every factor of Shanghai's politics and geography has handed it to the green gang, and it's about to get a lot worse.

[00:30:41]Before we come back to that though, you might have noticed I haven't much mentioned the name of Hang Jin R, the green gang boss who'd handed Dua Schwang his path within the organization. The king of vice whose wife has first taken a liking to Doo's gambling den management skills. That's because in 1924 when Doo has risen almost to the top of the group and taken the big eight mobs opium market, Hang makes a mistake that will cost him his criminal status.

[00:31:10]See, Hang is canny, but he's old school, content with his patch, happy to skim off his French concession contacts and see the money roll in. But he's also sucker for a pretty lady, and he doses on a popular local singer, showering her with gifts and even building her a theater. One night that year, the singer invites Hang to her mansion for an opera performance. She's catwalling away. He's loving it. But also in the audience is the playboy son of a prominent warlord.

[00:31:40]And he's not liking the singer one bit.

[00:31:43]In fact, the young scion heckles her, booze her. Hang is insensed. Sure of his own status, he commands several of his men to beat the playboy up and boot him out of the mansion. Job done. Only a few nights later, Hang is taken in another performance when a gang of men burst into the theater, run to his seat, hold pistols to his head, and haul him off to a jail cell where they beat him nearly unconscious. The warlord's son has flexed his own influence within Shanghai. Now Huang is behind bars, battered and bruised. This would never have happened years previous. It's a sure sign that the Green Gang godfather is losing his touch. not just to rival gangsters but to Dui Schwing writes Brian Martin quote for years du had grown quietly frustrated at the unambitious pace of Shanghai's drug trade and realized that a sharp-minded operator could transform the sale of opium, morphine and heroin in China's biggest drug market into a single fabulously profitable enterprise. Wang had always been too old-fashioned to do it himself. D was more progressive.

[00:32:56]D pulls together an enormous wad of cash and bails his boss hang out of jail.

[00:33:02]Hang has lost face. He might have been saved by Du, but in reality, it's a quiet coup. The following year, a rival gangster pays French concession authorities a bribe to boot hang from his prestigious position within the French police. As Brian Martin quote, "The old man was relegated to the status of an honored elder, respected but powerless. Dua Schwang was at now the real power in Shanghai by 1925. Therefore, Du is at the very top of Shanghai's criminal tree. He's blasted the big eight mob. He's paid every cop and politician in town. He's got a Portuguese passport. And he even toppled his former boss, Swang. It's at this point that he decides to strangle any opium rivals once and for all, minting something called the three prosperities company. It's so named for the triumvirant of green gang greats that heads it up. But do he is the king?

[00:34:01]On April 28, 1925, he makes a deal with French authorities to do the following. One, open the three prosperities company opium warehouse in the concession. Two, double the concession's number of opium stores.

[00:34:18]Three, pay a huge monthly fee, i.e. bribe, to French officials. And four, ensure that if trafficking is conducted, quote, discreetly, then no three prosperities member will face prosecution.

[00:34:32]In effect, then dua has essentially just relegalized the opium trade and monopolized the entire thing for himself. He's literally described in French documents as a quote opium importer. Despite that being an actual crime, within a year, the Free Prosperities Company is making almost $60 million yuan in profit, over a billion dollars today, and running its own protection rackets for street level dealers. Folks in Shanghai come to know it simply as the big company. And everybody is clear. D is its top boy.

[00:35:08]who is quote the chief loafer of the French concession, an opium and arms smuggler, writes a letter published in a local newspaper. He claims Portuguese citizenship and pretends to be immune from arrest in the French concession for whatever he may do. It is strange that the sinwin pow a rival newspaper published his name as do someone instead of in full. I presume they know the character of the man and were afraid to print it for fear of inviting trouble from doo's loafer gangs.

[00:35:39]>> So what does loafer mean in this context? Cuz he's definitely not not loathing. He's in fact he's very active.

[00:35:46]>> Yeah, he is incredibly active. But I think what they mean is it's just like another word for like n do wells or baddies.

[00:35:54]>> I think they're just like >> they don't like him. But uh yeah, I don't know. He's doing pretty well without them. But by this point, there is another issue for D to contend with, and it's a far more zealous foe than any of the folks he's vanquished before.

[00:36:10]Whether his former Boswang, rival gangs, or the French authorities, the Chinese Communist Party or CCP is only formed in 1921. And by 1924, it has under 10, yes, 10 members in Shanghai. And only two of these are actual blue collar workers.

[00:36:31]There's a there's a shocker right there.

[00:36:33]Yeah. [laughter] And neither of those two even worked in the city's cotton factories, which are by far the biggest employer of Shanghai's working class. But as trade unions play an increasing role in city life and their leaders increasingly view the green gang and its scrangle hold on industry as a blight, the CCP makes incredibly quick gains.

[00:36:55]One trade union leader named Lely Sang decides he's had enough of do and his gang's tactics. Whereas Prime Martin quote, Lely Sang's premise was that the Green Gang was a degenerate form of secret society whose relationships with the workers were based solely on exploitation.

[00:37:14]Lee's pet hate is the green gang's use of a labor system called bagong which is similar to the hala system used today to tie poor laborers to work in Gulf nations like Qar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Most factory foreman and inspectors are on the green gang's books keeping the poor in line. But that's not all.

[00:37:33]The Green Gang also views Shanghai's mills, factories, and shop floors as vital recruitment pools, indenturing some of the poorest people in the city into gang life. Lee decides he's going to break the green gang by allying with his rank and file disciples and sewing discontent between them and their wildly rich bosses. He denounces Do and others as quote capitalist stooges. And he has plenty of success. In February 1925, workers at a Japanese cotton mill run by the Green Gang go on strike. This is a really big deal. Up until this point, the Green Gang hasn't thrown its lot in with either the CCP or their arch rivals, the nationalists, the Kin Tang, led by General Isimo Chang Kaishek. But the 1925 strike convinces it to partner with the KMT and right-wing anti-communist groups. In fact, it mints a group called the Shanghai Chinese Chamber of Commerce. On the surface, a guild that would protect the city's business interests, but in fact, it's a cover for green gang mobsters to break strikes, sometimes violently, and to continue growing its drug empire. The CCP denounces the Chamber of Commerce as a quote gangster trade union. But the dye is cast. Dua and the green gang are going to back the KMT against the communists.

[00:38:57]We've mentioned Chiang Kaishek a hell of a lot on this show, whether in relation to modern Taiwanese gangs or triads or the so-called KMT lost boys who helped found the modern meth trade from exile in Myanmar. Chang himself, military tough guy, risen in the 1911 revolution and co-founded the KMT. But Shang's early years are patchy. And there are some records suggesting he may even have been a green gang member in his youth.

[00:39:25]Whatever the truth, in 1919, when Chang builds his nationalist army in the south of China, it's Hang Jin R who pays his travel expenses. And Chang will never forget the favor. Of course, throughout this period, Shanghai's big business is still dominated by its foreign inhabitants. 23,000 Americans, British and French, and 14,000 Japanese. More on the Japanese next episode. As I mentioned at the top of this show, these folks live separately from their Chinese neighbors. They make deals in gentlemen's clubs and on casino floors, and they actively keep the locals away from their profits, writes one journalist at the time. The British in particular believed that quote the Chinese were a low dirty mongrel race that they should be everlastingly grateful for being booted around by the extremely superior British and how what the Chinese really needed was the firm British government to guide them here.

[00:40:22]Here here what chap and all that honking bo hatw wearing nonsense. Anyway, in March 1925, Chinese revolutionary hero Sunyan Yatsen dies and Chang Kaishek, he becomes leader of the KMT. By May that year, thanks in part to the CCP and their friends in the fledgling Soviet Union, but also the KMT's brand of Chinese nationalism, anti-imperialist sentiment is spreading all over Shanghai. This bursts into violence on May 15 that year when a Japanese cottonmill guard shoots dead a Chinese worker. Local students are arrested protested the killing in the international settlement with their trial set for May 30. A host of leftist groups including trade unionists and the CCP hold mass demonstrations. Some are arrested and taken to a British jail.

[00:41:18]When comrades show up at the jail, Imperial officers fire into the crowd, killing 16. This will become known as the May 30th incident, and it sparks months of protests demanding an end to the international settlement, British occupation of China, and massive strikes. By the beginning of 1926, Shanghai is a powder keg just waiting to blow. Protests against foreigners are growing. The CCP is gathering pace among the city's proletariat. The green gang is mobilizing against the communists and Chiang Kaishek is tearing through China on his so-called northern expedition, wiping out warlords and communists on his way to a showdown with Shanghai's Reds. Add to all of this the wild partying, casinos, brothel, opium addiction, including an addiction of Big Ears Dew himself, and Shanghai might be just the maddest place on earth.

[00:42:18]>> Yeah, man. Places like that in that sort of chaos with also that that scene there like, you know, Casablanca during the war or Cuba, I guess, in the ' 50s.

[00:42:27]>> The intrigue too mixed in. And I guess you can throw in Beirut maybe in the 70s with that like the intrigue as well, though I don't think the uh partying was as good there. But I don't know, man. I would have loved to experience places like that at those times.

[00:42:38]>> Yeah, this would have been insane. I mean, >> is there any is there any modern day equivalent?

[00:42:44]>> Uh border towns. I don't know. Can we think of any border towns? Some of those super weird ones.

[00:42:49]>> The lamest example possible compared to what these were, but like Herbiel during the like 2016 with Mosul. I mean, the Christian neighborhood had like three bars, but it was like, you know, a lot of folks there hanging out, having a good Actually, you know, it's not even close. Yeah. I can't think of anything.

[00:43:04]>> Yeah. No, me neither. Carbull was pretty fun when I was there.

[00:43:09]>> Like Bangkok probably during during the Vietnam War, right?

[00:43:11]>> Or Bangkok. I mean, on any night if you have the right time, but Yeah.

[00:43:15]>> Yeah. But I mean, you don't have the political intrigue and the war and all the sort of like war economy and all that, you know.

[00:43:20]>> This is crazy. Yeah.

[00:43:21]>> This is something different.

[00:43:23]>> Yeah. This is mad. In February 1927, Dua decides that the CCP is the existential threat to his dominance of Shanghai. His goons violently break up a strike in the city center and ally [laughter] officially with the KMT. The CCP steps up its campaign, minting death squads that assassinate 13 Green Gang Factory bosses. D hits back with a death squad of his own, the Dare to Dies, which batter the communists in the countryside around Shanghai, hoping to encircle the communists inside the city. I think the uh the two guns Cohen episode goes into this period a lot and it's just exceedingly brutal on all sides, just viciousness. Um like an incident that right now would be in the headlines for weeks every every other day in terms of just like the brutality of it. I mean, it's same when they kick back off again post World War II, you know, just like massacre after massacre after massacre after massacre. And we're talking like hundreds, thousands every day. Yeah. I mean, we're up to what 1927. This is going to continue for another 18 years.

[00:44:30]No. Yeah.

[00:44:31]>> 22 years. Yeah. This is really the start start of something magic. On March 26th, 1927, Du and Chang meet in person for the first time at an airfield just outside downtown Shanghai. Both men want to route the CCP from the city. So, they found something called the China Mutual Progress Association or CMPA. Remember how D had united various low-level gangsters to take control of Shanghai's opium market? This time he'll do it under the umbrella of the CNA, bringing together green gang factions, secret society members, capitalists, and even triad bosses to break picket lines and destroy Shanghai's communists once and for all. Tensions rise all the way up until April 11, 1927.

[00:45:22]That is when we get the murder of trade unionist Wang Shu Hua from today's cold open. Wang actually goes to Dua Sheng's mansion because he believes the gangster has always kept his word and he still holds out hope the green gang will get back on side with Shanghai's factory workers. But as you heard earlier, it is not to be. D has Wang killed and dumped in a shallow grave by 9:00 p.m. that evening. Shortly afterwards, D reaches out to Sterling Fessendon, an American lawyer and chairman of the local council of the international settlement. We're about to do something big, D tells Fessendon. Our men need safe passage through the settlement. Fessendon acquiesces. Wor will soon get out that the green gang has slaughtered Wang, but by then it'll be far too late for anybody to react. With Fessendon and Chang's blessing, Big Ears Doo initiates his grand plan. By the early hours of April 12, 2,000 of his gangsters have crossed from the French concession through the international settlement into old Shanghai. There, dressed in denim, they mingle with striking workers and communists, slipping among the crowds unnoticed.

[00:46:40]And then, at dawn, two sounds ring out across the district. One is a distant gumbboat siren. The other is a bugle's call. Those men know the signal. All 2,000 of them unchath knives and guns from their denim garments. And what happens next? Well, you could Google it right now, but I recommend you wait for the third and final installment of this dooa green gang CCP Chinese epic. Thanks for listening and for God's sake, don't Instagram your crimes. Definitely don't get deni fever and don't go to Cuba.

[00:47:16]>> Look at the cliffhanger with this guy still, you know, >> making it work even with a fever and whatever else is going on inside that that tortured body of yours. [music] [music] [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat.

[00:47:58][music] Heat.

[00:48:09][music] [music] Heat.