Triad Wars, the Macau 14K, ‘Broken Tooth’ and Chinese Communist United Front

In the 1980s and 1990s, triad gangs dominated the casino gambling business in Macau and were a major force in society which was illustrated by the violent triad war from 1996. The main protagonist of the war was Wan Kuok Kui, leader at that time of the Macau 14K triad faction. Wan was well known to us in the Criminal Intelligence Bureau (CIB) of the Royal Hong Kong Police. What was less well known were the links between the triad war in Macau and the activities of groups involved in Chinese communist ‘united front’ that was intended to make the colonial Portuguese administration in Macau look inept and the incoming Chinese communist government appear as the means of stabilising the city.

Broken Tooth Kui and the Macau 14K

Wan Kuok Kui (尹國駒), also known as “broken tooth koi” (崩牙駒), is a character who for many Chinese fits the mould of a heroic triad. He was born in 1955 in Macau, and had two younger brothers and two younger sisters. Wan Kuok Kui married four times, having three sons and three daughters.

Wan joined the Macau 14K triad society when he was a young man and his protector was “Hak Chai Wah” (黑仔華), a nickname that literally means “black boy Wah” but usually refers to “bad boy”. Wan took his first step on the criminal ladder as a teenager when he and six friends formed a street gang called the “Seven Little Kids”. They engaging in small-time extortion and petty crimes the seven friends managed to make a name for themselves fighting for turf with other triad-affiliated street gangs.

Wan earned a reputation in the streets as a violent and capable enforcer. He continued to enhance his status with triad gangs by successfully expanding his business into loan-sharking, which gave him a significant income that he had to share with more senior leaders of the Macau 14K. This success and his financial contributions led to Wan being promoted to the rank of “Red Pole” (often considered to be an enforcer), which entitled him to a larger share of the Macau 14K criminal proceeds which they made from a vast array of illegal and legal enterprises.

The Macau Triad War

From 1996, Wan’s 14K group and other triad factions in Macau were in open violent conflict. In 1996 there were 21 murders and in the first five months of 1997 a dozen murders and more assaults, driven by the competition for control of casino VIP rooms and vice between the Macau 14K, the Wo On Lok, and the Sun Yee On triad societies.

Wan’s main rival was the leader of the Macau faction of the Wo On Lok triad society, Lai Tung Sang, known as ‘Soi Fong Lai’ (‘Soi Fong’ is Cantonese for ‘Water room’, which was the nickname given to the Wo On Lok as the society originated in the 1930s from a workers union active at the Connaught Aerated Water Company in Hong Kong). Lai fled to Vancouver in 1996 in suspicious circumstances – His application at the Canadian Consulate in Hong Kong for a visa was rejected in 1994 because of his triad membership, but he successfully applied again through the consulate in Los Angeles in 1996 and became a resident in Canada. The huge error by Canadian officials was illustrated when Lai’s luxury home in Vancouver was sprayed with bullets by gunmen believed to have been trying to kill him.

The triad conflict became so violent and so protracted that there were fears in the Royal Hong Kong Police that it could spill over into Hong Kong and impact on the handover of sovereignty by the UK to the PRC in July 1997. Wan, his girlfriend and some triad followers were visiting Hong Kong regularly in 1997 for entertainment, which presented the risk that he could be attacked in Hong Kong or try to expand his influence in the city. When he visited Hong Kong, Wan was usually met by two armed Hong Kong Police CID detectives from the Yau Tsim District who were acting as his bodyguards (both obviously corrupted). This caused great concern amongst Criminal Intelligence Bureau management as it was feared that Wan and his followers could corrupt more police officers in Hong Kong and establish a foothold in the city.

The Macau Judiciary Police were equally concerned that Hong Kong triads were taking advantage of the conflict in Macau to gain further influence in the gambling business. The San Yee On triad society in particular was sending large numbers of young men on ferries from Hong Kong to Macau to take control of VIP Rooms in casinos and stake out their territory.

As an officer in the Criminal Intelligence Bureau, one of my jobs at that time was to liaise with a special intelligence unit of Portuguese officers in the Macau Judiciary Police (MJP) which had been established by the Director of the MJP, Dr. Antonio Marques Baptista (now deceased). The MJP special  intelligence unit were a small group of experienced men and women who were trying to maintain some order in the middle of the violent gang war. They had a small surveillance team (which included a husband and wife working together), and also access to technical interception facilities to monitor phones and faxes (criminals in Macau were remarkably relaxed about talking on the telephone and seemed to think that they were untouchable).

The Portuguese in the MJP special intelligence unit included several officers who had served in the military in the independence wars in Angola, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique up to 1974, and were used to dealing with violence as part of colonial retreat. Baptista and his colleagues told me that although they were few in number they had given a very clear message to Wan Kuok Kui of the 14K and Lai Tung Sang of the Wo On Lok – If the triads harmed or targeted any of the families of the Portuguese in the MJP then they would kill them all.

Baptista and his special intelligence unit had surveillance video recordings of Wan Kuok Kui meeting representatives from the New China News Agency (NCNA), which after 1949 was the unofficial Chinese government representative office in both Macau and also Hong Kong as well as the centre from where the Ministry of State Security (MSS) worked in both colonies. The Portuguese MJP officers with Baptista were convinced that the MSS had been manipulating Wan and using him for their own strategy, which was to show that the Portuguese could not govern effectively in the colony. Baptista and his colleagues believed that the intent of the MSS was to allow the triad violence to grow, but then to stop immediately upon the resumption of Chinese sovereignty and administration in 1999.

After prolonged discussions between the Royal Hong Kong Police Criminal Intelligence Bureau with Antonio Baptista and his Portuguese colleagues in Macau, it was agreed that they would collaborate to stop the constant flow of triads between Hong Kong and Macau. The Macau Judiciary Police provided a list of hundreds of suspected Macau 14k and Wo On Lok members to the Criminal Intelligence Bureau in Hong Kong, and the CIB provided a similarly lengthy list of suspected Hong Kong San Yee On and various 14k factions to them.

In early 1997, the ‘Stop Lists’ were executed by informing the Public Security Police Force (which controlled immigration) in Macau to refuse entry to the Hong Kong triads of the San Yee On and factions of the 14K, and the Immigration Department in Hong Kong to simultaneously do the same for Macau triads of the 14K and Won On Lok seeking to enter the British colony. This was exceptional cooperation between the British and Portuguese colonial authorities, and showed the determination of both to combat triad societies and also peacefully hand over sovereignty of both cities to the PRC. It also showed the level showed the trust that the Criminal Intelligence Bureau had in Baptista and his small team of officers, as providing lists of hundreds of suspected triad members was highly unusual.

Nothing happens immediately when the ‘Stop List’ process starts as it requires the target person to visit Hong Kong from overseas (or Mainland China) and then be told by Immigration Department officers that he or she may not enter Hong Kong. No reason was given for the exclusion as the process was confidential and the visitor had no right to be informed as he or she was not a Hong Kong resident.

The Stop Lists worked. Wan Kuok Kui and his girlfriend were stopped at the Hong Kong Macau ferry terminal in Sheung Wan early one evening. Wan returned home to Macau. He did not try return to Hong Kong.

Wan stayed in Macau, but the triad violence continued and worsened. On the morning of 1^st May 1997, a bomb exploded under the car of MJP Director Antonio Baptista when he was jogging in a local park without his bodyguards but with his dog that may have saved his life. The dog was trained as police sniffer dog reacted and ran off, with Baptista giving chase. The bomb exploded when Baptista was chasing his dog. The personal attack on Baptista was a step too far by the triad gangs involved in the conflict. The same day, Baptista and armed MJP officers arrested Wan Kuo Kui and his brother in a private dining room at the Lisboa Casino. There was speculation that the bomb attack was staged in order to find a motive to arrest Wan, but there was no doubt that Wan was responsible for much of the violence of the past year.

After the arrests, I visited Wan’s house in Coloane (near ‘black sand beach’) with the Portuguese intelligence officers. They had found boxes with hundreds of syringes, which they believed were for narcotics that Wan intended to provide to his followers during the triad war.

The drama continued as Baptista alleged in a confidential memo the next day to the Macau Government that there was an attempt to bribe the Judge who was to hear the case against Wan with an offer of $1.3 million or retribution if he did not accept. The case against Wan for involvement in the bomb attack against Baptista was then dismissed by the court, citing lack of evidence, but Wan was also charged with being a member of a triad society.

Wan and his brother were also accused of planning to smuggle weapons from Cambodia. The Macau prosecution indictment of Wan referred to his plan to establish an arms factory in Cambodia, which was intended to provide military grade weapons such as anti-tank rockets, surface to air missiles, machine guns, and an armoured vehicle. The weapons were seemingly intended to support his efforts to stop Hong Kong triad factions from taking over territory in Macau, which the Criminal Intelligence Bureau knew about as immigration control point records showed what was described by one Hong Kong senior officer as “boatloads of San Yee On triads going to Macau.”

Investigations in the Criminal Intelligence Bureau revealed that a company had been established by Wan in Hong Kong in collaboration with representatives from Zaire, who would buy weapons from the arms factory that Wan and his followers had planned to establish in Cambodia. In 1997, Zaire was ruled by former Congolese army officer President Sese Seko Mobuto. He changed the name of the country from Congo to Zaire in 1971, and ruled as a dictator from 1965. Mobuto fled from Zaire in May 1997, but prior to that he fought against rebels trying to depose him. It seems likely that a desperate President Mobuto and his close associates may have engaged in the arms project with Wan Kuok Kui whilst trying to hang on to power.

In November 1999, Wan was sentenced by a Macau Judge to 15 years imprisonment on charges related to criminal association (of the Macau 14K triad faction, loan sharking, and illegal gambling. Eight other defendants, including Wan’s brother Kuok Hung, were also imprisoned, and their assets to be confiscated.  A special prison block was constructed for Wan and his associates because of the security concerns arising from his notoriety and triad influence.

Patriotic Triads and Communist United Front

Wan’s brother-in-law, Chao Chi Man, managed the casino junket business on his behalf after Wan’s imprisonment.  Chao Chi Man was the president of ‘Clube Desportivo Hang Sung de Macao’, a sports club that the Macao authorities used to realign, co-opt and balance triad societies as part of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) strategy of using united front tactics to manage criminal groups. The CCP intended to forge friendships with some triad leaders whose major sports associations in Macao regularly visited Mainland China to report any social unrest or instability in Macau.

In 2012, a few months before he was released, Wan was visited in prison by several officials from the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Macao SAR, who persuaded Wan to promise that he would ensure peaceful coexistence with other triad factions in Macao. The CCP officials also instructed Wan to set up a platform to promote peace, harmony and unity based on Chinese culture and history. The main purpose of this new organisation was to strengthen cross-strait links between Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China as well as to pressure Chinese republican groups in Macao.

Wan was also asked by the CCP officials to act as a bridge to unify the relationships with other triad societies. The Chinese officials also mentioned that Wan should take this responsibility to keep violence and crime to a minimum, and if he did not oblige, the Chinese Government would crack down hard on him. In return, the Chinese Government would re-issue the Mainland Travel Permit for Hong Kong & Macao Residents to Wan so that he could enter most of the provinces in Mainland China but would be limited to some designated areas. Wan promised that he would not do anything to harm stability in Macau after his release. The CCP had persuaded Wan to be patriotic, showing that triads who love the motherland could be acceptable in China.

On 22 March 2013, Wan became President of the “World Hongmen History and Culture Association” (世界洪門歷史文 化協會) with the defined purpose “To love the nation, organize cultural exchange activities in various places, and pass on the history and culture of the Revolution of 1911.”  The membership is for “Anyone who loves to study the history of the Revolution of 1911 and can actively participate in the event and is willing to abide by the chapter and be approved by the board of directors.”

In a speech in February 2018, Wan said that he planned to establish a “Hongmen Security Company” for Chinese merchants on the “One Belt One Road” initiative and that the motto of the Association is “loving and supporting the country, Macau, and Hong Kong.”  Wan said in his speech, leaked in a video clip, that “I will do my utmost to promote the national policy and assist in whatever way for peaceful and united cross-straits relations.”

Later in 2018, Wan announced that the headquarters of the World Hongmen History and Culture Association was in Cambodia, that it would issue “Hongmen cryptocurrency” as part of its e-commerce business, and that the Association would establish schools to allow ethnic Chinese living in other countries to learn Chinese culture.

The CCP helped to establish Wan with a triad society legitimised as a business in China’s ‘Belt and Road’. “Hongmen” (洪門, or Hung Mun) originates from the Tin Tei Wui (Heaven and Earth Association), a variation of Chinese secret societies. Not all are criminal, and “Hongmen” exist in many overseas Chinese communities as mutual aid associations. However, the formation of the World Hongmen History and Culture Association in Macau seems to have used the innocuous nature of Hongmen mutual-aid associations elsewhere in the world, as well as extolling and exploiting patriotic Chinese virtues. The involvement of Wan and his followers from a faction of the Macau 14K triad society in what was claimed to be a Chinese patriotic association shows the CCP using criminals to promote nationalism amongst the widespread Chinese diaspora in Asia.

Wan has shown that he is a ‘patriotic triad’ who would support the CCP. His reward was to be allowed to conduct his criminal business in South East Asian countries where China was building the Belt and Road initiative. The CCP plays a long game with united front activities. The cultivation of Wan Kuok Kui of the Macau 14K started in the 1990s, and came to fruition in the next century with ‘patriotic triads’ on the Belt and Road. The Macau triad war is history, but the expansion of Chinese organised crime is in the present.