The Underworld Podcast - The Bamboo Union Triads, Taiwan's White Wolf Godfather, and a Murdered Reporter in SF

Episode Date: March 5, 2024

When Chinese-American reporter Henry Liu was gunned down in his Daly City garage in 1984, it brought the Bamboo Union, Taiwan’s most powerful Triad, to global attention. But while the killing frayed ties between the island and DC, authorities skipped over a guy in California pulling the strings all along—a silver-tongued philosophy grad who’d gone from Taipei street fighting to restauranteur and the Bamboo Union’s point-man in the United States. His name was Chang An-lo, and he’d soon be behind bars for a massive narco bust in New York. But insiders knew him by another, far more fearsome name: White Wolf. And his story—one that would weave between the States, Taiwan and the Chinese mainland—was just getting started. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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at Yamava.com must be 21-20. Please gamble responsibly. Monopoly is a trademark of Hasbro. Hasbro is not a sponsor of this promotion. It's a little before 9 a.m. on October 15, 1984. A clear and cool morning in the San Francisco suburb of Daily City. Henry Liu,

a 52-year-old Chinese American, is in his garage, loading his car with chintz and gouggues set for a short ride across town to one of his two gift stores. It isn't his only business. For decades, Henry was known as one of the most fearless reporters in Taiwan, the island nation he'd moved to as a teenager, after rampaging Maoist thugs had murdered his father on the Chinese mainland. Assignments to Hong Kong, Manila and Vietnam have cemented Henry's hard-boiled rep,

While in later years, working out of his newspaper's Washington, D.C. Bureau, Henry has turned his sights on the powerful Changs, in many ways Taiwan's most powerful dynasty. Their patriarch, Generalissimo Chankai Czech, had led the nationalist fight against Mao's Reds, badly, of course, and his son, Taiwan's president, still yearn to prize the Chinese mainland from communism's iron grip. But the Changs, Henry claims, corrupt, and they're increasingly entangled with powerful triad gangs that have grown from the ashes of the Second World War. Henry's already published a bunch of essays and books,

and he's planning another, sensational expose, about none other than the president of Taiwan, himself. But a friend on the island's intelligence warns him, the Changs are tired of your muck-breaking, Henry, and they could call on gangsters to rub you out any moment. In late 1983, Under pressure and the promise of a $50,000 bribe, Henry agrees to tone down the book's more salacious chapters, but the threat never disappears. By mid-October 1984, Henry's wife begins to notice a couple Asian guys riding bicycles beside the couple's daily city home, day after day.

On the morning of the 15th, Henry is packing his car when they approach him, dressed in hoodies, cornering him in the garage. There's an altercation. Then a struggle. The two men pull pistols. One shoots Henry in the head point blank. The other gets off two shots to Henry's gut.

It's over in a heartbeat. Henry drops to the floor dead. The men get back on their bikes and pedal outside. But weirdly, the next day, when the Rio home is surrounded by cops and police tape, the pair return, perhaps as a threat to Henry's now widow to keep quiet. Then they get out to Los Angeles, when they confirm the hit to higher-ups in the Bamboo Union, Taiwan's biggest gang. A month later, back in Taiwan, both men plus five other co-conspirators, are swept up in massive anti-gang raids.

But Taiwan allows only one of them to face trial in the US. Defendants are squealing about training under Taiwanese military intelligence, an admiral is getting court-martialed and links with the Changs are getting more and more solid by the day. Henry's death is a PR disaster for Taiwan, and the White House, which, under Ronald Reagan, is desperate not to lose a key ally in the global fight against communism. Outrage Democrats go on the warpath. It's time, says Norman Mineta, a California dem of Japanese descent,

to put an end to the hypocrisy that condemns terrorists against U.S. citizens abroad, but turns a blind eye to it here at home, when opposing such terrorism, puts us odds with our so-called friends. We cannot allow Taiwan to be a safe haven, he adds, for those who murder US citizens. The scandal sends shockwaves through Taiwan, where trust in the ruling Comintang Party, the KMT, plummets to an all-time low.

Rival parties gain popularity, and, in death, ironically, Emerald Liu achieves what his writing never could, turning Taiwan from a quasi-dictatorship into a modern pluralist democracy. But hey, that's journalism. You can pen all the award-winning features about war, stone-skipping cricket, but you get shot in the head or kidnapped by the Taliban and you're nailed on for a Pulitzer. Sorry, I just blacked out there for a moment.

What was I going on about? Oh yeah, Taiwan. Scandal and a much-needed reshaping of the island's politics. But the Bamboo Union, the triad whose men had thought of the trigger that day in Daily City, they're going nowhere. And despite the raids and arrests and convictions and scandals, everybody misses one of the gang's

biggest fishes, its fattest cats, a man made a refugee by the Reds, raw-boned and silver-tongued, with a philosophy degree in a restaurant empire and a sizable side hustle as the bamboo unions, California point man, shipping drugs, running brothels and extorting the businesses

of Chinese immigrants across the US. His birth certificate reads Chang Anlo, but most folks known by a simpler, much more fearsome, he name, White Wolf. And in the fallout of Henry Liu's high-profile slaying, he's about to rise to become one of the most powerful gangsters on the planet. Welcome to the Underworld podcast. And welcome to the podcast that has exposed itself to more criminals than your mum.

I am Sean Williams, an investigative reporter-based in Outsero and your own. New Zealand and I am joined as ever by the Intrepid Danny Gold in New York City. I wrote a lot of the show while in the press box at the world's premier sheep sheapshearing contest in a small Kiwi town. Danny, what is your greatest journalistic achievement? It's the friendships that I've made along the way. Of course. Okay.

As always, hit us up on Patreon as you'd like my son to be well educated. Play the YouTube videos on loops, subscribe to TikTok and if you like your deeply reported crime stories in 60 second clips. and who doesn't like that, sign up there. And if you know anybody's setting Dogecoin or Dick Pills or Aftermarket Airfries, get onto them for us for ads. Are we good to go? Yeah, I just want to point out too at the YouTube channel,

the big news on that front where Sean made with the kids call a face reveal. Well, unless you count those videos that you made when you were really struggling early in your career, but you've got to go really deep into some particular streaming sites if you want to find those. Yeah, I didn't see if there were any interesting comments. They didn't call it a face reveal back then, but mine was on the Vice News channel in like 2013, 2014. So it already ends up like primarily 15 year old boys and 90% of the comments were this guy's gay. And I think 10% were like this guy's got huge balls. But my advice is to really focus on that 10%.

Yeah. And ironically, the truth is entirely the other way around. But yeah, I'm going to be doing more videos soon. I've got one of those ring lights that young people do TikToks with, so look out for that. It's going to be horrific. Anyway, Taiwan. So, you just heard all about Henry Liu. And his murder was a huge, like, really massive scandal in the mid-80s, and it really busted up the U.S.-Taiwan relationship right at the peak of the Cold War when Reagan's going on about the evil empire.

Deng Xiaoping is opening up communist China's economy, and the West is getting well on board with. that and leaders in Taipei are increasingly bricking it that this is all leading up to an invasion from the mainland. Plus, Sashon, Jay. Yeah, I don't know. How do you think Ronnie would have dealt with TikTok? I feel like he might have shut it down.

You reckon? I reckon he would have been bang on it, but it would have been entertaining either way. Definitely doing little dances, like pointing to anyway, sorry, go ahead. Just pointing to his dinner if he can do so. Anyway, yeah, it seems like the same as what happened today. So Taiwan's leadership, Taiwan, Taiwan, Taiwan, are increasingly getting cozy with the island's

underworld during this time. And they are using them to stifle dissent sometimes fatally, of course. And that is going to benefit the protagonist of today's show, Chang Anlo, aka the White Wolf, good nickname, like it, who's about to cash in to become an incredibly powerful figure. Here, by the way, you get an Easter egg. Here's an attempt at the actual Chinese pronunciation and I do want feedback on this. Tang and Lur. The Underworld podcast at gmail.com, guys, tang and lue. I was pretty bold over when I heard that.

Anyway, spoiler alert, Changsengzu is still today, almost four decades later, a really, really big player on the island. So we've got everything this week, gangs, political hits, Mao, the KMT, spies all over the place, and the bamboo union. And that is a triad group that's surprisingly little. is written about in the Western press, given it's got so much clout in a country that's making more and more headlines as we're all just sitting tight waiting for World War III. So let's take a brief step back. Taiwan, aka the Republic of China, or even Formosa a name given to its

main island by Portuguese sailors back in the 1600s, it's about the same size as Indiana or Maine that's home to about 24 million people, making it one of the most densely populated places on Earth. Capital City, Taipei, world's 20th largest economy, thanks to high-tech industries, particularly semiconductors or chips. And if you don't know much about Taiwan's semiconductor industry, you should

definitely read Virginia Heffman's article for Wired last year, which gets into the strange sort of quasi-religious way Taiwanese people view the industry. And that makes sense, given it's one of the main things stopping red China from invading. But you can listen to a tech pod for that. In 1956, Taiwan's population was around 9 million.

That is the year the bamboo union first appears on the island. It's comprised mostly of mainland Chinese who fled Maoist purges just before the Great Leap Forward. But you can listen to a history pod for that. Definitely keep telling our listeners to listen to other podcasts. I feel like that's a winning strategy for our success. God, yeah, I realize what I'm doing right now. It's a really good idea. I'm going to quote, by the way, from a different source, Martin Perbrick's brilliant Asian

crime century substack. Here for more, some more info, right, about the gang's beginnings. Quote, one group of Chinese exiles residing at Wing War Village on the outskirts of Taipei were repeatedly attacked and extorted by established local gangs. And so they grouped together to form the Chukluenbong, literally translated as Bamboo United Gang, with the name derived from the bamboo groves that surrounded Wing War Village. That's a cool idea for a substack. I actually want to check that out.

But also like that story of how the gang forms, right? It's kind of, I don't know, I feel like we get a similar story with a lot of other prolific, gigantic organized crime groups, right? Like that's the story with MS-13, right? They formed in Los Angeles because all these other gangs were picking on Salvadoran immigrants and they sort of formed their own gang. And then it became huge. And you hear that a lot with other ethnic mafias in New York and other places like that. So it's actually interesting. I assume that this gang and since it was a triad group, it had origins that went back like a long, long time ago, not that it was something much more recent.

Yeah, it's actually like straight out of the ashes of the war and it's going to have a lot in common with a lot of Yakuza groups as well. The bamboo union or BU to use its common Western name is the largest gang in Taiwan, but there are others, many of them, particularly the four seas and Heaven's Way. alliance. So these three are kind of the unholy trinity of Taiwan's organized criminal groups. The Bamboo Union itself is thought to have over 10,000 members now, spread across 80 internal factions, and it's still based in Taipei. Here's a leader speaking to advice about five years ago, quote, although we may break a law, we don't harm people immoderately. Modately? Okay. But you get the point. More gangsters with a moral code. Although these guys' biggest cash cows is protection rackets on their turf so they're no less venal than most

mafias. Quote, a triad is like a tree. Root spread wider as the triad gets bigger. I'm sure that sounded even cooler in the original Chinese. But the BU also has an initiation right, which is to drink a glass of water containing drops of your so-called

brother's blood, and even today it adheres to a strict code. Like, the Yakuza, basically. If someone breaks the code, they may be required to chop off a pinky finger. But for more senior members, the stakes are obviously higher. One punishment is called three swords, six eyes.

You handed a sword and must stab any part of your body three times. The sword will go in and come out the other side of the body, hence the six eyes or holes, which is lovely, a good drinking game. The BU grows in part thanks to its heavy anti-communist leanings and close relationship with the Komen Tang, the KMT, which during the late 50s and early 60s is split in two parts. One lot of been pushed out of the mainland, and into Taiwan, where they're creating basically a new country.

And the other battalions have been forced back out of the Yunnan province into Burma, where they're getting deep into the global heroin trade to, hopefully, they believe, fund a great victory against Mao's Red Army. Good luck with that, guys. Yeah, we actually go into that a bit in the Patrick Wynn episode on the Wa from a month or so back, and he talks about it a lot in his fantastic book, Narcotopia. Yeah, yeah, that is an awesome book. People should be listening to that show.

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But you can flare less with ebbglis. A once-monthly treatment for moderate to severe eczema. After an initial four-month- or longer dosing phase, about four-and-10 people taking ebblis, achieved itch relief and clear or almost clear skin at 16-9. weeks. And most of those people maintain skin that's still more clear at one year with monthly dosing. Ebglis, Librikizumab, LBKZ. A 250 milligram per 2 milliliter injection is a prescription medicine used to treat adults in children 12 years of age and older who weigh at least 88 pounds or 40 kilograms

with moderate to severe eczema. Also called atopic dermatitis that is not well controlled with prescription therapies used on the skin or topicals or who cannot use topical therapies. Ebglis can be used with or without topical corticosteroids. Don't use if you're allergic to Epglis. Allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. Eye problems can occur. Tell your doctor if you have new or worsening eye problems. You should not receive a live vaccine when treated with Ebbglis. Before starting Ebbglis, tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. Ask your doctor about Ebbglis.com or call 1800 lilyrx or 1-800-545-9709. The BU also stands out for the relationships it forges with other gangs elsewhere,

including major Yakuza families in Japan, triads like the 14K in Hong Kong, and of course the US, where Chinese migration is flourishing. And while like I said, the modern B.U has over 80 different factions. It starts out with five big ones. And they're called lion, tiger, leopard, Phoenix, and duck. Don't laugh, man. I mean, we all know, all Americans know that ducks stick together. Maybe is it ducks fly together or ducks stick together?

But, yeah, either way, I know a guy who has a poultry farm or poultry on his farm. And he's always talking about how ducks are just like ridiculously vicious animals. Yeah. I guess that's a reason to be part of duck. I mean, I'm going to choose leopard or tiger or lion. I mean, Phoenix isn't the real thing. These guys have really got all of their allegories mixed up. Anyway, the BU, it first gets rich in the 1960s,

and that's when thousands of American GIs flock to Taipei on R&R from the Vietnam War, so similar to what happened in Bangkok. And it gets really big in the 1980s, thanks to a so-called economic miracle in Taiwan, that mirrors other places that were messed up by war, Korea, Japan, Germany and so on. And it builds these huge manufacturing and tech sectors, like I mentioned with the semiconductors. But nobody outside East Asia has really heard of it by the time Henry Liu is murdered. And that exposes the many links between organized crime and Taiwan's political leadership,

which is operating at the time as a one-party state under an effective martial law. And that's going to skyrocket the profile of Al-Pal, Chang'an Lowe, the white wolf, but he hadn't always gone by that name. So let's learn a little bit more about him. Chang'an Lowe is born March 13, 1948, in Nanjing, China, which is on the country's eastern seaboard and one of its four great ancient capitals, alongside Jian, Luang, and Beijing. But the city's modern history is anything but great. In 1937, it's been the site of a decisive victory for Imperial Japan during the second Sino-Japanese War.

It is widely thought to be the first domino in the Second World War itself. Having killed 10,000 Chinese on the battlefield and taking the city, the Japanese then murder 40,000 Chinese soldiers in captivity before going on a rampage known as the Nanjing massacre, or the rape of Nanjing due to the prevalence of sexual assault as a weapon of war, during which the imperial troops kill around a quarter of a million civilians. But you can listen to a war pod for that. God damn it, Sean.

Yeah, yeah. By the time Chang Anlo is born, China is in the middle of a civil war between Mao's communists and Chiang Kai Czech's nationalists, which in 1949, well, Mao wins. And he founds the People's Republic of China that October 1st. The following year, Chang Anlo flees with his family to Taipei, but they've got nothing but the clothes on their backs and they struggle to live. The young Chan learns that violence is a good way to get what he wants

and he turns heads and impressive street fights against other former mainland Chinese gangsters and local Taiwanese heavies. Age 16, he becomes a member of the Bamboo Union. But Chang is no goon himself. And in 1968 he moves to the United States to pursue a philosophy degree at the University of Nevada. before heading over to Stanford University, a prestigious institute in the San Francisco Bay, before he runs a restaurant in the Los Angeles suburb of Monterey Park.

But it's a front. Chang never drops his association with the BU, and he uses his sweet-talking and ruthless business mind to get into everything from gambling and prostitution to extortion and drug trafficking, all your greats, relying on the help of Chinese immigrants. It says one BU boss to cops, quote, If you drive from Los Angeles to Florida on Interstate 10, every town where you see a Chinese restaurant,

you walk in and tell them where you're with the Bamboo Union, they will take care of you. And there are a lot of them. From 1970 to 80, according to the US census, the number of Chinese in the country leaps, forward, from 435,000 to 806,000, making up the second largest group of legal migrants behind Mexicans. I have to assume, too, that that's a low. estimate and that there was much more that came illegally too because that wasn't that the era when there was um

I guess that was later on with the uh the Fujian episode you did about the uh yeah the snake yeah yeah that was that was I guess much later on but but it was nothing new it wasn't anything new and I think this was a lot of what built up the tongs in New York as well right it was illegal migration from Fujian and stuff it was about the same time yeah so I mean this is just the tip of a massive

iceberg but but Chang who at this point is known as White Wolf, denies he's brought any of his gang links to the states. Quote, I was a gang member in Taiwan, he admits to a New York Times journalist in the mid-80s, but, he adds, when gang members like me came to the United States, we came as individuals, to be students or businessmen, not with a criminal purpose. And that is a lie. Then comes the fallout from Henry Liu's death and the massive problems it causes US officials who'd sooner seen the case die

than risk issues with Taiwan, which is its major ballwalk against communism in the South China Sea. Chang actually plays a role in the scandal himself when he leaks a taped confession of the hit men that implicates them with Taiwan's political hierarchy while claiming no involvement despite some of the men

being his own close associates. And amazingly, despite getting life sentences for the killing, three of the men are given clemency by the Taiwanese government. government and they are released from prison in 1991. The one guy who'd been extradited to America is called Tung Kwa Sen, but he dies in 1991, but he's stabbed to death by fellow inmates at the Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary in Pennsylvania. According to a Taiwanese government released, quote,

for some reason. So thanks for clearing that up, guys. Things aren't going that badly for White Wolf around this time, but they're not great either. In 1986, he's caught up in a huge, New York drug bust, trying to import 300 kilos of heroin from the Golden Triangle, and he's convicted alongside 10 other BU members and sentenced to 15 years behind bars. But the White Wolf doesn't waste his time benching and playing ball, does he? He studies hard.

He gets five bachelor's degrees and two masters while he's in the nick. I don't know if they're bullshit ones like Garden Management or English Lit, but either way, it's pretty impressive. Chang gets out in the mid-90s, just as Taiwan is officially becoming a multi-party democracy, and he quickly rises to become the boss of the BU, Taiwan's most powerful mobster. But democracy doesn't really help him much, because in 1996, authorities issue a warrant for Chang's arrest over the murder of a Taiwanese legislator admit a construction fraud case. See, he's finally getting into real estate.

and he flees back across the 110 mile wide Taiwan straight to Shenzhen, China. And it's while he's on the mainland that the White Wolf is said to form a close alliance with communist officials, and he starts to advocate for the joining of the two nations again, read a Chinese takeover of Taiwan, much like Hong Kong after the Brits left. In 1998, tragedy strikes when his son is stabbed to death during a fight with members of the four-seas triad, after a night out at the Taipei karaoke bar. I wonder if he'd been singing to Cat Stevens. Thousands show up for the funeral,

including rival gang members, political leaders, and senior business figures, chauffeered in around 70 Cadillacs, whose cortege stretches back a mile. Of course, White Wolf himself is there. I cannot deny I have influence, he tells a reporter. In 2004, White Wolf's mainland connections to take an overtly political turn

when he found the Chinese Unification Promotion Party, aka the Unification Party. Unification is the only way we can keep a peace between both sides, he tells the BBC. But the problem is, Taiwanese people have been brainwashed.

They hate China, even though they are Chinese. Wait, so let me see if I understand this correctly. He was affiliated with a Taiwanese anti-Chinese party and is now starting his own anti-Taiwan independence. party in China. Yep, that's it. And weirdly enough, the KMT, the Komen tank, yeah, today, they're the party that is advocating for Chinese unity, which is really, really weird. So they've gone completely

full circle. I mean, they were fighting Mao and now they want to be friends with Mao. So go figure. When asked about his connection to the BU and its many criminal enterprises, the White Wolf issues a subtly terrifying rebuke. Quote, some officers try to look into my financial system. They think I've made money here, it means China. There have been too many rumors. They think I deal drugs or smuggle. Chinese people say, if you don't bother me, I won't bother you. But if you bother me, I will bother you back. Pretty good quote, actually. In 2013, he decides to leave the Chinese mainland and over 700 people attend a farewell banquet for him in Shanghai. He's promptly arrested upon his return to Taipei airport, but he's

His enduring power is evident in the presence of hundreds of supporters who are held back by a heavy police presence. He's still on the hook for an array of crimes, of course, and cops subject him to over three hours of questioning on arrival. They say he came back to, quote, turn himself in. But he says otherwise, claiming he wants to promote the, quote, peaceful unification of China. There he goes again.

Authorities release him on bail, and there is an outcry about his lax treatment. He doesn't actually face jail over anything. White Wolf isn't the only gangster helping run Taiwan's political scene, though. Sue Haiching is an orphan who rose to become an underworld boss in Taipei before the KMT nominated him to run for council in Taipei, despite him having the tiny little drawback of being illiterate. In later life, Sue is known for his ability to bring together warring gangs,

and he gets the nickname The Last Arbitraer, as well as the far better nickname Mosquito Brother, and he makes a fortune in gambling and hostess bars. In 2005, when Sue dies age 93, a six-mile procession of men in black suits turns out for the funeral, including Yakuza from all over in Japan. Here is a great lead by Mac William Bishop, writing in the Asian Times back then, quote, It isn't often that the dark, slimy world of organised crime gets exposed to the light of day.

But on May 29, more than 10,000 gangsters from dozens of crime syndicates from across Asia gathered in Taipei. They came to pay their respects at a memorial for one of Taiwan's most well-known and, quote, respected gang bosses. Even gangsters, it seems, get sentimental and waxed nostalgic. Look, what I'm saying here is that these guys are very big and very powerful, and in many cases they've been hand-plucked from organized crime to raise the profile of Taiwan's political parties. This isn't some rando-gangster put in our tie.

It is endemic. And nowadays, it's really deeply rooted. Says one Rutgers University expert to the Financial Times, quote, In politics, it used to be the gang leaders themselves who ran for public office. But now they support a family or relative who is not in the gang to represent them. It's precisely because of Taiwan's amazing tech industry, an education, an economic miracle, and politics,

and conversely, its closeness to China, despite the fears of the majority of Taiwanese people about being steamrolled by them, that Taiwanese gangs like the Bamboo Union are so deeply embedded in Asia's criminal underworld. You've got Taiwanese mobsters in the US, Canada, Britain, France, Australia, criminal chemists heading up billion dollar meth labs in the Burmese jungle, run in some cases by the descendants of the KMT soldiers who quarterback the heroin epidemics of the 1960s and 70s. Taiwanese gangs are even believed to be tied up with the North Korean regime's Bureau 39.

That is Pyongyang's headquarters, relicit activity including counterfeit currency and tons and tons of drugs. I thought the meth labs in Burma were connected to CCP associates or at least Chinese mainland gang. Is that not the case? The majority are, but there are some that are headed up by the kind of descendants of this sort of lot, I think they're called Lost Battalion or the lost soldiers or whatever that came over from Nune. But also the chemists who run the labs are Taiwanese in most cases.

They're kind of like woven into this giant patchwork of drug crime in the region. Whatever your thing, it could be anything. Canva helps you make that thing a thing. Canva is a simple online tool thing. It's a way to design with our magic AI tool things. You can social media your thing Generate images or videos of your thing Make decks for presentations to show your thing

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The National Police Agency needs to enforce a systemic crackdown, organized crime. crime by collaborating with administrative agencies to conduct joint inspections, easy for me to say, and impose penalties on businesses and venues in which gangs invest in which they operate and own. This is the way to cut off their means. Sure. Hit them in the wallet. Only, even more recently, the BU in particular has been getting into everyone's

favorite game. What else? Crypto. Last month, writes Martin Purbrick again, quote, Taipei police announced they're investigating a group of 12 suspects led by a member of the bamboo union who were operating a fraudulent cryptocurrency mining scheme that defrauded investors out of $3.2 million. The police stated that the bamboo union ringleader, surname Chang, there's a lot of Chang's in this story,

convinced the owner of a crypto mining operation that he could help him find investors for a second crypto mine for an advance fee. Chang and the gang then took the advance fee, as well as the funds sent by crypto investors who were told that the crypto mine had failed and the funds were lost. Honestly, that's like couch cushion money for crypto fraud. Like not exactly mastermind stuff. Actually, it's embarrassingly low for doing that sort of thing.

Yeah, I know. It's like a small thing, but he uses it. He's saying that this is the tip of a massive, massive thing that they're getting into right now. Yeah, these kind of scams, and there's telecoms ones too that are pretty deep to, get into, so I won't bother, but basically

they're scamming people on 2G and 3G signals. It's pretty weird. Anyway, they're being run in lockstep with the owners of casinos and scam compounds in Cambodia, say cops. For more on that, gigantic issue, listen to our shows with Nathan Southern and Lindsay Kennedy, or

Patreon, or Patreon, can hear my latest interview with the Blue Dragon NGO out in Hanoy, Vietnam. And one of the biggest problems Taiwanese officials face with this stuff, besides the obvious roadblocks investigating politically, protect, gangsters is that while Taiwan's goons can hop across the strait to the mainland and run operations there, cops can't do the same.

There is no official link between Taiwan and communist Chinese police, so there's basically no international cooperation. And never has this culture of impunity been on display more than last March when a major bamboo union gangster held a birthday party at Taipei's Fancy Marriott Hotel. This leader is seen shaking hands with politicians and other important officials, says an anti-corruption activist to Sky News, quote, his birthday party guest list illustrates what some perceive to be a rot at the core of Taiwanese free society. One which transparency advocates argue undermines the territory's credibility as a lawful democracy,

the questionable connections between gangsters and politicians. And he goes on, quote, It's a very astounding example of how politicians abuse their power. I'm outraged. We've fought so many years to believe our society is lived by law and order. That creates inequality in a society and seriously affects people's belief of law and order in Taiwan. And when the situation becomes more and more serious, our government is under a lot of pressure to show Taiwanese people their determination to fight against organized crime.

people start to question whether or not our government seriously wants to crack down from the crimes in Taiwan. Political candidates often hurl accusations of gang ties at each other during election runs, which actually isn't all that mad given that 15% of councillors have criminal records including kidnapping and extortion related to gang activity. There's a long-lasting revolving door of MPs offering underworld figures sweetheart deals and land to legitimise their gangs in return. turn for money and votes. Quote,

some businessman would approach me to ask not to pursue to go after those people who are responsible for scandals, says one former politician. Sean, do you know who the real gangsters actually are? Oh, uh,

I think I know. That's right. It's those crooks in Congress. Oh, and you know, you may know that the most recent time in his presidential election was held just a couple months ago.

And it was won by Democratic Progressive Party or DPP, which opposes a so-called one China unification with the mainland. And what about White Wolf? Let's head back to him. Well, he made headlines recently from inviting a bunch of Yakuza leaders to Taiwan for a political event, something he argued was an act of, quote, civil diplomacy. But despite Taiwanese intelligence uncovering a Chinese election interference scheme, where propaganda is run out of Beijing-funded casinos and online betting firms, What a story that is, White Wolf's Unification Party won a grand total of zero seats in January.

So perhaps, at the ripe old age of 75, the guy's influence is waning. But with what? Over half a dozen degrees under his belt and probably a decent number of Taiwan's business and parliamentary leaders in his pocket. There's probably plenty of life in the old dog yet. Watch this space. There's no doubt China will get more and more involved in Taiwan as it ramps up to what will surely be attack at some point. And what could be better fit for a wolf warrior

than a white wolf? I like what you did there. Very nice. It's word stuff. Word play. Word smithery. Yeah. For more, Patreon.com,

such as an oral podcast or sign up on iTunes or Spotify. And yeah, if we don't start hitting better download numbers, Sean's going to show way more than his face on YouTube. Yeah. Yeah. Whatever it takes.

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