HKU Bulletin May 2009 (Vol. 10 No. 2)

7 6 a triad society for protection or distribution of goods, or in other cases, the triads are the syndicates.” Triad violence, he says, is a specific kind of violence involving protection, or bouncership. “Triad members may be customers in bars that are protected by another triad group – this can lead to a clash. In general, triads fight on two fronts, first they fight for the right to distribute goods, or to work as bouncers in a club and, secondly, they fight off people who may stray onto their turf.” What he and his colleague, Professor Roderic Broadhurst, have found is that as Hong Kong people travel to China for cheap shopping and entertainment organized crime follows them. “This trend started in the mid-1990s. The reason? Some say that triads have moved north because of the more stringent measures brought in by the Hong Kong government, like the Organized and Serious Crime Ordinance. That may have had an effect on organized crime but not necessarily on triad societies. “What’s actually happened is that the Hong Kong people who used to visit Mongkok now find it’s much cheaper to go to China for karaoke, nightclubs, or massage parlours. And these outlets are declining in Hong Kong. “Organized crime is very market driven, and this displacement of the market was one reason for Shenzhen’s crime wave, from around 1999 to 2005, when it had the highest crime rate in China. We now have reports of Hong Kong triads tutoring the Shenzhen triads in how to operate drug smuggling rings, and so on.” Another reason for the decline in triad crime here is the drop in the number of teenagers. “In the past, a lot of the triad criminal cases involved teenagers, or people in their 20s or 30s, but now we have a very low birth rate, we have fewer and fewer teenagers. So there are fewer people to recruit,” says Lee. “In the 1960s and 1970s the triads dominated the public estates, and there were a lot of clashes between teenagers. Nowadays, the new estates are often designed in accordance with situational crime prevention to avoid gang turf wars. “However, the problem is still very serious in the northern part of the New Territories. This is where the newcomers, and disadvantaged groups, reside and it’s easier for them to become the prey of triad societies.” An aging society is having another unusual impact on triad groups. “They want to get into business, now, both legal and illegal. If they have made money they want to invest it. They have begun to move up the social ladder and may not want to engage in illegal activities any longer. The older triads may not want to risk everything by going to prison.” So they set up legitimate businesses, like restaurants, and become respectable. Hong Kong Triads Move North: For Markets and Recruits As organized crime move across the border, Hong Kong enjoys a drop in the rate of triad gang homicide. D r Lee King Wa, a Honorary Fellow of the Centre of Criminology, says that with shoppers flocking to China for pirated VCDs and cheap entertainment Hong Kong is witnessing a displacement of organized crime. “But a triad society is just one kind of organized criminal entity in Hong Kong,” he explains. “The others are what the police call syndicates. They are not necessarily triad societies, they may hire RESEARCH supported with a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and is currently undergoing trials on monkeys. The Institute is also a key team member of the China AIDS Vaccine Initiative, which was established in March to bring together scientists from across China to share ideas, discoveries and resources, and reduce waste and duplication. Hong Kong can expect to benefit from these efforts, but Dr Chen is concerned about the need to also track the evolution of the HIV virus here. Infections are increasing despite government efforts to prevent its spread and 2008 saw 435 new infections, the largest increase ever. Dr Chen has started a pilot investigation to collect samples from doctors and track the virus’s progression and hopes to secure additional funds for a proper study. “If we want to control the spread of the virus, we need to know what we’re dealing with – we need to know the biological characteristics of the virus,” he says. “Hong Kong has the resources and talented people. We hope AIDS research will receive higher priority for research funding.” In the meantime, the Institute is trying to get the message out through public education programmes to prevent infection. It has linked up with Harvard University, which has devised a video for secondary school and university students because many new infections occur in the 15-24 year old age group. A Chinese version is in production and will be distributed locally. The March of AIDS in China A HKU AIDS expert says the country is at a critical stage in the HIV epidemic. T he virus that causes AIDS has a frightening ability to recombine and change its structure, making it that much more complicated to treat and vaccinate against. The consequences of this are starting to be felt in China, where AIDS arrived a little later than elsewhere, but where at least 700,000 people are now infected with HIV. A study by the University’s AIDS Institute, Wuhan University and Tsinghua University, found that therapy to control HIV failed in almost one-third of 339 infected rural residents, hastening the development into full-blown AIDS. A significant number of them had drug-resistant versions of the virus. “China has a limited supply of drugs and only has generic drugs for first-line therapy. If drug-resistant strains of HIV become a problem, then it will be very difficult to control its spread,” Dr Chen Zhiwei, Director of the AIDS Institute, says. The f indings were publ ished in the Journal of AIDS , in January, and fol low another col laborat ive study publ ished in Nature , last autumn, that tracked the evolution of the HIV virus in China and the changing pattern of infection there. The dominant form of the virus has evolved from being mainly the recombinant BC and B prime forms to the recombinant AE form. “This evolution is a dynamic process but i t generates compl icated situations for vaccine, therapy and other issues,” Dr Chen says. At the same time HIV infections are moving into the general population as sexual transmission has become the dominant mode of transmission, eclipsing intravenous drug use and blood donation. New infections are also increasing dramatically in number. “China is at a critical stage in the HIV epidemic and we can expect more and more of the general population to be infected,” he says. One way to halt the spread would be a much hoped-for vaccine. The AIDS Institute, which was established 18 months ago to focus on the virus’s spread in China and Hong Kong, is developing an HIV vaccine with partners from Wuhan University, the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Tsinghua University. Their vaccine is mucosal, rather than injected, so it can attack the virus at the point of infection. This research is being Dr Lee King Wa Dr Chen Zhiwei in the laboratory