Features | Security | East Asia

Beijing’s Shadow Networks in Okinawa

Organized crime groups with roots in Taiwan have become a useful tool for the CCP – in Taiwan and, increasingly, abroad.

In early May, Japanese writer Yasuda Minetoshi published a feature article in NEWS Post Seven examining how the Chinese Communist Party may be using organized crime networks to penetrate Okinawa. According to the report, Beijing has in recent years intensified efforts to shape political narratives on the island. Beyond the visible promotion of the “Ryukyu independence movement,” the report also alleged that groups originating in Taiwan’s underworld have been used as channels for influence operations.

These groups are not merely criminal organizations. Some are reportedly linked to long-standing Chinese secret societies with transnational networks. Through such channels, China’s influence activities are alleged to have reached not only Japan, but also parts of Latin America. The central question is therefore not simply whether these groups are criminal actors, but why their historical background and organizational networks make them useful to Beijing’s broader external strategy.

Chinese Secret Societies and the Ryukyu Independence Narrative

In Yasuda’s report, one organization occupies a particularly important position: the Bamboo Union, one of Taiwan’s most prominent organized crime groups. Its spiritual leader, Chang An-lo, has long been linked in public accounts to Taiwan’s Kuomintang (KMT) intelligence networks during the period of martial law. In particular, he was associated with the assassination of Henry Liu, also known by his pen name Chiang Nan, a journalist and KMT critic who was then living in the United States. Chang later spent years in China. 

To understand why such a figure matters in the Okinawa context, however, it is necessary to examine a much older organization: the Hongmen.

According to historical legend, the Hongmen traces its origins to the Tiandihui, a secret society said to have been established by Chen Yonghua, prime minister of the Taiwan-based Kingdom of Tungning and a figure associated with anti-Qing resistance. The Tiandihui was reportedly involved in intelligence gathering and guerrilla activities behind Qing lines. 

Although the Kingdom of Tungning eventually collapsed, the Tiandihui tradition later became associated with the Hongmen, which continued to play a role in anti-Qing mobilization. In later periods, Hongmen networks were also linked to revolutionary movements that helped bring down the Qing Empire. Sun Yat-sen, later remembered as the founding father of the Republic of China, was among the revolutionary figures associated with the Hongmen tradition.

After the collapse of the Qing Empire, Sun Yat-sen sought external support in the fragmented political environment of the warlord era and chose to cooperate with Soviet communist forces. This political alignment also helped bring some members of secret-society networks into contact with the early Chinese Communist movement. The cooperation between the KMT and the Soviet-backed communists continued until Sun’s death and ended after Chiang Kai-shek, the right-wing KMT leader who succeeded him, launched a purge against communist elements within the party.

Following Chiang’s purge, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) continued to cultivate remaining Hongmen members and other local armed or underworld actors willing to cooperate with it. These networks may have helped the CCP survive military pressure, navigate the Japanese invasion, and later gain advantages during the Chinese Civil War. Hongmen elders were reportedly present as honored guests at the founding ceremony of the People’s Republic of China and later participated in the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. 

Seen from this perspective, the CCP did not simply emerge in isolation as an ideological party; it also benefited from contacts with secret-society and underworld networks. After taking power, however, it increasingly sought to absorb, discipline, or repurpose those networks for its own political needs.

What, then, is the relationship among the Bamboo Union, the Hongmen, and the Chinese Unification Promotion Party, the political party founded by Chang An-lo? In the narrative presented by several reports, the Bamboo Union was historically connected to Taiwan’s KMT intelligence circles, while Chang became one of its most influential figures. Some accounts also suggest that members linked to Hongmen networks were involved in these circles. 

Chang later founded the Chinese Unification Promotion Party, which has been widely viewed in Taiwan as a pro-Beijing political organization. In recent years, as Beijing has sought to weaken the strategic constraints imposed by the First Island Chain, Chang and related networks have reportedly become involved in contacts with organized crime groups in Okinawa. The Kyokuryu-kai appears to be one of the key groups mentioned in this context.

Taiwan’s Mirror Media has further reported that Chinese intelligence-linked actors used Chang to cultivate contacts within the Kyokuryu-kai and encourage some of its members to join Hongmen-related organizations. The same reporting also alleged that Kyokuryu-kai-linked channels were used to support groups advocating Ryukyu independence. 

At present, one of the most notable links is that Uejo Keizo, the leader of “Huashongshan,” described as a Hongmen branch in Okinawa, is also said to hold a position in the Nanshu Ikka, a group under the Kyokuryu-kai. Although the Nanshu Ikka may not itself hold an explicit political agenda, its reported connections illustrate how........

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