Assessing and Explaining the Resurgence of China's Criminal Underworld

Based upon collected crime statistics, this paper provides a sketch of China's criminal underworld during the past two decades and a quantitative assessment of its current state. Through examining the organised criminal groups, it also assesses the hardcore of China's criminal underworld — the mafia-style criminal syndicates and their greater base — the underworld society. It argues that a challenge from the criminal underworld has increasingly posed a serious threat to Chinese society. It also provides explanations for the recent resurgence of the criminal underworld in China through a perspective of political science — placing emphasis on the state-failure factors.