EVENTS

This Wednesday Seminar presentation analyses China's criminal world, with gambling as its structural driver and cross-border networks as its most resilient dimension. From the Criminal Law of 1979 onward, campaigns such as Strike Hard, anti-corruption drives, and ‘sweeping away’ initiatives sought to suppress crime — yet illicit economies increasingly revolved around underground casinos, online betting, and lottery fraud. By the 1990s and 2000s, organized crime diversified into corporate fronts, rural grangerization, and transnational syndicates — embedding gambling within both local economies and global flows. Cross-border gambling networks linked Chinese operators to Southeast Asian hubs and offshore platforms — facilitating capital flight, laundering, and household indebtedness. The nexus between officials and criminal groups has persisted — protective umbrellas shielded syndicates, eroding legitimacy and weakening grassroots governance. Legal provisions including the Criminal Law, its amendments, the Anti-Money Laundering Law, and the 2021 Law against Organized Crime provided statutory bases for suppression — criminalizing illegal gambling, laundering, and collusive protection. Yet enforcement remains complicated by gambling’s dual character — simultaneously a state-regulated industry and a conduit for illicit enterprise. The analysis underscores how gambling sustains organized crime and entrenches China’s criminal world within transnational circuits — raising critical questions about governance, legitimacy, and the sustainability of long-term stability.

Speaker

Debasish Chaudhuri is a China scholar and Chinese language expert with over 25 years of research experience. He is currently Adjunct Fellow at the Institute of Chinese Studies and affiliated with the Vivekananda International Foundation, New Delhi. He has previously taught at Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar. Chaudhuri holds a PhD in Chinese Studies from the University of Delhi and has published extensively, including a book — Xinjiang and the Chinese State: Violence in the Reform Era and a monograph Countering Internal Security Challenges in Xinjiang: Rise of the Surveillance State? His recent works include ‘A Hundred Years of Entanglement: The Chinese Party-State and Ethnic Minorities,’ ‘Further Decline of Human Rights Scenario under Covid-19 Restrictions,’ and ‘A Glimpse of China’s Criminal World: Strike Hard to Anti-Gambling Campaigns,’ among others.

Chair

Santosh Pai is a dual-qualified cross-border lawyer offering legal services to clients within the India-China corridor. He holds a B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) degree from NLSIU, Bangalore, LL.M. (Chinese law) from Tsinghua University, Beijing and an MBA from Vlerick University, Belgium. He is currently a partner at Dentons Link Legal, an Indian law firm. He is a member of CII's Core Group on China, and Treasurer and Member of the Governing Council at the Institute of Chinese Studies, New Delhi. His major research interests include India-China economic ties, comparative law and policy, and cross-cultural negotiations. He recently contributed a chapter in China: Indian Perspectives on China’s Politics, Economy, and Foreign Relations (The Hindu Group, 2025).

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