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20 Most Famous Chinese Gangsters and Mobsters

*Originally published by Purity in April 2023 and Updated by Felix in May 2024

The world of crime has had its fair share of notorious, famous, and infamous gangsters. Many of these have been known for their lavish spending from proceeds of crime and use of violence to conduct their operations and maintain control in the underworld.  Crime would be no foreign concept in most, if not all countries, across the globe, China included. Some of the most famous Chinese gangsters have built a reputation, some earning nicknames reflective of their lifestyles or character. Nothing about crime can be glorified, yet some gangsters have become household names in their cities and areas of operation, some even worldwide. Here are the twenty most famous Chinese gangsters and mobsters.

1. Cheung Tze-Keung- ‘Big Spender’

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For his lavish, flamboyant lifestyle, Cheung earned the nickname Big Spender. He was one of the most notorious gangsters in Hong Kong and is perhaps best known for being the brains behind the abduction of city real estate developer Walter Kwok and Victor Li, son of Hong Kong billionaire investor Li Ka Shing in, May 1996. Born in Guangxi province on 7 April 1955, Cheung  settled in Hong Kong with his family at the age of 4. In this city, he grew up to become one of the most famous gangsters of his time.

His criminal activities included robberies, smuggling arms, and kidnapping for ransoms, and he was also wanted for murder. He was known to have alliances with Yip Kai-foon, another famous gangster, and the two engaged in several armed robberies. For example, on 22 February 1990, Cheung stole a consignment of Rolex wristwatches worth HK $30 million at the Kai Tak Airport. His security van heist of 12 July 1991 on the same premises, led to his arrest and imprisonment for 18 months. He had acquired about HK $167 million in the theft. Cheung was finally sentenced to death by a court in Guangzhou and executed by a firing squad on 5 December 1998.

Check out the 10 Most Famous Murders in China.

2. Yip Kai Foon –‘Teeth Dog.’

Yip Kai Foon was a Chinese gangster active in Hong Kong from the early 1980s to the 1990s. He had a gang and was primarily known for armed robbery, particularly in jewelry. They used assault rifles, which they accessed from the black market. He hardly ever hesitated to shoot at the police whenever they confronted him, and in one of the robberies, his men fired 54 shots at the police. On 9 June 1991, in Kwun Tong, Yip and his gang made away with gold and jewelry worth HK$ 5.7 million.

Yip was arrested a couple of times, and he escaped police custody multiple times. This gained him even more notoriety, in addition to his millions’ worth of jewelry heists he managed to pull off severally. He was convicted on 10 March 1997 and sentenced to 41 years in prison. His appeals were denied. He was, however taken ill and hospitalized at Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong, for cancer treatment on 1 April 2017. He died of lung cancer on 19 April 2017.

3. Wan Kuok-Koi – ‘Broken Tooth Koi.’

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Wan, or Broken Tooth Koi as he was best known, was a gangster and former leader of the Macau branch of the 14K triad. The latter is a Chinese organized crime group based in Hong Kong and the second-largest triad in the world with, about 20,000 members. The largest is Sun Yee On, with more than 25,000 members. Both are active internationally. Their primary criminal activity is drug trafficking, alongside other activities such as illegal gambling, money laundering, arms trafficking, extortion, loan sharking, and prostitution. Wan was born on July 29, 1955, and had a rough upbringing in the slums of Macau. He got involved in crime early  and quickly rose through the ranks of the 14K triad.

His influence grew even faster as he began to work for another gangster, Ng Wai. However, the two soon became rivals due to Wan’s fast-rising influence. Wan was wanted for drug trafficking and had to flee Macau in early 1997. Interestingly, however, in August 1997, a Portuguese judge cleared him of all charges and retired almost immediately. Wan returned and soon took over Ng Wai’s rackets with the power and influence he had acquired over time.

Wan was finally arrested and charged with illegal gambling, attempted murder, loan sharking, and criminal association. He was convicted in November 1999 and sentenced to 15 years of prison, with his assets being confiscated. He was released in December 2012 and went back to the casino business. In December 2020, he was blocked for corruption by the US Department of Treasury.

Read more on 10 Most Famous Black Gangsters of all time.

4. Lai Changxing

Lai was born on September 15, 1958, in Jinjiang, Fujian, China. Although he was known as a businessman and founder of the Yuanhua Group, he became ‘China’s most wanted fugitive’ in the late 1990s. This was  after being implicated for involvement in a large smuggling ring. He imported various goods, from cars to cigarettes, and about a sixth of the country’s oil at the time.

Having been born around the time that the Great Leap Forward began, Lai had a tough childhood, narrowly escaping starvation. The Great Leap was a campaign by the Chinese Communist Party from 1958 to 1962 aimed at reconstructing the country’s agricultural economy. Unfortunately, the collectivization of agriculture backfired immensely, and hundreds of thousands starved to death. Lai is also said to have received almost no formal education.

At 20, Lai got into the car importing business and would soon become involved in high-profile corruption in trade, smuggling goods, and obtaining illicit import licenses by bribing top officials. Lai finally fled to Canada in 1999 to escape indictment, but the Chinese government continued to pursue his extradition. His smuggling case was massive and complex, involving hundreds of officials, and it was one of the largest in Chinese history. A special task force had to be established to track him down. Finally, on July 22, 2011, he was deported to China and sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of smuggling on May 18, 2012. His property was also confiscated.

10 Most Famous Trials in China.

5. Liu Yong

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Liu Yong was the leader of a crime group in Shenyang, the capital of Liaoning Province in northeast China. He organized the group’s illegal operations,, which terrorized Shenyang for a decade before his downfall. Liu was convicted of illegal business operations valued at 72 million yuan, damaging property worth 33,090 yuan, unlawful gun possession, and bribery of top government officials with 1.27 million yuan in cash and goods. He was sentenced to death in 2002 by the Tieling Intermediate People’s Court. In 2003, he was granted a 2-year reprieve upon appeal to the Liaoning Provincial Higher People’s Court, which cited that it could not eliminate the possibility that Liu’s confession had not been obtained by torture. However, China’s Supreme People’s Court maintained that based on other evidence brought before the court, Liu’s execution was in order.

6. Hsu Hai-Ching- ‘Taiwan’s Godfather.’

Known by the nicknames ‘Mosquito Brother’ and the Final Arbitrator of the Underworld’,’ Hsu Hai-Ching was a leader of the Bamboo Union, a crime group with more than 10,000 members. Their operations included drug trafficking, illegal gambling, prostitution, extortion, and any other criminal activity large-scale gangs are likely to carry out. He was primarily based in Taiwan.

He was born in 1913, and by his death in 2005, he was one of the country’s most renowned criminal underworld figures. His funeral was one for the books, with over 10,000 attendees, most of whom were fellow gangsters, family, and friends. Members from gangs such as Bamboo Union, the Heavenly Way, and the Four Seas showed up dressed in all black. The police videotaped the procession to track some of the alleged criminals, looking into whether they had violated the law.

7. Du Yuesheng

Du Yuesheng.

Du Yuesheng was a famous Chinese mob boss primarily based in Shanghai. He was nicknamed Big-Eared Du, perhaps because of the size of his ears. Born on 22 August 1888 in Gaoqiao, his family moved to Shanghai a year later. By the time he was nine years old, he had lost his immediate family. His parents died, his sister was sold into slavery and his stepmother disappeared. Du soon began tending for himself, and in his teenage years, he was employed as a bodyguard at a brothel, where he came into contact with the Green Gang, a secret crime group. He became a member at age 16.

Du would later cross paths with another gangster, Huang Jinrong, and become his gambling and opium enforcer. He became a dominant figure in the heroin trade then and was making lots of money, some of which he used to fund politician Chiang Kai-Shek. He rose through the ranks to become the leader of the Green Gang in the 1930s. He escaped to Hong Kong in 1949 to avoid prosecution and stayed there until he died in 1951.

8. Huang Jinrong

Huang was a Chinese detective but also one of the most notorious gangsters of his time. Born on 10 May 1868 in Suzhou, he moved to Shanghai at age 5, where he worked in his father’s teahouse. At age 24, he joined the French Concession police force as a detective and rose to become one of the leading detectives. At some point, he argued with a French officer and temporarily retired.

When he rejoined the forces, his involvement in criminal activity, such as organizing drug trafficking and negotiating deals with criminals, contributed to the rise of crime in the French Concession. Huang managed most of the illegal operations carried out by the Green Gang. He partnered with Du Yuesheng too, who ran some of his opium dens. Huang was dismissed in 1924 after beating Lu Yongxiang’s son, a warlord in Shanghai. He stepped down from the forces but continued organizing most of the Green Gang’s activity in the area. He died of ill health in 1953.

Read more on: Gangsters in Japan; Top 10 Fascinating Facts about the Yakuza.

9. Ng Sik-ho

Nicknamed ‘Crippled Ho’ and ‘Limpy Ho’ due to a leg injury, Sik-ho was a famous Hong Kong drug lord and mob boss. He was born in 1930 and moved to Hong Kong from Mainland China in the 1960s. By 1967, he engaged in the small-scale trade of opium and morphine. By his arrest in 1974, he had built a massive drug empire stretching across Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Britain, Singapore, and the U.S.A. His wife was involved in the drug trade too.

Sik-Ho was arrested on 12 November 1974, charged with smuggling tonnes of opium and heroin from Thailand, and convicted to 30 years imprisonment. His wife was convicted of 16 years imprisonment. After serving for 16 years, however, he was moved from a guarded hospital cell to a ward at Queen Mary Hospital in Hong Kong. He died weeks later, on September 8, 1991. His wife was released in 1992.

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10. Zhang Xiaolin

Zhang was a long-term associate of Du Yueshang and one of the top-ranking members of the Green Gang. He played a significant role in cementing Du’s dominance in the opium trade through his links with Zhejiang warlords, who helped him control shipping routes. However, Zhang and Du had formed a formidable criminal partnership, and tensions between the two soon grew. Zhang resented Du’s fast-growing influence and power. When the Japanese invaded China in 1937, Du sided with the resistance, but Zhang sought to help the invaders, which was seen as treachery and betrayal. His assassination by one of his bodyguards in 1941 was revenge for collaborating with the Japanese.

11. Charles Heung

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Charles Heung, famously known as Charlie was a famous criminal and triad boss during the 1970s through to 1990s in Hong Kong. He began his criminal activities as a member of the Sun Yee On criminal organization before breaking away to form his team. He eventually founded the Wo Group which gained popularity in the city. Charles was the boss in charge of illegal activities such as illegal gambling, owning prostitution rings, and carrying out drug trafficking operations across China.

Heung was an intelligent criminal with exceptional negotiating skills which helped him evade the authorities for many years. However, he was eventually arrested and sentenced to nine years in prison in 1998. He would later on be linked to several ill-gotten gains during his criminal years. He left a mark.

12. Tony Duong

Here is a Chinese gangster who took his game to international levels. Tony Duong, a Vietnamese-Chinese criminal is known for his canning behavior and ability to evade the law. He has been linked with multiple criminal activities in the United States of America, including drug trafficking and illegal gambling.

For years, Duong has evaded the law enforcers thanks to his huge connection to other criminal gangs around the country.

13. Zhou Guanglong

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Zhou Guanglong or ‘Old Zhou’ was a leader of an organized criminal organization called Zhengzhou in Henan province china. He was one of the most dangerous criminals in the 1990s and early 2000s.

As a leader of an organized criminal group, Zhou expanded his group into several crimes including gambling, kidnapping, and extortion. He also organized contracted killings backed by his brutality and mercilessness.

However, in the early 2000s, a criminal crackdown operation was run in China leading to his arrest. Zhou was handed a death sentence following his multiple offenses. The sentence was reduced to life imprisonment, marking the end of his crimes in China.

14. Pinkie Chow

Chow Hung-yeung, famously known as Pinkie Chow was one of the rare criminal bosses in HongKong, china. She was also one of the most dangerous female criminal leaders the country ever witnessed during her time in the 1970s and 1980s.

During her early years in the underworld, Chow began as a member of the Wo Shing Wo criminal group before quickly gaining power and starting her group. Working with corrupt police officers, Chow became powerful, running prostitution businesses, gambling dens, and drug trafficking.

Pinkie was famous for her fearlessness and high temper which led her to making quick and wrong decisions that led to the death of her targets as well as her gang members. However, following a police crackdown in China, Chow was arrested in 1987 charged with multiple crimes, and sentenced to seven years in prison.

15. Yu Zuomin

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While the Chinese economy was on the rise in the 1990s, a man named Yu Zuomin amassed a huge amount of wealth for himself through criminal activities. Yu, also known as ‘Poker King’ was the leader of one of Shanghai’s biggest criminal groups.

Yu was famous for his love for high-stakes gambling and therefore he owned more than one hundred illegal gambling houses in the city. A high love for high-stakes gambling came with huge risks and rewards at some time. He would continuously gamble and win huge sums of money, which would also be lost in a short time. his talent for playing cards earned him the name ‘Poker.’

However, in the police operation, his criminal group was disoriented leading to the arrest of more than five hundred members. He was also arrested in 2003 and sentenced to nineteen years in prison and had his assets worth more than two hundred million yuan confiscated by the government.

16. Zhang Ziqiang

Zhang Ziqiang was a powerful criminal leader in Chongqing, china in the 1990s and 2000s. starting his criminal life as an ordinary street thug, Zhang rose quickly through collaboration with corrupt police. He took Chongqing by storm becoming one of the most highly sought-after criminals in the country.

Monopolizing extortion, gambling, and prostitution in the city, Zhang amassed huge wealth becoming more powerful. He would always move around in luxury cars surrounded by the bodyguard and showing that he was untouchable.

A criminal gang crackdown in 2009 led to the arrest of more than one thousand members of his criminal group leaving him vulnerable. Despite being on the run, Zhang was arrested and convicted in 2013 of multiple crimes and sentenced to nineteen years in prison.

17. Chu Wong

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Meet Chu Wong, a Chinese example of Pablo Escobar who ran cocaine trafficking in the East and Canada in the 1980s and 1990s. he was a notorious leader of Wo Hing Wo; an Asian gang that operated across British Columbia and Canada.

With his family in China, Chu had connections with several gangs in the country who would help him ship his drugs to Canada and distribute them across the country. The criminal group was famous for having powerful and ruthless squads.

His downfall started in 1991 when the police carried out the Project Dinosaur operation to eliminate the criminal group. Chu was eventually arrested in 1996 alongside over one hundred members of the gang. He was sentenced to fifteen years in prison.

18. Kwai Ping-Hung

There had never been a bigger organized criminal group in China until Kwai Ping-Hung formed the famous Sun YeeOn.Kwai, also known as ‘Lam Ap’ or ‘Lam Brother’ made the Sun Yee On one of the biggest criminal groups in the history of China.

Under his leadership, the group expanded its control over illegal businesses in the country including prostitution, drug trafficking, and extortion among others. He had developed a code of conduct for the group that every member strictly lived by. Is trademark sideburns and an axe in his hand symbolize power.

Kwai was arrested in 1998 alongside his members in the operation codenamed ‘Thunderbolt.’ His crimes earned him twenty-four years in prison marking an end to the ‘ruler of Hong Kong’s underworld.’

19. Ng Shiu-Fan

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Ng Shiu-Fan had other names such as ‘Squarenail’ or ‘Squareheaded Nail’ which were associated with his ruthlessness and business acumen. He was a criminal leader of the Wo Shing Wo triad that operated in Hong Kong in the 1980s.

Rising from being a street gang, Ng became a respected name in the underworld with his ability to run a series of criminal empires in his two decades reign. He became so wealthy, owning several businesses, and illegal gambling dens. He was also one of the men who ran the contracted killing business in Hong Kong.

He began falling in the late 1990s when he was arrested in 1997 and convicted of money laundering and other organized crimes. As the mastermind controlling the HongKong underworld, Ng was handed ten years in prison.

20. Raymond Chow

Raymond Chow or ‘Shrimp Kid’ was a renowned criminal leader in Hong Kong China during his reign in the 1990s and early 2000s. However, his name and his actions were the opposite as he was known for his use of force and brutality. He was famous for eliminating competition using barbaric ways such as dismembering people’s body parts to instill fear.

Chow led the Sun Yee On criminal group to become owners of illegal gambling businesses, drug trafficking, and prostitution. His reign came to an abrupt end in 2000 when he was arrested and sentenced to twenty-four years in prison for multiple crimes including money laundering, murders, and running an organized criminal group.

Indeed, Chinese gangsters are some of the most notorious players in the criminal underworld. They have carried out various forms of crime including drug trafficking, smuggling, extortion, kidnapping, and murder, just to mention a few. The list is hardly exhaustive, but most of  the names featured here are undoubtedly some of the most infamous.