Chinese Migration to South Africa Presents Challenges

IPS ^ | Dec 11, 2004 | Moyiga Nduru

[Tailgunner Joe]

JOHANNESBURG, Dec 11 (IPS) - Two months after the murder of a prominent Chinese businessman together with his family in South Africa, the small but growing number of Chinese immigrants here remains tight-lipped about the incident.

Jia-Bin Li’s body was discovered by a municipal worker in a drainpipe near South Africa’s capital, Pretoria, last month. The bodies of his wife and two daughters, aged 16 and four, were also found near his remains.

Repeated requests from IPS for an interview with Chinese community leaders were either politely turned down or not acknowledged. Nonetheless, the abduction and killing of Li and his family has thrown a spotlight on the activities of the community.

Chinese immigrants to South Africa, along with those from other Asian countries, make up just 2.5 percent of the country’s population of 44.8 million.

It is a tightly-knit society that largely keeps to itself. Most Chinese immigrants are generally law-abiding citizens, many running family-owned businesses. However, organised crime amongst other members of the community has attracted the attention of authorities.

So far, four Chinese nationals have been arrested by the South African police in connection with Li’s murder; all have been released on bail.

His death is believed to be related to property deals that turned sour, (Li, who arrived in South Africa after the demise of apartheid in 1994, earned his living by buying and selling property). Li’s murder has also been linked to the activities of Chinese criminal gangs – or triads – although police have refused to confirm these speculations.

In a recent paper entitled ‘Triad Societies and Chinese Organised Crime in South Africa’ published by the Pretoria-based Institute of Strategic Studies, researcher Peter Gastrow notes: "Since the mid-1980s, Chinese criminal groups have become well-organised entities, modelled on the triad societies of Hong Kong and China."

Triad criminals are active in major cities like Johannesburg and Pretoria. Once they establish a base in these cities, they enter into "various forms of fraud, drug-trafficking, firearm-smuggling, extortion, money-laundering, prostitution, illegal gambling, the smuggling of illegal immigrants, tax evasion, and the large-scale importing of counterfeit goods," Gastrow adds.

Chinese immigrants are also involved in the illegal poaching of an endangered abalone species along the coast.

But, "Harvesting and exporting of abalone, although still an important component, no longer constitutes the core activity of these (triad-type) groups," notes Gastrow.

A certain percentage of Chinese migrants to South Africa are trafficked women. Women from rural China, many of them poorly-educated, are often brought to the country, says the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

The women are flown to Johannesburg, and then taken to neighbouring Swaziland, Lesotho or Mozambique. They later cross the border back into South Africa – all this in a bid to circumvent airport immigration controls.

Ultimately, the women’s travel documents are taken away from them by the traffickers, and some find themselves working in brothels as sex workers.

"Their passports are taken from them, and they are confined with no prospect of movement. Effectively they become slaves," the IOM’s Jonathan Martens told IPS in a telephone interview Wednesday (Nov. 8).

"The activity is ongoing," added Martens. "We assist an average of about seven persons a month, including Thai women," he added.

In a bid to counter this trend, the IOM regional office in Pretoria launched the ‘Southern African Counter-Trafficking Assistance Programme’ in January this year. The initiative assists trafficked persons by providing them with care and support for a three-month period, and also gives women the option of returning to their home countries.

In addition, the programme attempts to help women who do return to reintegrate themselves in their societies. "It’s up to them if they want to return home. But many prefer to go home," Martens says.

According to the IOM, a woman or a child may have access to medical care, counselling and skills training that will facilitate resettlement in their countries of origin – and guard against them being re-trafficked.

The United Nations claims that up to 900,000 human beings are trafficked across international borders every year. If the number of people who are trafficked within borders is taken into account, this figure rises to between two and four million.

On a more positive note, trade between South Africa and China is growing. South Africa is currently China’s most important trading partner on the African continent, accounting for 20 percent of Chinese-African trade.

The Chinese government also appears keen on maintaining cordial relations with South Africa.

"The Chinese embassy often organises various activities to encourage the Chinese community to abide by local laws and merge into local society, so as to promote Sino-African friendship," the Chinese ambassador to South Africa, Liu Guijin, said in a message posted on the embassy website.