East Asia

Even as most countries around the world become more concerned about both the domestic and the international impact of the rising incidence of transnational crime, leaders of Asian countries continue to give the issue a low priority on national agendas. They insist that their immediate needs involve dealing with traditional crimes, such as extortion, gambling, loan-sharking, prostitution, debt collection, and violence. Western allies are particularly concerned about the incidence of transnational crimes committed in East Asia involving drug and arms smuggling and human trafficking, both because of the impact on their own national interests and because of their ability to affect regional, national, and international stability. Those concerns are due in large part to the fact that certain East Asian countries, notably China and North ...