Though I think it’s fair to distinguish between using organised crime during times of war against an enemies military vs using organised crime during times of peace to grind down a competing nations civilian population.
[0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Underworld?wprov=sft...
Basically it comprises interviews of gangsters who were recruited by the government to conduct mass executions of undesirable people, and the subjects describe some reasons for which the work was tasked to organized crime rather than to official government employees.
Personally speaking I have more to gain from American imperialism than from Chinese imperialism.
https://www.amacad.org/publication/what-does-it-mean-be-amer...
The short version is that what makes a person their nationality can either be adherence to a set of values (civil society) or that their parents were that nationality (an ethnic society).
China is clearly an ethnic society. America is practically on the verge of civil war over whether they are primarily an ethnic (white christian) society (GOP), or whether they are a civil (rule of law, believes in human rights) society (the very imperfect DNC).
Civil societies aim for everyone to be an "us," while ethnic societies have a strong idea of "us vs them." So when these societies ask "how should resources be distributed?" Ethnic societies tend to believe they are in competition with everyone else for all resources and they should try their best to attain as many resources as possible. This directly results in supremacist leaning beliefs and old world imperialism. Setting up British schools in India and taking all their resources is absolutely a supremacist policy, as is killing native Americans and taking their land. The fact that these softer forms of supremacy are not taught next to the holocaust is a disservice to the average persons intuitive understanding of what supremacy looks like and what kind of spectrum genocide exists along.
Ethnic societies are not governed directly by a set of values, so they tend to be ruled by dominance alone.
So from a jaded point of view America is an empire just as China is an empire, but from a forgiving charitable (extra emphasis on charitable) point of view, a Chinese empire is trying to suck all the resources of earth up in to china, while the American "empire" is trying to establish a set of laws and values that apply to all people (human rights) while trying to address the very real tragedies of the commons we are facing (over fishing, global warming, nuclear annihilation).
The reality though is that ethnic forces in america are strongly at work trying to achieve power, and liberal civil forces in america are extremely weak, so the "liberal world order" can be supplanted by "American supremacy" (America first), and we end up in a state where we look old wold imperialist via neocolonialism.
At the end of the day that means the most important thing for Americans to do is fight the ethnic party, and if we can't do that, then we don't deserve to exert our influence abroad, and should rightly be resisted.
They do offer a lot of goods. And they do build lots of infrastructure abroad, like in africa.
Also the theoretic doctrin behind is communism for all people, not just Han Chinese. In practice it has of course become very nationalistic, but I really doubt they dream about ruling the whole world.
Some taoist thinking of maintaining a healthy balance between the forces is also still alive. They would like to become the dominant power, though and that would be arguably worse, than US dominance.
But I actually would prefer it, if no state has dominance over others.
Coming to agreements with local organized crime against foreign enemies is distasteful but pragmatic and usually a good; Even The Joker[1] had some patriotism.
Funding foreign organized crime can be used for good or ill. You can supply the black market with foreign goods to convince them that life would be better under new government (which the CIA did during the cold war), or you can supply drugs and weapons so they kill themselves off. One is an absolute sin; The other is more questionable but generally good.
[1] https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4051/4703531875_3b13568ed7_b.j...
Ironically public education spent more time talking about how all media lies to their countries and how we need to critically think about news to avoid falling prey to propaganda.
While I definitely have skepticism, it was primarily applied to the American media apparatus. I was skeptic because I don't trust that my government and educational/media institutions would give me the full story and that they would definitely lie and exaggerate for personal gain. American media has lied before, so it's important to be skeptical about what people want you to believe.
Hong Kong made it clear that I was too skeptical of western media and that a much better explanation was that foreign propaganda was sowing doubt and lack of trust in my own country and institutions. Hong Kong made it very clear that China is run by a very evil party and my government and institutions probably aren't lying to me as much as my younger self thought.
So while you told me I was ignorant in an inflammatory way, it was the case that I was ignorant of Chinese history and seeing it unfold in real time has given new perspective. Having spent well over a year in various parts of Asia, I am now much less ignorant of Chinese history.
I think you vastly underestimate the power of ideas like "live free or die" and the solidarity of oppressed countries that live next door to fascist authoritarian regimes.
I'm a middle class American who wants for nothing and I have given serious contemplation to joining the military to protect Taiwan. When no one is willing to make sacrifices to fight for freedom, everyone will become enslaved. If I won't fight for others, they won't fight for me.
I think I'd need a bit more substantiation on "right wing Ukrainians in Hong Kong" to evaluate the point being made.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triad_(organized_crime)#Chines...
This made it very clear to me that organized crime is a wing of the Chinese government.
Before I probably wouldn't have believed a post like this, but now it seems enough in alignment with all parties interests that I find it more likely to be true than false.