27 According to legend: Sterling Sea-grave, Lords of the Rim (London: Corgi, 1995), pp. 103–7. Accounts of Zheng He’s height and the extent of his fleet may be fanciful, but the admiral did indeed exist. He was a Muslim and a eunuch, and a great monument commemorating him stands by the banks of the Min River in Changle today. See Louise Levathes, When China Ruled the Seas: The Treasure Fleet of the Dragon Throne, 1405–1433 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994.) Accounts of just how far Zheng He ventured in the fifteenth century vary, and have been the subject of some recent controversy. See Jack Hitt, “Goodbye, Columbus!” New York Times Magazine, January 5, 2003.
27 By the 1570s: Thunø, Beyond Chinatown, p. 14.
27.Eighty percent of the Chinese: Zai Liang and Wenzhen Ye, “From Fujian to New York: Understanding the New Chinese Immigration,” in David Kyle and Rey Koslowski, eds., Global Human Smuggling: Comparative Perspectives (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001), p. 193.
28.Well over a million Chinese: Ko-lin Chin, Smuggled Chinese: Clandestine Immigration to the United States (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1999), p. 13.
28 It was from Fujian: Wenzhou, in neighboring Zhejiang Province, was also a source of migrants, more so to Europe in the early years, but increasingly to the United States as well.
28 In fact, even Fujian: Chin, Smuggled Chinese, p. 11.
28 In New York’s Little Italy: See John S. MacDonald and Leatrice D. MacDonald, “Chain Migration, Ethnic Neighborhood Formation, and Social Networks,” Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly 42 (1964).
29 Demographers call this: Ibid.
29 A more evocative Fujianese expression: Jason Blatt, “Recent Trends in the Smuggling of Chinese into the United States,” unpublished paper, May 2007.
29 Moreover, everywhere the Fujianese went: For the role of the overseas Chinese as “market dominant minorities,” see Amy Chua, World on Fire (New York: Doubleday, 2003), chap. 1.
29 More than half of Asia’s forty billionaires: Alex Tizon, “The Rush to ‘Gold Mountain,’” Seattle Times, April 16, 2000.
30 For generations of Fujianese men: Confidential interview with the son of a Fujianese ship jumper in Chinatown, New York.
30 During the 1960s: Written response from Sister Ping.
30 Cheng Chai Leung worked: Ibid.
30 Eventually he slipped up: Undated internal INS document, “Progress Reports, Operation Hester,’” by Special Agent Edmund Bourke, Anti-Smuggling Unit, New York (hereafter ASU NY).
30.According to authorities: Internal INS document, Alien Smuggling Task Force Proposal,” Anti-Smuggling Unit memo, October 31, 1985. That Sister Ping’s father was a snakehead himself was confirmed by Konrad Motyka and Bill McMurry of the FBI, at an inter view on December 15, 2005.
31.Historical records indicate: Zai Liang, “Demography of Illicit Emigration from China: A Sending Country’s Perspective,” Sociological Forum 16, no. 4 (December 2001), citing Yaohua Wang, An Overview of Fujianese Culture (Fuzhou: Fujian Education, 1994), p. 15.
31 The Fujianese were originally known: Peter Kwong, Forbidden Workers: Illegal Chinese Immigrants and American Labor (New York: New Press, 1997), p. 23.
31 When emigrants slither through: Testimony of Guo Liang Qi, aka “Ah Kay,” in United States v. Cheng Chui Ping, aka “Sister Ping,” 94 CR 953 (hereafter Ah Kay testimony, Sister Ping trial).
31 The poorest provinces: Thunø, “Beyond Chinatown,” p. 6.
32 So, ironically, economic development: See Jack A. Goldstone, A Tsunami on the Horizon? The Potential for International Migration,” in Paul J. Smith, ed., Human Smuggling: Chinese Migrant Trafficking and the Challenge to America’s Immigration Tradition (Washington, D.C.: Center for Strategic and International Studies, 1997).
32 Some did better: Liang, “Demography of Illicit Emigration from China.”
32 For this frustrated: The figure on high school completion is from Susan Sachs, “Fujian, U.S.A.,” New York Times, July 22, 2001.
32.Fantastical stories abounded: Liang, “Demography of Illicit Emigration from China;” Chin, Smuggled Chinese, p. 25.
33.“Here, they’re working like slaves”: Interview with Justin Yu, formerly of the World Journal, now president of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, January 4, 2006.
33 Sister Ping believed: Testimony of Cheng Chui Ping during the sentencing hearing in United States v. Cheng Chui Ping, aka “Sister Ping,” 94 CR 953 (hereafter Sister Ping sentencing remarks).
33 In high school she had met: Written response from Sister Ping. The physical description of Cheung Yick Tak is based on my observation of him in numerous encounters at the courthouse and in the family’s restaurant at 47 East Broadway.
33 Many Fujianese were fleeing: Kwong, Forbidden Workers, p. 29.
33 Sister Ping and her family: Written response from Sister Ping. The building was the Kwan Yik Building, Phase 2, Sai Ying Pun, Des Voeux Road West 343. It was built in 1977.
34 It is not clear how Sister Ping: The address of the shop comes from an interview with Philip Lam on March 28, 2008. He was a patron when he lived in Hong Kong.
34 The Cantonese majority: See Gregory E. Guldin, “Little Fujian (Fukien): Sub-Neighborhood and Community in North Point, Hong Kong,” Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, no. 17 (1977).
34 Sister Ping catered to: Written response from Sister Ping.
34 Better to be in front of a chicken: Confidential interview with a Fujianese contemporary of Sister Ping’s from Chinatown.
34 In 1979 she opened: Written response from Sister Ping.
34 University students and scholars: Liang, “Demography of Illicit Emigration from China.”
34 Chinese census bureau figures: Ibid.
34 “Every man in the town”: Interview with Steven Gleit, November 11, 2007.
35 Sister Ping’s husband, Yick Tak: Written response from Sister Ping.
35 One day in June 1981: This episode, including quotes, is drawn from Sister Ping sentencing remarks.
CHAPTER 3: EIGHTEEN-
THOUSAND-DOLLAR WOMAN
This chapter draws primarily on written responses from Sister Ping in July 2008, the trial testimony of Sister Ping’s former customer and associate Weng Yu Hui, and a series of internal INS documents related to Operation Hester, the first investigation of the Cheng family’s smuggling activities.
36 Several months after her meeting: The details of Sister Ping’s initial entry to the United States are from a confidential interview with a current employee of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), who consulted Sister Ping’s file.
36 “The reason most Fujianese”: Confidential interview with a Fujianese contemporary of Sister Ping’s who moved from Hong Kong to New York at roughly the same time.
36.As soon as she had arrived: Confidential ICE interview, corroborated by written response from Sister Ping.
37.The complex was known: For a terrific account of the history of Knickerbocker Village, see Phillip Lopate, Water front: A Walk Around Manhattan (New York: Anchor, 2005).
37 Sister Ping liked New York: Unless otherwise noted, all of this material is drawn from written responses from Sister Ping.
37 When they applied: Ying Chan and James Dao, “Merchants of Misery,” New York Daily News, September 24, 1990.
37 The shop next door: Sister Ping sentencing remarks.
37 During the slow daytime hours: See Jane H. Li, “The Chinese Menu Guys,” New York Times, July 28, 1996. For an empathetic and realistic look at the lives of undocumented restaurant workers and deliverymen, see Sean Baker and Shih-Ching Tsou’s film Take Out (CAVU Pictures, 2008).
38 The famous Fujianese entrepreneurialism: Peter Kwong, The New Chinatown, rev. ed. (New York: Hill and Wang, 1996), p. 180.
38. Employment agencies: Ibid., p. 178.
39. In 1960 there were: Kwong, The New Chinatown, p. 4.
39.Chinatown residents began: Kwong and Miščević, Chinese America, p. 329.
40.The criminologist Ko-lin Chin: Amy Zimmer, “Journey to the Golden Mountain,” City Limits, January 1, 2004.
40 The Fujianese called them: See Elisabeth Rosenthal, “Chinese Towns Main Export: Its Young Men,” New York Times, June 26, 2000.
40 Before long this reverse migration: See Patrick Radden Keefe, “Little America,” Slate, April 9, 2008; also see Somini Sengupta, “Squeezed by Debt and Time, Mothers Ship Babies to China,” New York Times, September 14, 1999.
40 By working long hours: Chin, Smuggled Chinese, p. 119.
40 After six, or often: Kwong, The New Chinatown, p. 180.
41 As often as not, they would end up: Interview with Philip Lam, November 9, 2005. Lam knew Sister Ping during these years, frequented her shop, and rented an apartment from her for a time. She often encouraged him to learn English. On the endlessly complex subject of guanxi a great deal has been written, much of it geared to Western businesspeople endeavoring to make sense of corporate culture in China. See, for instance, Frederick Balfour, “You Say Guanxi, I Say Schmoozing,” BusinessWeek, November 10, 2007; and Ying Lun So and Anthony Walker, Explaining Guanxi: The Chinese Business Network (New York: Routledge, 2006). For a more sociological approach, see Thomas Gold, Doug Guthrie, and David L. Wank, eds., Social Connections in China: Institutions, Culture, and the Changing Nature of Guanxi (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002). On the role that guanxi played in a recent smuggling case in the city of Xiamen in southern Fujian Province, see Simone Menshausen, “Corruption, Smuggling and Guanxi in Xiamen, China,” Internet Center for Corruption Research, August 2005.
41.Local Fujianese began: Edward Barnes, “Two-Faced Woman,” Time, July 31, 2000.
42.In 1984 a young man: Unless otherwise noted, the account of Sister Ping smuggling Weng Yu Hui to the United States is drawn from Weng Yu Hui testimony, Sister Ping trial.
43.Snakeheads occasionally refer: Testimony of “Mr. Lee” (pseudonym), in “Asian Organized Crime,” hearing be fore the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the United States Senate, October 3, November 5–6, 1991 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1992), p. 385.
45 The immigrant was thus indentured: Bill McMurry of the FBI made this observation to me on October 31, 2005.
45 Western Union charged: Interview with Steven Wong, of the Lin Zexu Foundation, November 11, 2005; interview with Justin Yu, January 4, 2006; interviews with Konrad Motyka and Bill McMurry, October 31, 2005, and December 15, 2005.
45 Along the border between Mexico: INS, “Alien Smuggling Task Force Proposal.”
45 The Fujianese city of Changle: This figure is drawn from a Chinese-language study by Zhu Meirong of the Fujian Provincial Governments Development Research Center, “Analysis of Fujian Provincial New-Migration Issues and the First Inquiry into Relative Policy,” Population Research (China) 5, no. 5 (September 2001). The study is cited in Blatt, “Recent Trends in the Smuggling of Chinese.”
46 Drawing on the connections: Details of Sister Ping’s underground banking business are drawn from multiple interviews with Bill McMurry and Konrad Motyka at the FBI and with Chinatown residents who either patronized or were familiar with the service. In addition, both Weng Yu Hui and Ah Kay furnished information about the dynamics of the business at trial. Sister Ping’s lawyer Larry Hochheiser would eventually claim that the extent of her crimes was running an unlicensed money transfer service, thereby appearing to concede the truth of that particular allegation against her. But for her part, Sister Ping refused, on the advice of her new lawyer, Scott Tulman, to answer any of my questions about her banking operation.
46 Various underground banking systems: See William L. Cassidy, “Fei-Chien, or Flying Money: A Study of Chinese Underground Banking,” address at the 12th Annual International Asian Organized Crime Conference, June 26, 1990; Jacques Gernet, A History of Chinese Civilization (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), p. 325.
46 “Sister Ping keeps stores”: Written declaration of FBI Special Agent Peter Lee in a sealed federal criminal complaint against Cheng Chui Ping and Cheng Yick Tak, Southern District of New York, December 1994.
46 Once Weng Yu Hui: Weng Yu Hui testimony, Sister Ping trial.
47 “Her clients are extremely”: Sheldon X. Zhang, Chinese Human Smuggling Organizations: Families, Social Network, and Cultural Imperatives (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2008), p. 36.
47 Soon the Bank of China: Interviews with Steven Wong, November 11, 2005; interview with Justin Yu, January 4, 2006.
47 According to the Fujian Statistical Bureau: Liang, “Demography of Illicit Emigration from China.” It should be noted that overseas investment from other countries, like Taiwan, and an array of foreign direct investment that would not be considered remittances are also reflected in those numbers.
47 But it was rumored: Interview with Dougie Lee, February 10, 2006.
48 Weng would go in: Weng Yu Hui testimony, Sister Ping trial.
48 They diversified, opening: Written declaration of Special Agent Peter Lee.
48 In the waterfront neighborhood: Konrad Motyka and Bill McMurry first told me about the poultry business, though they did not know precisely where it was. Several people in Chinatown told me that it was in Red Hook. As it happens, there are several poultry slaughterhouses in Red Hook. One of them occupies a small space on Columbia Street and specializes in live chickens, roosters, ducks, and rabbits. Its name is Yeung Sun—the same name as Sister Ping’s restaurant at 47 East Broadway.
48 They continued to operate: Chan and Dao, “Merchants of Misery.”
49 In the early 1980s: Prepared testimony of Willard H. Myers III, Center for the Study of Asian Organized Crime, hearing on “The Growing Threat of International Organized Crime,” before the House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Crime, January 25, 1996; “Assault on the Dollar,” Asia, Inc., February 1995; “Asian Organized Crime,” p. 51; interview with James Goldman, May 23, 2007.
49 The law created: Weng Yu Hui testimony, Sister Ping trial. (Weng availed himself of the amnesty, though he had not arrived in the United States until 1984); Willard H. Myers III, “Of Qinqing, Qinshu, Guanxi, and Shetou,” in Smith, Human Smuggling.
49 On her visits to Fuzhou: Chan and Dao, “Merchants of Misery.”
49 The main thoroughfare in the village: Pamela Burdman, “Back Home in China, Smugglers Are Revered, Feared,” San Francisco Chronicle, November 19, 1993.
49 The Chinese state: Thunø, “Beyond Chinatown,” p. 13.
49 It was an appellation: Burdman, “Back Home in China.”
50When Fujianese villagers: Kwong, Forbidden Workers, p. 96.
50 As the remittance money: See John Pomfret, “Smuggled Chinese Enrich Homeland, Gangs,” Washington Post, January 24, 1999. I have visited these houses; they are extraordinarily ostentatious and gaudy, and they tower over even the tiniest villages outside Fuzhou. See Keefe, “Little America.”
50 In the fall of 1983: Interview with James Goldman, May 23, 2007. Also see Chan and Dao, “Merchants of Misery.”
50 Several years later Frankie Wong: Interview with James Goldman, May 23, 2007; Dennis Hevesi, “Two Are Slain as a Gang Opens Fire in a Chinatown Gambling Parlor,” New York Times, November 5, 1987.
51 One day in February 1985: Unless otherwise noted, material on the Operation Hester investigation is drawn from an interview with Joe Occhipinti, former chief of the Anti-Smuggling Unit at the INS in New York, who ran the operation, August 3, 2007. Also INS, “Progress Reports, Operation Hester.’” The description of the charts is drawn from photographs of the charts shown to me by Joe Occhipinti.
51.The following month: INS, “Progress Reports, Operation Hester.”
52.The family purchased: Written response from Sister Ping.
52 Given his role as second fiddle: INS, “Progress Reports, Operation Hester.’”
52 In 1986 he was caught: Internal INS document, “Operation Swiftwater,” Report of Investigation, BUF 50/34, October 25, 1989.
>
52 This time he was arrested: Chan and Dao, “Merchants of Misery.”
52 To the investigators: Interview with Bill McMurry, December 15, 2005.
52 After customs alerted the INS: Internal INS document, “Case Management Review: ‘Project Hester,’” November 25, 1985.
52.Occhipinti contacted: Interview with Joe Occhipinti, August 3, 2007. Also INS, “Alien Smuggling Task Force Proposal.”
53.Sister Ping’s father: Ibid.
53 It emerged that in January: INS, “Progress Reports, Operation Hester.’”
53 From the Hong Kong investigators: Ibid.
53 Susan, the younger sister: Ibid.
53 She was married: Ibid.
53 When Susan wasn’t in Hong Kong: INS, “Operation Swiftwater.”
53.The previous spring: INS, “Progress Reports, Operation Hester.’”
54.During one ten-month period: Chan and Dao, “Merchants of Misery.”
54 “The smuggling of ethnic Chinese”: INS, “Alien Smuggling Task Force Proposal.”
54 Occhipinti put together: Interview with Joe Occhipinti, June 7, 2007.
55 He had asked for: Internal INS Memo, “Project Hester Phase II (NYC 50/18.153); Initiation of Grand Jury Investigation,” August 3, 1988.
55 But INS headquarters: Internal INS memo, “Project Hester (NYC 50/18.153); Supervisory Conference with Assigned US Attorney,” by Joseph Occhipinti, August 16, 1988.
55 In 1988 he proposed: Ibid.
55 As it happened, the INS: Interview with James Goldman, November 16, 2007. (Goldman was the primary investigator on Operation Hydra.) Also see “Woman Gets a Twelve-Year Term for Promoting Prostitution,” New York Times, August 6, 1986.
55 Madame Shih imported: Hariette Surovell, “Chinatown Cosa Nostra,” Penthouse, June 1988.
55 INS investigators believed: Interview with James Goldman, May 23, 2007.
55 Madam Shih’s son-in-law: INS, “Progress Reports, Operation Hester.’”
55 Thus, with the inadvertent cooperation: Interview with James Goldman, May 23, 2007.
The Snakehead Page 39